The pay isn’t too bad either and is entirely up to you. Payscale.com lists the income for an HVAC tech between $31,000-$73000, with the avg being $21.16 an hour, or $42,320/year. I’m not sure where they get those numbers from, but I can tell you for 100% certainty that you can make much more than that. My Income for the last 5 years has averaged out to $123,000 per year, and that’s strictly hourly pay, no commissions or bonuses. I know guys personally making $190,000+ working for large companies. There are also other possibilities, such as working on commercial cruise liners traveling the world (which I have heard pays well), or as a government contractor which is rumored to be somewhere in the ballpark of $250k plus. If you decide to open your own shop, our income earning potential is entirely up to you.

Some of the cons of working as an HVAC tech are the working conditions, hours, and consistently working alone. These are all highly variable depending on which aspect of the trade you get into. If you work primarily as a residential service tech, you may often find your self in a scorching hot attic working alone, whereas a commercial installer primarily working on new construction may always be working with a crew. Service Techs tend to have the most stable work throughout the years but often are required to work late nights, odd hours, and perform on-call rotations. Working alone often requires that you be a self-motivated and driven individual. If working alone isn’t for you, then working on an install crew or new construction may be better suited for you.