Benefits of hiring HVAC professionals:
- An HVAC professional has the experience to correctly diagnose your problem. The true nature of any problem or repair lies in the diagnosis stage. Only by correctly assessing exactly what’s wrong, can you begin to fix anything, including your HVAC system. The people best able to do that are the HVAC professionals who have the experience and training to correctly assess a situation and correctly diagnosed the problem or where a solution isn’t readily understood, understand the best methodology of diagnosing such a problem.
- An HVAC professional knows how to safely work on and around your equipment. HVAC systems have flame sensors, motors, and refrigerant — all of which require special care and handling or the person doing the handling risks injuries.
- An HVAC professional won’t just get things running again, they can help you achieve a more efficient system. The correct installation and maintenance of HVAC equipment is a key component of what determines how efficiently it runs. In other words, having a professional HVAC technician come in to install your new heating equipment or repair your air conditioner’s condensing unit is apt to result in a more energy-efficient system than if you’d done the work yourself without the right tools, skills, and experience. A more efficiently operating system means less maintenance in the long-run and a longer lifespan.
- An HVAC professional can save you money. This may fall in with the above benefit of hiring an HVAC professional, but it bears accentuating in its own bullet point. By having a professional install your system and ensure it’s operating at its peak performance and peak efficiency, you will enjoy the best in both immediate energy savings and maintenance and replacement costs down the road.
- An HVAC professional will offer the right advice to improve your indoor health and comfort. We get equipment like air conditioning and heating equipment to improve our comfort, but when this isn’t your industry of expertise, you aren’t likely to know about all of the latest products, equipment, and studies available about the HVAC equipment and tips that can improve your indoor environment and make it both healthier and safer. An HVAC professional can assist with this and make the right recommendations for things like putting you on a better schedule with air filter replacements or a more enhanced air purifier.
Questions to Ask an HVAC Professional Before Hiring
- What steps do you take when recommending an HVAC system for my home? No professional and recommendable HVAC contractor will just take out your old system and put in its exact replacement. Not only have technologies changed from 10-15 years ago, but also our understanding of heating and cooling loads. A qualified professional will explain this and explain how they will use industry techniques to find the right size equipment for your home and with the right features for your desired needs.
- What type of training and experience does the person installing my equipment have? This is an industry where both people get on-the-job training and one in which people can undergo training to get industry-certified in a variety of tasks. While we don’t want to knock on-the-job training, when it comes to installing an expensive piece of equipment that has a long-term impact on your health and pocketbook, then you want to know the person installing knows what they’re doing. Ask about industry certificates and the amount of experience your HVC professional has had in installing the unit you’re looking at.
- What is and isn’t in the quote? Unfortunately, transparency doesn’t always exist when it comes to contractor pricing — but it should. Always ask a contractor you’re considering hiring about their prices and what is or isn’t included in their quote. Note, however, that a quote is still a quote and that a job may end up being more expensive than what was expected due to something like more manhours needing to be billed then before or if the price of an item had risen since last checked. A trusted HVAC professional will outline these variable prices upfront so that you have a better understanding of what you can expect to pay when all things go right and a higher threshold should certain things, such as increased manhours, be required.
- Are they licensed and insured? Don’t just ask, make them show you their licensing and insurance. Hiring someone via a platform like Nextdoor who offers cheap prices with good reviews may seem like a good idea, but if they aren’t licensed and insured, then you will be responsible for any accident or mishap that happens while they’re on your property.
What to expect when an HVAC Professional Comes to Your House
The type of steps an HVAC professional will undergo will largely depend upon what part of your system needs attending, what type of units you have, and what type of service you need. In general, however, they will start with a walk-through of your entire system and ask you questions about the problems, concerns, or advice you want. They will then target the problem and do the necessary tests or inspections to diagnose your problem and come up with a solution.
What Type of Training do HVAC Professionals Get
- Certifications. There are an exciting number of secondary educational facilities that now offer certificates and even associate’s degrees in HVAC technologies. Graduates of these programs know about the latest technologies and methodologies and are best apt to recommend things like the most energy-efficient solution.
- Refrigerant licensure. All HVAC professionals are required to undergo a special licensing to work with refrigerants, which are considered a particularly noxious compound.
- On-the-job training. While certifications are important in keeping abreast of the latest things in the industry, nothing beats simple time on the job. This is especially true when it comes to repairs. Talk to your HVAC contractor and ask about how long their employees train for and how long they stay on for.
In general, thus, a person fresh from a certificate or graduate program is going to be most apt to better recommend you the best in the latest HVAC technologies and equipment while a person with significant on-the-job training and experience is most apt to better install or repair such a system. Overall, thus, you should look for an HVAC contractor or HVAC company that promotes both on-the-job training and education-based certificates. Furthermore, there are post-graduate certificates that HVAC professionals can undergo to ensure that they up-to-date with all industry standards and recommendations.
