Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Apprenticeship
Starting August 2008

The refrigeration trade offers a wide variety of career opportunities. Job settings include residential air conditioning, commercial air conditioning, electric and electronic controls, food process refrigeration, process cooling, refrigerant recovery, ammonia refrigeration systems and system servicing. You will learn under the supervision of a journeyman technician while on the job at an industrial plant or publicly owned facility. Employers determine the length of apprenticeships, but they normally take four to five years.

Courses taught at ECAM:

HVAC1-550, Fundamentals of Refrigeration (2 credits/64 hours)
Designed for beginners in the refrigeration field, this course is a study of the principles of refrigeration and the various types of systems. It covers compressors and other major items, as well as refrigerants, controls and service tools.

HVAC1-561, Commercial Refrigeration 2 (1.5 credits/48 hours)
Learn about complex commercial and industrial applications. Calculations of heat loads, pipe sizing, and selection of equipment are discussed, including the use of meters and service tools for servicing and troubleshooting a system.

ELECTY-527, Electrical Controls for Mechanical Equipment 1 (1 credit/32 hours) This combined theory and lab course provides experience with series, parallel and combination-type electrical circuits. The characteristics of electrical conductors and magnetism are also covered.

ELECTY-528, Electrical Controls for Mechanical Equipment 2 (1 credit/32 hours) Combined theory and lab course provides experience with alternating-current  circuits with resistance, inductance and capacitance. Three-phase systems, transformers, motors, and measurement instruments are also covered. Prerequisite: ELECTY-527.

ELECTY-529, Electrical Controls for Mechanical Equipment 3 (1 credit/32 hours) Combined theory and lab course provides experience in wiring electrical circuits with components found in air conditioning and refrigeration systems. The theory of automatic control systems and the function of their parts is also covered.