Best Heating programs in Florida, ranked by enrollment
Install or repair heating, central air conditioning, HVAC, or refrigeration systems, including oil burners, hot-air furnaces, and heating.
63 schools in Florida run programs that feed this job, graduating 4,411 people a year. The job pays a median of $56,670 in Florida across about 39,160 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).
Fields of study in Florida that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.
2 programs in Florida that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year in Florida (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Florida page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 15.0501In Florida → | 3,109 | 70.5% | 49 | $36,407 | $10,250 |
| 2 | Heating, Air Conditioning, Ventilation and Refrigeration Maintenance Technology/Technicianmain feeder CIP 47.0201In Florida → | 1,302 | 29.5% | 21 | $35,970 | $10,649 |
Top 25 schools in Florida
Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 9 of the 63 schools in this state.
All 63 schools in Florida
Every school in Florida with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.
| School | City | Control | Graduates / yr | Feeder programs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Florida Institute of Technology | Miami | Private for-profit | 1,439 | 1 |
| Southern Technical College | Orlando | Private for-profit | 560 | 1 |
| Tulsa Welding School - Jacksonville | Jacksonville | Private for-profit | 185 | 1 |
| Atlantic Technical College | Coconut Creek | Public | 128 | 2 |
| College of Business and Technology | Cutler Bay | Private for-profit | 106 | 1 |
| College of Business and Technology | Miami | Private for-profit | 105 | 1 |
| Florida Academy | Fort Myers | Private for-profit | 104 | 1 |
| College of Business and Technology | Hialeah | Private for-profit | 100 | 1 |
| Florida International Training Institute | Miami | Private for-profit | 100 | 1 |
| InterAmerican Technical Institute | Miami | Private for-profit | 91 | 1 |
| Manatee Technical College | Bradenton | Public | 91 | 2 |
| Lively Technical College | Tallahassee | Public | 89 | 2 |
| Indian River State College | Fort Pierce | Public | 80 | 1 |
| Pinellas Technical College - St. Petersburg | Saint Petersburg | Public | 64 | 1 |
| Seminole State College of Florida | Sanford | Public | 60 | 1 |
What heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers earn in Florida
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
U.S. median $61,010. Florida pays below the national figure.
Concentrated here: Florida employs more of this job per worker than the U.S. average.
Metro areas in Florida
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.
How to get in
The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers page.
How to become a Heating
Job zone 3 of 5 · SVP 6.0 to < 7.0- Typical entry education
- Postsecondary nondegree award
- On-the-job training
- Long-term on-the-job training
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Top skills
The same job in other states
Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.
Related careers in Florida
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 2 majors mapped to Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers2 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 15.0501Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering Technology/Technician
- 47.0201Heating, Air Conditioning, Ventilation and Refrigeration Maintenance Technology/Technician
Common questions
Answers for people weighing heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers programs in Florida.
What degree do you need to become a Heating?+
Postsecondary nondegree award is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering Technology/Technician, which awarded 3,109 degrees in Florida in 2024-25, 70.5% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Heating?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 2 programs to this occupation. The largest are Environmental Control Technologies/Technicians, Heating. Together they graduate about 4,411 people a year in Florida.
How much do heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers earn in Florida?+
The median is $56,670 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 7.1% below the U.S. median of $61,010. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers growing?+
BLS projects a +8.1% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, much faster than average, with roughly 40,100 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career in Florida?+
63 institutions in Florida reported graduates from at least one of the 2 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Refrigeration Mechanic, Service Technician (Service Tech), Refrigeration Technician (Refrigeration Tech), HVAC Mechanic (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Mechanic) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 49-9021.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
Explore every U.S. college in one conversation
Clema turns plain-language questions into sourced answers across every U.S. institution — earnings, aid, acceptance, graduation, safety, and athletics from IPEDS, College Scorecard, and 10+ federal datasets, built in.
Free for teams up to 3 · No credit card