Residential Air Conditioning II

Course Description

Residential Air Conditioning II prepares students for installation and/or preventative maintenance positions in HVAC-related jobs and careers, emphasising job site safety, employability skills, proper tool usage, and basic math skills. Students may earn their EPA 608 Refrigerant Handling Certification during the course.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, ACR is the Air Conditioning, Refrigeration and Heating prefix, and the 0000-level number marks this as PSAV clock-hour instruction. Daytona State publishes it at 187.5 clock hours with a $406.81 lab fee — the highest in the programme — offered fall and spring, with ACR0560C as prerequisite. ⚠ It carries no college credit.

This is the most important course in the certificate for employability, because it is where the EPA 608 certification is earned. Without it you cannot lawfully purchase refrigerant or service equipment containing it — which is to say, you cannot do the job. Treat the 608 examination as the priority of the term, and sit the Universal level if the programme offers it.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Describe residential air conditioning system types and configurations.
• Describe split systems, packaged units, and their applications.
• Install a residential air conditioning system to manufacturer specification.
• Set and secure equipment, indoor and outdoor.
• Route, braze, and insulate refrigerant line sets correctly.
• Make electrical connections and verify correct voltage and phasing.
• Install and configure a thermostat and control wiring.
• Install condensate drainage and describe Florida-specific requirements.
• Evacuate and charge a newly installed system correctly.
• Commission a system and verify performance against specification.
• Perform preventative maintenance on residential equipment.
• Clean coils, replace filters, and service drains.
• Inspect and service blower assemblies and motors.
• Test and replace capacitors, contactors, and relays safely.
• Measure and interpret electrical values on operating equipment.
• Diagnose common residential system faults systematically.
• Diagnose airflow problems and measure static pressure.
• Describe duct systems and identify installation defects.
• Describe indoor air quality considerations and humidity control.
• Describe refrigerant regulations governing service and disposal.
• Apply EPA Section 608 requirements in practice.
• Complete service documentation and refrigerant records.
• Communicate diagnosis and recommendations to a customer.
• Apply job site safety practice throughout.

Optional Outcomes

• Perform load calculation to Manual J at an introductory level.
• Describe equipment selection and duct design principles.
• Describe high-efficiency and variable-capacity equipment.
• Describe zoning systems and their controls.
• Describe permits and inspection requirements.
• Prepare for the EPA 608 Universal examination.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Residential system types
• Split and packaged systems
• System installation
• Equipment setting and securing
• Line set routing, brazing, and insulation
• Electrical connections and verification
• Thermostats and control wiring
• Condensate drainage
• Evacuation and charging
• Commissioning and performance verification
• Preventative maintenance
• Coil, filter, and drain service
• Blower assemblies and motors
• Capacitors, contactors, and relays
• Electrical measurement on live equipment
• Systematic fault diagnosis
• Airflow diagnosis and static pressure
• Duct systems and defects
• Indoor air quality and humidity
• Refrigerant regulations
• EPA 608 requirements in practice
• Service documentation and records
• Customer communication
• Job site safety

Optional Topics

• Manual J load calculation
• Equipment selection and duct design
• High-efficiency and variable-capacity equipment
• Zoning systems
• Permits and inspections
• EPA 608 Universal preparation

Resources & Tools

• The programme's laboratory, live equipment, and recovery machines — the reason to take this in person. Book every open lab hour; this trade is learned with your hands.
• Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technology (Whitman, Johnson, Tomczyk & Silberstein) — the standard text for this programme and the one to keep afterwards.
• Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (Althouse, Turnquist & Bracciano) — the other standard reference.
• EPA Section 608 study materials (epa.gov) — free official guidance, plus inexpensive practice tests; the authority for anything in this guide about refrigerant rules.
• ESCO Institute (escogroup.org) — administers the EPA 608 and the Employment Ready certifications this programme carries.
• NATE (natex.org) — North American Technician Excellence; the credential to plan for once you have field experience.
• ACCA (acca.org) — the contractors' association; Manual J, S and D are the industry standards for load calculation, equipment selection, and duct design.
• AHRI directory (ahridirectory.org) — free; verified equipment performance data and matched-system ratings.
• Florida DBPR (myfloridalicense.com) — free; the authority on Florida contractor licensing.
• Florida Building Code — Mechanical and Energy Conservation volumes — what installations are actually inspected against here.
• Manufacturer service literature and wiring diagrams — learn to read a ladder diagram properly; it is the difference between diagnosing and guessing.
• A good multimeter, gauges, and a vacuum micron gauge — the micron gauge is the tool that separates professionals from parts-changers, and beginners routinely skip it.

