Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Technicians
Assemble, install, maintain and repair industrial, commercial and domestic air conditioning and refrigeration systems and equipment that can contain refrigerant gases and liquids.
Cool room on the hottest day
You are an air conditioning and refrigeration technician on call, with your van parked outside a busy cafe on a day that is already 40 degrees. It is 11am. The cafe's cool room is warming up, with milk, cakes and a catering order inside. Lunch trade is about to start, and the owner stands at the door, anxious.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
Please tell me you can fix it. The catering order goes out at two and I have no way of making it again. The last technician said it needed a new part. Can you just get it working in whatever way you can?
Find out what has failed first, then tell her what is possible and when
It is a failed fan motor, and you do not have the part. You tell her straight, and she has time to move the catering order and the milk to a neighbour's fridge before the room warms up further.
Promise it will be working by two and begin tinkering with whatever you can
You tinker, and by two the room is no colder. Priscilla loses an hour of planning on a promise you had no basis for, and the catering order goes out late.
Tell her it is a job for tomorrow, since you cannot do anything useful today
It is honest, but it leaves her alone with warming stock and no plan. You could have told her the cause, and suggested where to put the food, in under ten minutes.
A friend told me there is a way to top up the cooling gas myself and a hardware shop sells it. Can you show me how, so next time I do not need to call you? It would save me a fortune.
Show her quickly, since she will do it anyway and it is better that she does it properly
Handling the gas is licensed work for good reasons, and it can harm the environment and the person. You have taught her something she should not do, and you are responsible for it.
Explain why only licensed people handle it, and offer her a regular check to catch problems
She is surprised but agrees. A regular service is booked, and she understands that the cost of a licence is also what protects her from a bad repair.
Tell her no without explaining and move on to the next task
She nods but does not understand why. Without the reason, she may try it anyway, or find someone less careful. A short explanation would have cost you a minute.
I have the fan motor, but it is a slightly different model from the one on your list. It looks the same and the supplier says it is compatible. Do you want me to hold it for you, or do you want the exact match?
Take the close match and fit it quickly, without checking, since the cafe is waiting
It fits, but it runs at a slightly different speed to what the system expects. The room cools badly overnight, and Priscilla is on the phone again before breakfast.
Order the exact match for delivery tomorrow and tell the cafe it will have to cope until then
You avoid any risk with the part, but the cafe spends a night with a warming cool room and moves everything again. The wait was safe for the machine and hard on the owner.
Check the model numbers and ratings against the system before you decide
The compatible motor is rated for the system, and Dario puts it in your hand. You are back at the cafe by one with a part you know will work.
How it went
By three the cool room is back at temperature, the catering order is out and Priscilla has booked a regular service. Refrigeration technicians keep food, medicine and people at the right temperature, often when everyone else is panicking. Would you like being the one who calmly makes things cold?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The cool room that failed on a heatwave Friday
A fictional case set in an air conditioning and refrigeration service company that looks after cool rooms, shop fridges and office cooling systems.
The situation
On the hottest day of the summer, Thandi, an air conditioning and refrigeration technician, was called to a small restaurant where the walk-in cool room had stopped cooling. The owner, Mr Beaumont, had a wedding dinner booked that evening and about a week of food inside. He asked Thandi to get it going by any method and said he would pay extra if she did it fast.
What they did
Thandi found a failed part and did not have a spare in her van. She did not try to bodge it together. She told Mr Beaumont straight away so that he could move his food while she looked for a part, and she helped him decide what could go into the freezers at the neighbouring cafe. She found the part at a supplier across town, collected it herself and fitted it by early evening, then tested the room until it held its temperature.
How it turned out
The wedding went ahead on time, with the food that had been moved in the right place. Mr Beaumont lost a few hours of sleep but no stock. The restaurant booked a regular service, so a failure like that would be caught before a heatwave.
What would you do?
- Why was telling the owner early the most important thing Thandi did?
- What would you have felt like driving across town to find a part in the heat?
- How is working on refrigeration different from working on other building equipment?