HVACR Industry Knowledge Offers a Valuable Perspective

I’m not claiming any special aptitude, but it’s possible that something related to heating and cooling — call it curiosity? — was passed on from family members who’ve actually worked in the field.

My father’s father was the head of maintenance at a large orphanage in Central Illinois and was tasked with running the coal-fueled heating plant there, among other duties. (It’s not HVACR, but my mother’s father also worked in coal — at an Illinois power plant, which he was managing when he retired.)

In my own generation, one of my brothers is an HVAC engineer at a large public university in Michigan. He began his career in the Detroit schools, which at the time still had some buildings with coal-fired boilers, and now works mostly with automated systems, a career arc that illustrates the transformation of an industry that continues to rapidly evolve. I like to listen to him talk shop.

I never thought, previously, about these kinds of jobs the way I do now. Learning a little about HVACR has opened my eyes to an important facet of civilization and the economy that’s deserving of more public attention and awareness.

Heating, cooling, ventilation, and refrigeration together play a huge role in our everyday lives, touching on not just indoor comfort but on the way our communities are built, and on energy use, food preservation, household and business budgets, and the environment. An HVACR-focused lens is useful for looking at everything from global manufacturing, to supply chains, to the way resources are distributed and used, to our carbon footprints.

It’s not as exciting as the Olympics or the latest polls in the U.S. presidential contest, but HVACR touches our lives, in a more direct way, than many issues and events that are headline staples. Major newspapers and magazines have automotive beat writers who follow trends in that industry — why not have HVACR writers? (Silly, I know.)

But an HVACR-literate public could have a huge impact on the industry: Homeowners might start asking contractors if they’re ACCA members, or if their technicians are NATE-certified, or if that heat pump they’re considering has an inverter compressor. They might start requesting more Manual J calculations, ductwork assessments, and energy audits. Certainly, the billions in consumer incentives offered through the Inflation Reduction Act and other government and utility programs would be put to better use, as homeowners would have the knowledge to make better choices and think longer-term about their heating and cooling needs, their budgets, and their energy use. Perhaps there would be more public pressure on political and utility industry leaders to strengthen the electrical grid and decrease its dependence on fossil fuels.

Another benefit might be that greater numbers of young people could start to view the HVACR industry as a place in which to make a positive, rewarding career, be it in manufacturing, distribution, service and installation, or high-level building science. With thousands of people, particularly technicians, leaving the industry every year and the need for skilled workers only increasing, that would certainly be a plus.

Despite the public benefits, I don’t expect newspapers, or the media in general, to do in-depth reporting on HVACR any time soon.

All this is to say that my time in HVACR reporting has opened a new perspective for me, and that I appreciate the knowledge I’ve gained from even my limited experience in this media niche. Those in the field, whether they’re designing systems, selling them, installing them, or figuring out how to make them work better while using less energy and polluting less, can take pride in being a part of an industry upon which so much of modern society depends.