Career Pathways

• Heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanic and installer — SOC 49-9021.
• Residential service technician — the most common entry route, and where diagnostic skill is built fastest.
• Installation crew — new construction and change-outs; physical work with clear progression.
• Commercial and light commercial service — rooftop units, chillers, and building systems.
• Commercial and industrial refrigeration — supermarkets, cold storage, and food service; the best-paid speciality and consistently short of trained technicians.
• Controls and building automation — a growing, technical, and well-paid pathway.
• Maintenance technician in hospitals, hotels, theme parks, schools, and government facilities — salaried with benefits, and a very large Florida sector.
• Marine and transport refrigeration — a Florida-specific niche given the ports and the produce trade.
• Energy auditing and performance testing.
• Service manager, dispatcher, or estimator — the usual progression off the tools.
• Technical sales and manufacturer representation — companies recruit experienced technicians specifically.
• Instruction — teaching in a programme like this one after several years in the field.
• Contracting on your own account — ⚠ a licensed activity in Florida requiring documented experience; see the licensing note.

Special Information

⚠⚠ Condensate and humidity are Florida-specific problems, and they cause real damage

• A Florida air conditioner removes an enormous quantity of water, and where that water goes is a design and installation question with expensive consequences.
• A blocked condensate drain floods ceilings. This is one of the most common residential service calls in Florida and one of the most damaging when missed.
• Install and maintain the trap, the cleanout, and the secondary protection — secondary drain pan, float switch, or both — and verify the float switch actually works rather than assuming.
• Slope the drain properly and support it. A sagging flexible line holds water and grows biological growth that blocks it.
• Insulate anything that will sweat. In Florida humidity, an uninsulated suction line or plenum will condense and drip continuously, and the damage appears in the ceiling below.
• Oversized equipment is a Florida-specific failure mode. A unit that is too large cools quickly and shuts off before removing moisture, leaving the house cold and clammy — and the customer will complain of humidity, not of temperature.
• Run time removes humidity. This is why correct sizing and longer, gentler run cycles produce better comfort than raw capacity.
• Duct leakage in a hot attic drags in humid air and destroys efficiency; sealing is not optional here.
• Biological growth follows moisture. Clean drains, clean coils, and a dry pan are the whole of indoor air quality maintenance on most residential systems.

⚠ Diagnose systematically — parts-changing is expensive and it is noticed

• Verify the complaint first, then check the simple things: power, thermostat setting, filter, breaker, disconnect, float switch. A large share of no-cooling calls are one of those.
• Check airflow before you touch the gauges. Restricted airflow mimics low charge, and adding refrigerant to an airflow problem makes it worse and creates a second fault.
• Measure, do not guess. Superheat, subcooling, temperature split, amperage, and voltage — the numbers narrow the fault, intuition does not.
• Find the cause, not just the failed part. A burnt contactor or a failed capacitor usually has a reason, and replacing the part without the reason produces a callback.
• A system low on refrigerant has a leak. "Topping it off" without finding the leak is not a repair, and it is questionable practice under refrigerant regulations.
• Write down what you measured. The next technician — often you — needs the baseline.
• Explain findings to the customer plainly, including what you are unsure of. In residential service the customer's trust is most of the business, and technicians who explain honestly get the repair authorised.
• Do not oversell. Recommending unnecessary work is the fastest way to lose a customer and a reputation in a local market.

⚠⚠ Refrigerant will hurt you in three different ways

• Asphyxiation. Refrigerants are heavier than air and displace oxygen in low and confined spaces — crawl spaces, pits, walk-in boxes, and machine rooms. People have died from this without ever feeling short of breath, because the gas is not toxic and gives no warning; ventilate, and never work a leak in a confined space alone.
• Frostbite. Liquid refrigerant flashing to gas is intensely cold and causes instant severe frostbite on skin and permanent injury to eyes. Safety glasses and gloves, every time you connect or disconnect a hose — not just when you expect a release.
• Pressure. A charged system stores real energy, and a cylinder is a pressure vessel. Never heat a refrigerant cylinder with a torch, never overfill one, never transport one loose in a vehicle, and never exceed 80 percent fill on a recovery cylinder.
• Never braze or apply heat to a pressurised or charged system. Recover first, then purge with dry nitrogen while brazing.
• Refrigerant decomposes into toxic products in contact with a flame — including phosgene — so a leak near an open torch is a chemical hazard as well as a fire one.
• Use a regulator on nitrogen. A nitrogen cylinder at full pressure connected directly to a system will rupture it explosively; this has killed technicians.
• Know where the recovery machine and the leak detector are, and use them. Recovery is both the law and the professional standard.
• Keep cylinders upright, secured, and labelled, and never mix refrigerants in a recovery cylinder.

