I would like to gain some insight..HVAC-Contractor currently..

[Super65]

I would like to introduce myself, I'm 25 years old, I am a Class A Mechanical contractor in Arkansas, and Unlimited in Oklahoma.

I am looking to change career paths into Mechanical Engineering (P.E.) and I would like to actually talk with some of you who are professionals in the industry, let's start with some questions..

First: Will my experience as a Contractor benefit me greatly? I take care to do things properly, load calculations and the such, the difference between latent and sensible loads, airflow importance of humidity in a building and cooling/heating/filtering outside air. I currently, maintain, service, install air conditioners from 18000 btu to 75ton chiller systems. For all properties of matter, cooling industrial machinery and the air alike.

Second: I would like to work in design for Ac's/tools/machines to build Acs/Tools or do building mechanical specs, is this the correct industry choice?

Third: Honestly, I wasn't that good at math in High school (immature and didn't apply myself) am I too old to learn now?

I have a wife and a small child I want to work less physically and make a decent wage, and I'm sorry if this isn't the place to post this, I'm new.

 

[Super65]

Secondary question..

This is totally not meant to be offensive, but is it really hard to get a teacher that speaks very clear english?

Sorry if this offends but it's a problem just the same.

 

[MechEngNCPE]

A BSME will be VERY math intensive. 4 semesters of calculus and then you will be applying differential equations for nearly every class. Just a heads up.

 

[willard3]

You are going to have lots and lots of homework which will severely limit your family/free time. An early professor observed that, as they only had you for 4 years, homework would be intense.

 

[ChrisConley]

First: Will my experience as a Contractor benefit me greatly?

YES.

Assuming you go down the path of a BSME and move into an HVAC firm your knowledge will be greatly appreciated. We've actually hired older HVAC installers to review drawings and perform contract admin. Knowing what a duct is will put you head and shoulders above most of the new grads I have seen.

 

[Super65]

You guys rock thanks for the info. On the calculus..I've never taken it, I've never even done a calculus equation before (that I'm aware of) is there anything I can try to see if I'm prepared to grasp this kind of thing, anything that might have helped you through your classes when you didn't understand? Books, tutors etc..

 

[cdxx139]

Tip #1 HOMEWORK, do all your homework problems.

Tip #2 Take a math assessmnet test, take your first math class, and then take a math class EVERY semester (including summer) until you get to the end (which is Differential Equations). You skip one semester of math, and it will be like startign all over.

Are you taking night classes? Yes? Make sure it is ABET certified or you cant sit for your PE. Most evening classes are not ABET certified.

Is your work paying for portion of the tuition? No? then try to get hired at a consulting firm where they will. Like Chris said above, you would be invaluable in Construction Administration, especially if you have some knowledge of the other trades (ie electrical, plumbing and fire protection).



knowledge is power

 

[Super65]

Guys thanks a ton. Just out of curiousity do any of you mind sharing what your exact responsibilities at work are? I'm just curious

 

[Waramanga]

G'day super,
I was in a practicaly identical situation as yours 6 years ago. I am an electrician and refrigeration mechanic. When I was 24 and working in commercial AC as a subcontractor out of my van, I decided to go to uni having never gone to college (started apprenticeship at 16) so no calculus or dif equations. I had completed a advanced diploma at night time while I was working after my apprencticeship so that allowed me to apply to a uni. 4 years and another kid after that I was done, now I am working in a consulting firm, doing design documentation and construction supervision for commercial buildings HVAC. I was working as much as I could to pay the bills, looking after kids during the week and staying up until midnight studying 7 days a week.
The maths nearly killed me, catching up to college level and learning 1st year engineering maths at the same time, it was touch and go for a while.
In terms of the work, you definitely get an intellectual challenge and its easier physically (which isnt healthy in my opinion). On the other hand, you will probably get less money initially and have a rather big uni dept. The wages are ultimately better (in 10 years time) and the work is easier. In the short term, the study is just plain hard work.
In my experience, there isnt much use for practical experience in a grad in consulting. You cant 'consult' yet, so anything you know isnt that applicable or useable. The stuff you learn at uni (in my case at least) has very little direct application to your job so while you are trying to turn a dollar for the boss, you are busy learning the real engineering that applies to HVAC from book, colleagues and this website too. There is no doubt that you dont have to learn the basics but I from my experience the tradesmans knowledge is too detailed and not that useful when drawing up what I call 'cartoons' (the drawings have to work in principal but you could never build from them). I am speaking from a consultants point of view here, if you were actually designing an AC unit then that would be entirely different.
In terms of preparation, I would strongly recommend that you do a formal maths catch up course. The maths was the biggest issue for me at least.

cheers

 

[Super65]

Waramanga,
I want to make sure I see your point (thanks for the response by the way). In the field currently, the things engineers lets say I know one, when he tells me that I should be doing something that's impossible in practical terms, he already knows that it is? Because that has happened to me before.

It does sound like you were in the exact same situation or at least very similar. I am a very physical person and it would be quite a change, not to say that it's not work. I hope to supplement that at the gym. From the looks of the job market it seems realistically that the jobs available would be like what you are doing, I wouldn't mind something like that do you actually get to do on site supervisions?

 

[Waramanga]

Engineers skills vary widely as do those of tradespeople, but I think that practicality is an innate human ability. Good engineers will make good tradespeople if they have the manual skills and vice versa, a good tradesman can be a good engineer if they have reasonable academic skills.
Depending on the contract, I might go onto site once a week or once a month during construction and issue reports on what the contractors have done wrong. I also review their shop drawings, controls and electrical drawings and functional descriptions, review technical submissions and witness test the finished install. Only the bigger (2 million +) jobs get done the way they should, so that means that most of my jobs get the 'got-the-job-on-price-mow -i-have-to-make-it-profitable' contractors. Bad shop drawings, bad controls descriptions, getting tech data that makes sense is like pulling teeth and submission of a so called variation once a week.