National Technical Institute

HVAC School & Training in Phoenix | NTI

Hands-on HVAC classes at our HVAC trade school in Phoenix, on South 36th Street. Pick from three formats lasting 12 to 16 weeks; the EPA 608 Universal exam is included.

How Our Phoenix HVAC Training Works

At our HVAC school in Phoenix, the hands-on work happens in the lab at our Phoenix campus at 4645 S 36th St, where you put gauges on running systems, solder and braze, and troubleshoot residential package and split units. Depending on the format, the program takes 12 to 16 weeks, and you can start without any HVAC background.

As an HVAC trade school program, it prepares you for an entry-level HVAC position, where you work alongside experienced people and keep building skills on the job.

What You Get at NTI

The Fusion Training format is meant for people who are working while they train. You do the coursework online when it suits you and come to campus once a week for a lab day with an instructor, which is the only part of Fusion with a fixed time.

  • Program Name:
    Entry Level HVAC/I Technician (Traditional or Fusion); HVAC Technician (Immersion)

  • Program Length:
    12 to 16 weeks, depending on the format you choose

  • Contact hours:
    192 (Traditional), 144 (Fusion), 100 (Immersion)

  • Program Formats:
    Traditional, Fusion, Immersion

  • Lab Schedule:
    Set by format and cohort; ask admissions for the current one

  • Includes:
    The EPA 608 Universal certification exam, with your first attempt included in the program cost

  • Tuition & Financing:
    Admissions gives you the full cost before you enroll; financing for those who qualify, including NTI’s 12-month, no-interest plan

  • Campus:
    Phoenix, at 4645 S 36th St

Our Phoenix campus

All of the hands-on work happens on 36th Street, in every format. Our 6,000-plus-square-foot lab has three-phase power, air conditioning and gas heating units, plumbing stations and electrical training areas. Our electrician school and plumbing school programs share the building, and the Phoenix campus page has directions.

National Technical Institute – Phoenix

Career Opportunities for HVAC Technicians in Phoenix

Phoenix offers three formats, and Fusion is one of them.

  • Traditional — 12 weeks, on campus Monday to Thursday. A set 12-week schedule, if you can be here four days a week.

  • Fusion — 16 weeks, with coursework online and one lab day a week on campus. The option for students holding down a job.

  • Immersion — up to 12 weeks: 60 hours of video lecture from home and 40 hours of lab on campus. The least time on campus of the three.

Ask admissions which are open and when the next cohort begins.

What You Finish With

Graduates leave with an NTI certificate of completion. Along the way you learn to use the tools of HVAC work safely and pick up the terms used on job sites, and the theory courses explain how the systems you’ll be working on operate.

The EPA 608 Universal certification exam is part of the program too. Pass it and you hold the federal credential for handling refrigerant; the next section explains it.

A certificate of completion isn’t a license, and it’s a different credential from EPA 608.

EPA 608 Universal Certification

Exam Included With Program

The federal Clean Air Act’s Section 608 requires anyone who maintains, services, repairs or disposes of equipment holding regulated refrigerants to be certified by an EPA-approved organization. The certification comes in four types: Type I (small appliances), Type II (high-pressure equipment), Type III (low-pressure equipment) and Universal, which covers all three. It doesn’t expire.

It’s a federal certification and separate from your NTI certificate of completion; neither one is a license.

You take the exam here.

A two-day EPA certification seminar covers the federal refrigerant rules and recovery, recycling and disposal, and it ends with the EPA 608 Universal exam. Your first attempt is part of the program cost, and passing is one of the requirements for the tool bag at the end of the program.

hvac students

Paying for it

Before you enroll, admissions lays out every cost: tuition, the textbook, the EPA exam fee, and the lab materials and tools fee. Tuition covers the lab equipment you train on.

If you qualify, you can finance the program more than one way: NTI’s own payment plan, paid to NTI over 12 months with no interest, or funding options through third-party lenders. See the financing page for details.

Veterans education benefits can be applied toward tuition for the Traditional program at our Phoenix campus. If you’re eligible, admissions can walk you through what to submit and how to get started.

What You Learn in Phoenix HVAC Technician Training

Refrigeration fundamentals

How refrigeration works, starting with the thermal laws: the parts of a refrigeration system, the cycle refrigerant moves through, refrigerant properties, and the types of compressors. You also get comfortable with gauges, the pressure-temperature chart, and soldering and brazing.

Electrical for HVAC

Electricity from the ground up: electron theory, Ohm’s law, series and parallel circuits, reading schematics, test instruments and motors. From there you move to control circuits, motor controls, start and run circuits and motor protection, and you build and test the kinds of circuits HVAC equipment uses.

Air conditioning

How air moves through duct systems, how refrigerant and electrical controls work together, recovering, evacuating and recharging a system, and reading superheat and subcooling to tell whether a system is running as it should.