⚠⚠ Electrical work is the part of this trade that kills people

• HVAC technicians work on live 240-volt equipment routinely, and electrocution is a leading cause of death in the trade.
• ⚠⚠ Capacitors store a lethal charge after the power is off. A run or start capacitor can hold enough energy to kill after the disconnect is pulled. Always discharge capacitors before touching terminals, using the correct method, and treat every one as charged.
• Lock out and tag out, and verify the circuit is dead with a meter you have just tested on a known live source. Test the meter, test the circuit, test the meter again.
• One hand in a pocket when you must probe live, so a shock cannot cross your chest.
• Know that the disconnect may not de-energise everything — control circuits, crankcase heaters, and separately fed components can remain live.
• Wear the right personal protective equipment, use insulated tools, and stand on a dry surface.
• Never bypass a safety control to make a unit run. The control exists because the failure it prevents is serious, and a bypassed safety left in place is a hazard you created.
• Do not work energised when you can avoid it. Convenience is not a justification, and the pressure to keep a customer's system running is exactly when accidents happen.

⚠⚠ EPA Section 608 is a legal requirement, not a nice-to-have

• Under Section 608 of the federal Clean Air Act, technicians who maintain, service, repair, or dispose of equipment containing regulated refrigerants must be certified — and certification is required to purchase regulated refrigerant at all. Without it you cannot lawfully do the central task of this trade.
• The certification has types — Type I (small appliances), Type II (high-pressure), Type III (low-pressure), and Universal (all three). Sit the Universal examination if you can; it costs little more and it closes off no employment.
• It does not expire, which makes it unusually good value among trade credentials.
• ⚠⚠ Venting regulated refrigerant is a federal violation carrying substantial civil penalties, and the obligation is on the individual technician as well as the employer. Recover, never vent — this is the single rule that most defines lawful practice in this trade.
• Recordkeeping obligations attach to refrigerant purchase, recovery, and disposal, and to leak repair on larger systems.
• This programme also carries ESCO Employment Ready certifications — brazing and soldering, system recovery and evacuation, gas heat, and heat pump — and OSHA 10 Construction Site Safety. Employers recognise these by name; collect every one the programme offers.
• NATE certification is the widely recognised next credential once you have field experience, and it frequently carries a pay differential.
• ⚠ Rule 11 applies. Refrigerant regulation is actively changing — see the note on the refrigerant transition. Verify current EPA requirements at epa.gov rather than relying on a course guide.

⚠⚠ Budget for the laboratory fees and the tools — they are substantial and easy to miss

• Daytona State publishes a laboratory fee of roughly $315–$407 for each course in this programme. Across the seven courses documented in this repository that is over $2,500 in fees alone, on top of tuition and before any tools are bought.
• PSAV programmes advertise low tuition, and the fees are where the real cost sits. Ask the programme for a complete cost sheet — tuition, every course fee, tools, textbooks, certification examination fees, uniforms, and boots — before you enrol, not term by term.
• The fees cover consumables that are genuinely expensive — refrigerant, brazing gas and rod, copper tubing, filter driers, and the wear on gauges, recovery machines, and vacuum pumps.
• You will need your own hand tools, and employers expect a technician to arrive with them. Ask for the programme's required tool list early and buy over time rather than all at once.
• Certification examination fees are usually separate from course fees, including EPA 608 and the ESCO assessments.
• Ask about financial aid, Pell eligibility for clock-hour programmes, and Florida workforce funding. Trade programmes frequently have funding routes that degree students do not, including employer sponsorship and apprenticeship arrangements.
• Buy quality on the tools you use daily — gauges, a good vacuum pump, and a decent meter — and cheaply on the rest. Bad gauges produce bad diagnoses.

⚠⚠ This is a PSAV clock-hour course — it carries no college credit

• The leading zero in the course number is the signal. Under the Florida Statewide Course Numbering System, a 0000-level number denotes postsecondary adult vocational (PSAV) instruction, measured in clock hours rather than semester credit hours. These courses carry zero college credit.
• ⚠ A catalog may display the clock-hour figure under a heading that reads "credit hours." It is not credits. When you see a number like 187.5 attached to a 0000-level course, that is hours of instruction — no course is worth 187.5 semester credits.
• PSAV hours do not transfer as college credit to an associate or bachelor's degree, and they do not satisfy general education requirements.
• What they produce is a workforce credential — a career certificate plus, in this programme, a set of industry certifications that employers ask for by name. For a trade like this that is frequently exactly the right outcome, and it is reached far faster and more cheaply than a degree.
• Some institutions offer articulation from a PSAV certificate into a related associate degree. ⚠ These are institution-specific and they change. If you intend to continue to a degree later, get the articulation in writing from the receiving institution before you enrol, not after you finish.
• Financial aid rules differ for clock-hour programmes — eligibility, disbursement, and satisfactory-progress rules are not the same as for credit programmes. Ask the financial aid office specifically about clock-hour programmes.
• Attendance is the currency. Clock-hour programmes track attendance directly and hours missed generally must be made up.

