All schools that train students to become heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) technicians have a course in refrigeration systems or refrigeration technologies. This course concentrates primarily on the types of refrigeration units found in restaurants, grocery stores or refrigerators in the home. ATI Career Training and The Refrigeration School offer classes that provide the student with hands-on experience by working on these types of refrigerators, walk-in coolers and freezers. The course covers everything from recharging the refrigerant to replacing parts of the refrigerator unit, such as the compressor.
Schools that offer courses in HVACR provide the student with a course in heating, air and refrigeration calculations. A technician in this field must have solid mathematical skills to understand this type of course. It introduces the student to the types of fractions, decimals, equations and other mathematics used in air-conditioning and refrigeration repair troubleshooting, such as calculating the amperes a motor uses or the voltage output of a transistor. Ohm's law allows the student to determine the relationship between power, voltage, resistance and current. For example, 110 volts flow to the compressor of a refrigerator and the resistance of that compressor is 18 ohms. The technician can calculate how much current is flowing through the compressor. This course teaches and trains the student in the calculations required in determining the proper temperatures, output controls and basic electrical mathematics used in air-conditioning and refrigeration.
All air-conditioning and refrigeration units use electricity to operate and run the motors, compressors and blowers. A course in basic electricity is essential to knowing how these types of units operate. Most schools that train HVACR technicians have multiple courses in the electrical technology used in these units. The basic electrical course introduces the student to how voltage, amperes and ohms are measured and used by the units. Most of the course is spent actually performing electrical testing on the units' motors and controls as well as circuits, electrical wiring and schematics and fuses.
A specific course is designed to cover all types of air-conditioning units, from the larger units used in commercial buildings to the smaller air-conditioning units used in the home. The course covers air-conditioning controls, motors, compressors, ventilation and blowers used in the air-conditioning unit. The student is also introduced to the mechanical parts of an air conditioner and how to install these components. Troubleshooting is a major part of this course and generally requires the student to actually perform troubleshooting on units with different types of problems.