According to Lee College, the contest started as a southeast Texas area competition, but has grown to a multistate, national-level contest.

Prizes are provided by the contest sponsors and are valued this year at $8,000. Prizes will include air conditioning tools, such as Total Line recovery units, Amprobe instruments, Promax recovery units, TIF instruments, Robinair equipment, temperature testers, refrigeration gauges, and digital charging scales.

The troubleshooting competition will begin at 9 a.m. on March 8, at the Lee College air conditioning laboratory, Technical-Vocational Building 3 on the Lee College main campus. The contest will include both beginner and advanced levels.

For the written portion of the competition, participants will complete the Industry Competency Exam (ICE), a 100-question, multiple-choice test. The Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI), developers of the exam, have waived the exam fee for the competition. Participants will also complete a hands-on test of competencies, consisting of 15 problems.

Participating students must be preregistered by their instructor. For more information, contact Joe Moravek at 281-425-6474 or at jmoravek@lee.edu.

Publication date: 01/27/2003