Air Conditioning Engineer Jobs & Their Day to Day Roles

Air conditioning, refrigeration and chiller engineers use great technical expertise and practical skills to fill a variety of clients needs from maintaining a nice cool air flow in the home or workplace to keeping lifesaving blood at the right temperature prior to an operation.

The many areas of expertise covered in a varied air conditioning engineers repertoire include air cooling, heating, ventilation and disinfection.

These engineers hold many responsibilities which include installation, maintenance and repair of new and existing air conditioning systems in a wide array of properties. This can include commercial, residential, public and industrial sector buildings e.g. hospitals, offices, homes or factories.

Another key role that an air conditioning engineer has in their day today duties is ensuring both cooling and ventilation systems are safe and effective for use.

An Air Con Engineers Skills and Abilities

As with other roles within the construction industry safety is the number one priority. Other skills a good air conditioning engineer would utilise in the job include the technical know-how on installing and repairing machines and systems, a thorough eye for detail with the ability to read technical drawings and good maths skills.

A great ‘air con’ engineer is a problem solver who can take the initiative and has strong interpersonal skills making them able to work both autonomously and as a member of a team.

In the UK, air conditioning engineers must hold a Current F Gas Certificate with three options for accreditation, City & Guilds, BESA (Building Engineering Services Association) accredited courses or LCL awards.

To work on site, one would also need a Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) Card.

Working Conditions in Air Conditioning Engineering

Air conditioning and refrigeration engineers generally will be expected to work around 40 hours per week, Monday through to Friday. However, flexibility is highly desirable in this role as work hours can depend on various factors such as project specifics, priorities and deadlines.

Working in clients’ homes or businesses, you may often find yourself in a cramped, dusty and cold working environment with a lot of travel required.

A head for heights is needed as work spaces will often involve scaffolding and ladders.

In regards to employers, you could be working for a smaller firm who install domestic systems or for larger specialist building services and engineering firms that carry out work for larger construction companies and local authority departments.

As well as working on different types of air conditioning systems, an engineer could be surveying sites where systems are to be fitted, planning layouts where these systems will be fitted, installing components and providing scheduled maintenance on pre-existing systems and diagnosing and fixing faults.

Other duties include retrofitting buildings to bring them up to environmental standards. Air conditioning and refrigeration engineers also advise clients on ways to reduce their energy use and discuss their requirements alongside providing functional and technical information.

Qualifications, Apprenticeships and Salaries

Many companies offer apprenticeships to train air conditioning and refrigeration engineers such as, a building services engineering installer intermediate apprenticeship and the refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump engineering advanced apprenticeship.

Qualifications needed to undergo one of these apprenticeships would usually be some GCSEs including Maths and English, or the equivalent for the intermediate apprenticeship and 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent for the advanced apprenticeship.

College courses include:

Level 2 Diploma in Access to Building Services Engineering

Level 2 Diploma in Installing and Maintaining Refrigeration Systems

Level 3 Diploma in Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Systems

Level T In Building Services Engineering for Construction

The courses can help you develop the skills and knowledge necessary to help find a job as a trainee.

Salaries can be as varied as the job itself depending on where you work, how big the company that employs you and how in demand the job is but an average salary for a qualified air conditioning engineer could start at £20,000 to £35,000.