The Daytona State HVAC/R PSAV sequence

These courses form part of one career certificate, taken in sequence. The clock-hour figures and fees are the catalog's own:

⚠ Confirm the current programme structure, total hours, and complete cost with the programme. Florida PSAV programmes are defined by state curriculum frameworks that specify a total length, and the exact course list can change.

⚠⚠ Florida heat is the occupational hazard nobody warns you about

• Attics in a Florida summer routinely exceed 130°F and can approach 150°F, and a large share of residential HVAC work happens in them. Heat stroke is a genuine risk and it is a medical emergency.
• Learn the difference and the response. Heat exhaustion — heavy sweating, weakness, nausea — means stop, get cool, hydrate. Heat stroke — confusion, hot dry skin, no sweating, collapse — means call emergency services and cool the person aggressively while waiting. Confusion in a hot attic is an emergency, not tiredness.
• Hydrate before you are thirsty and keep doing it. Thirst lags dehydration badly in this climate.
• Work attics early. Experienced Florida technicians schedule attic work for the morning for exactly this reason.
• Take breaks in air conditioning, and set a limit on continuous time in a hot space before you go up rather than while you are up there.
• Never work an attic alone without someone knowing where you are and roughly when you will be down.
• Watch each other. The person suffering heat illness is frequently the last to recognise it.
• Roofs, ladders, and confined spaces carry the trade's other physical risks, and heat degrades the judgement you need for all three.

Why this trade is durable employment in Florida

• Air conditioning is not optional here. Florida's cooling demand is year-round and effectively non-discretionary, which makes the work markedly less cyclical than most construction trades.
• The installed base is enormous and ageing, so replacement and service work continues regardless of new construction activity.
• Hurricane and storm recovery generates episodic surge demand.
• New construction in Florida has been sustained, and every unit needs installing and then servicing.
• The workforce is ageing and replacement demand is real — this is a trade with more openings than entrants.
• Commercial refrigeration is the better-paid speciality — supermarkets, restaurants, and cold storage all need it, and fewer technicians are trained for it.
• Emergency and on-call work pays a premium, and in Florida there is a great deal of it in summer.
• The path to self-employment is real in this trade — but see the licensing note, because contracting for yourself is a licensed activity.

⚠⚠ Working as a technician and contracting for yourself are different things in Florida

• You may work as an HVAC technician for a licensed contractor without holding a contractor licence yourself — that is how essentially everyone starts, and this certificate prepares you for it.
• ⚠⚠ Contracting on your own account is a licensed activity in Florida, regulated under Chapter 489, Florida Statutes, through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and the Construction Industry Licensing Board. Advertising, bidding, or contracting for air conditioning work without the required licence is unlicensed contracting, which is an offence and carries escalating penalties.
• Air conditioning contractor licences are classed by scope — broadly, one class covers unlimited capacity and another is limited to a stated tonnage and heating capacity. Confirm the current classes and their limits with DBPR; do not rely on a course guide's summary.
• Licensure typically requires documented experience, an examination, financial responsibility evidence, and insurance, and the experience requirement is measured in years — which is why the sequence is: certificate, then employment, then licence, not certificate then business.
• Local jurisdictions add requirements — county and municipal registration, permits, and inspections.
• Permits and inspections are required for most installations, and pulling a permit requires a licensed contractor.
• Working under someone else's licence improperly is a serious matter for both parties.
• ⚠ Rule 11 applies. Licensing classes, experience requirements, and fees change. Verify with DBPR (myfloridalicense.com) before making any career or business decision.

ACR0561C is 187.5 clock hours — use the exact catalog figure of 187.5 for programme hour-counting. Offered fall and spring, with a $406.81 lab fee and ACR0560C as prerequisite. ⚠ Clock hours carry no college credit.

⚠ This is where the EPA Section 608 certification is earned — it is a federal requirement for handling refrigerant and it does not expire. Make it the priority of the term. The sequence branches from here into ACR0613C (service and repair) and ACR0744C (commercial refrigeration).