Gas heating and heat pumps

Furnaces first: combustion and ignition theory, operating and safety controls, and the different furnace types. Then heat pumps, how they’re designed and built, and how to troubleshoot the problems unique to them.

Installation basics

The installation work contractors recommend you know: assembling and sealing a metal plenum, removing and installing condensing units, furnaces and air handlers, replacing a thermostat, cutting holes for start collars, and measuring, installing and sealing flexible ductwork.

Troubleshooting

A step-by-step way of finding faults, practiced in the lab on residential package and split units with many different problems.

HVAC Technician Pay and Job Outlook

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the national median wage for HVAC and refrigeration mechanics and installers at $61,010 a year (May 2025) and expects employment to grow 11% between 2025 and 2035.

HVACR mechanics and installers — national, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Measure Figure
Median annual wage $61,010 (May 2025)
Projected employment growth 11% (2025–2035)
Projected annual openings ~40,600 / year
Typical entry-level education Postsecondary nondegree award

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers. Wage data as of May 2025; projections cover 2025–2035.

HVAC and refrigeration mechanics and installers — Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ metro area, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Measure Figure
Workers employed in the metro area about 8,070
Median annual wage $61,170 (May 2025)
Highest 10% earned more than $83,180

Closer to home, the BLS wage survey for May 2025 found about 8,070 HVAC and refrigeration mechanics and installers employed in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ metro area. The pay figures cover beginners and people with decades in the trade, so they aren’t a guide to starting pay.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ metropolitan statistical area.

Phoenix HVAC School — Common Questions

Between 12 and 16 weeks, depending on the format. Traditional: 12 weeks, on campus Monday to Thursday. Fusion: 16 weeks, with coursework online and one lab day a week on campus. Immersion: up to 12 weeks: 60 hours of video lecture from home and 40 hours of lab on campus.

No. The first courses cover refrigeration and electrical basics, and air conditioning, heating and troubleshooting come after, so the program expects beginners. To enroll, you’ll need a high school diploma or GED; a Wonderlic ability-to-benefit test is also available on site.

An NTI certificate of completion, plus EPA 608 Universal certification if you pass that exam. The NTI certificate isn’t a license or a certification.

Most people start with training in the basics, then get hired by an HVAC contractor and keep learning on the job. Inside the City of Phoenix, permitted mechanical work also takes a city Apprentice license, which doesn’t require an exam. NTI’s part is the start: 12 to 16 weeks of lab-based training at our Phoenix campus and a certificate of completion when you finish, with help from career services on resumes and interviews when you’re job hunting. For refrigerant work you’ll also need EPA 608 certification; the EPA 608 Universal exam is part of the program.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for May 2025 puts the median annual wage for HVAC and refrigeration mechanics and installers in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ metro area at $61,170. Because that median includes workers at every experience level, it says little about starting pay. It isn’t NTI graduate earnings, and NTI doesn’t guarantee employment or any particular wage.

No. You’ll receive a certificate of completion from NTI, which isn’t a license or a certification. Arizona’s Registrar of Contractors licenses contracting businesses, not individual workers. The City of Phoenix is different: it licenses individual workers on permitted mechanical (HVAC) jobs.

For permitted mechanical (HVAC) work inside the city, yes. The City of Phoenix requires a city Apprentice or Journeyman license. The Apprentice license doesn’t require an exam, but you need a notarized letter from your employer, and you work under a licensed journeyman or a state-licensed contractor. A Journeyman license takes at least four years of experience and a passing exam.

Yes. The EPA 608 Universal exam closes out a two-day EPA certification seminar, and your first try is included in the program cost.

No. Fusion and Immersion put the coursework online and Traditional is taught on campus, but every format has required in-person labs. You learn to read gauges on a running system and braze a joint by doing it, with the equipment in front of you.

You’ll get the full cost from admissions before you sign up. If you qualify, you can finance it; Paying for It, above, has the options.

Yes, if you’re eligible. Veterans education benefits can be applied toward tuition for the Traditional program at our Phoenix campus.

At 4645 S 36th St, Phoenix, AZ 85040. Every HVAC lab is held there, whichever format you take.

No, the lab supplies the equipment. On the last day of class, students who meet the program’s academic and attendance standards, are current on payments and have their documents in order receive an NTI tool bag; HVAC students also need to have passed the EPA 608 exam.

Phoenix start dates are set by cohort and shift during the year, so admissions keeps the current schedule.

Entry-level HVAC service and installation jobs with an HVAC contractor. Passing EPA 608 Universal means you already hold the federal certification needed to handle refrigerant. Career services help includes resume preparation and interview skills, and the campus works with local businesses to arrange interviews and holds career fairs. NTI does not guarantee employment.

Get Started with NTI

Questions about our Phoenix HVAC school? Admissions can go over formats, cost and financing, and start dates with you, and help you apply.

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