Ac course or hnd

assegayer · Jun 22, 2016

Hi guys just looking for some advice and opinions.

Im coming to the end of my appreticeship soon and was thinking of doing night school air condition and refrigeration, do you reckon that theres a good market for that. My course tutor reccomended it saying too many doing elec and plumbing and to do ac would be better any thoughts, i wouldnt be doing domestics, mainly commerical like FCUs, chillers etcs.

Second question do they have hnds in electrical that dont include the electronics modules i hate electronics but love electrical.

Also i wont be choosing between the two ill be doing both if the hnd doesnt have electronics in.

Please let me know your thoughts thanks

Pete999 · Jun 22, 2016

HVAC is a trade all on it's own, same as an Electrician, it's as difficult to understand as being an Electrician, lots of Science involved.

You will be handling dangerous Refrigerant gases, and when I did my short HVAC couses you had to obtain a Gas safe handling certificate, which was renewable after three years.
I did lots of courses, as many as 10 to be exact, never liked fitting AC units, solely because I don't believe short courses in any trade give you the right to call yourself competent, HVAC is as inherently dangerous as Electrical work, refrigerant gases are very dangerous if not handled with care, at High pressure they can burn you, and at Low pressure they can still burn you the only difference, it will be a cold burn frost bite if you like.

As far as your question about HND I did the HNC in Building Services and that included lots of Electronics, what the next step HND covers, I'm not sure, but there will be some electronics involved I'm sure.

Commercial HVAC work is far more involved than domestic HVAC work, but hey ho good luck, depends really in what you want, hands on or supervisory, the HVAC course will or should enable you to a more practical person whereas HND would, I think or imagine require you to be more of a desk jockey, just like I did at the end of my career.

Sorry for the ramble.

assegayer · Jun 22, 2016

Pete999 said:
HVAC is a trade all on it's own, same as an Electrician, it's as difficult to understand as being an Electrician, lots of Science involved.

You will be handling dangerous Refrigerant gases, and when I did my short HVAC couses you had to obtain a Gas safe handling certificate, which was renewable after three years.
I did lots of courses, as many as 10 to be exact, never liked fitting AC units, solely because I don't believe short courses in any trade give you the right to call yourself competent, HVAC is as inherently dangerous as Electrical work, refrigerant gases are very dangerous if not handled with care, at High pressure they can burn you, and at Low pressure they can still burn you the only difference, it will be a cold burn frost bite if you like.

As far as your question about HND I did the HNC in Building Services and that included lots of Electronics, what the next step HND covers, I'm not sure, but there will be some electronics involved I'm sure.

Commercial HVAC work is far more involved than domestic HVAC work, but hey ho good luck, depends really in what you want, hands on or supervisory, the HVAC course will or should enable you to a more practical person whereas HND would, I think or imagine require you to be more of a desk jockey, just like I did at the end of my career.

Sorry for the ramble.

Thanks for the reply Pete, so there is no hnd/c that doesnt contain electronics?...also what type of jobs can you get into doing the course? Lastly (sorry) the reason why i am looking into doing the ac course is because a lot of the maintenace jobs iv seen all have hvac equipment that you need to be able to fault find in etc.

Pete999 · Jun 22, 2016

assegayer said:
Thanks for the reply Pete, so there is no hnd/c that doesnt contain electronics?...also what type of jobs can you get into doing the course? Lastly (sorry) the reason why i am looking into doing the ac course is because a lot of the maintenace jobs iv seen all have hvac equipment that you need to be able to fault find in etc.

Not sure if there are any higher courses that omit Electronics, I can only go from my experience, it seems the more advanced courses yo take the more involved they get, understandable I suppose.

As for what job you could get, if you aren't installing HVAC then it has to be a maintenance type job, mine was looking after a large computer installation, mind you in those days you need A/C, nowadays you could probably get away with a laptop.

alanmcm · Jun 22, 2016

Ive just recently complete my HNC in Electrical and Electronic Engineering as I was working and couldn't do a full time HND course over 2 years. I found it very interesting at times and enjoyed the Maths parts. Plenty of PLC work as well, but I rarely use PLCs so wasn't a great help but well worth doing it to get a better understanding of it all. In the 2nd year of the course it was the design and implementation, this is a level 5 subject and was the most boring part for myself. Constantly doing evaluations of the previous questions answer, very repetitive. My college is doing the HND for us on a day release for next year and it only lasts a year, 7 units a day and another 1 working at home. Most jobs ask for HND so its well worth doing. On the electronics front there is quite a bit of it but its enjoyable at the same time. I wouldn't let it put you off doing the course. Below is list of the subjects available, not sure if you mainland guys get the same subjects though.

Unit Code Title Level Value Status Grade

21852C Analytical Methods For Engineers 4 15 C Distinction
21881C Engineering Science 4 15 C Distinction
21376C Project Design, Implementation & Evaluation 5 20 C Distinction
21902C Engineering Design 5 15 S Distinction
21909C Programmable Logic Controllers 4 15 S Distinction
21895C Electrical & Electronic Measure & Testing 4 15 S Distinction
21899C Applications Of Power Electronics 4 15 S Distinction
20786C Electrical And Electronic Principles 3 10 S Distinction
21883C Electrical And Electronic Principles 5 15 S
21884C Health, Safety & Risk Assessment In Eng 4 15 S
21901C Business Management Techniques For Engineers 4 15 S
21886C Applications Of Pneumatics And Hydraulics 4 15 S
21887C Electronic Principles 5 15 S
21890C Mechatronic Systems 4 15 S
21891C Microprocessor Systems 4 15 S
21894C Electrical Power 4 15 S
21896C Utilisation Of Electrical Energy 4 15 S
21897C Electrical, Electronic And Digital 5 15 S
21898C Further Electrical Power 5 15 S
21916C Advanced Computer-Aided Design Techniques 4 15 S
21900C Combinational And Sequential Logic 4 15 S
21946C Principles Of Electronic Product Manufacture 5 15 S
23058D Computer Programming Techniques 4 15 S
23060D Principles & Applications Of Microcontroller 4 15 S
23061D Operational Amplifiers 4 15 S
23062D Electronic Computer-Aided Design 4 15 S
23063D Further Electrical Principles 5 15 S
23059D Digital And Analogue Devices And Circuits 5 15 S
23064D Telecommunications Principles 5 15 S
23065D Data Communications And Networks 4 15 S
23066D Radio Communication Engineering 4 15 S
21907C Design For Manufacture 5 15 S
21908C Business Improvement Techniques 5 15 S
21925C Quality And Business Improvement 5 15 S
21348C Employability Skills 5 15 S
21347C Personal And Professional Development 5 15 S
21380C Research Project 5 20 S
21346C Work-Based Experience 5 15 S
21927C Quality Assurance And Management 5 15 S
21929C Workplace Study And Ergonomics 5 15 S
21911C Further Analytical Methods For Engineers 5 15 S
21931C Statistical Process Control 5 15 S
21340C Management Of Projects 4 15 S
21912C Managing People In Engineering 5 15 S
21944C Knowledge-Based Systems And Techniques 5 15 S
21947C Instrumentation And Control Principles 4 15 S
21915C Advanced Mathematics For Engineering 5 15 S
21341C Managing The Work Of Individuals And Teams 5 15 S
20802C Further Mathematics For Engineering 3 10 S
21259C Further Electrical Principles 3 10 S
20178F Control Systems And Automation 4 15 S