CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — On Wednesday, five students in Del Mar College's Air Conditioning and Maintenance Program signed their contracts to begin working for local HVAC businesses.
With over 250 licensed HVAC contractors in Nueces County, the demand is steadily rising. This demand is evident as Johnny Hinojosa hired three students from Del Mar College to join his team at Scott Air Conditioning and Heating.
"So the big difference is, like right now, we're in the heat of summer, so we're seeing equipment is getting pushed to it's capacity. If you're system is ten or twelve years, and older, it's making the system operate a lot harder," he said.
Del Mar Instructor of Building Maintenance Applied Technology Paul Creacy said 80 percent of their students have jobs with some form of contractor before they graduate.
He said that the South Texas heat doesn't only affect residents' ability to function but also their AC units.
"Being able to dig into the system and identify the problems and see why the home or the office is still getting warm, these guys can then with what they've learned here make the system start operating again and make customers happy and keep customers cool," he said.
Del Mar student Anthony Ghillowe Jr. secured a position with Just Better HVAC thanks to the college's program. He said that before starting school, he had a very basic understanding of how HVAC worked. However, now he knows just how many issues can arise for residents in this South Texas heat.
"AC not cooling, water leaks because the AC is just running constantly. A lot of people don't even know that A/C units have filters. Just remember to change them monthly, or every three months if you don't have pets," he said.
Hinojosa recommends getting ahead of your HVAC maintenance before the summer months roll around. He also said to regularly check your AC filters as 80 percent of their calls are associated with those filters being dirty.
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