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Trade Playbook
HVAC's real questions: residential service or commercial refrigeration, how much the gas and refrigeration tickets actually add to your cheque, surviving the summer-rush/winter-slow swing, the on-call grind, and whether to chase the comfort-advisor sales money or stay on the tools. Here's the straight version.
Where it starts
$20–28/hr
Apprentice (313D/313A)
Where it tops out
$100k–250k+
Owner / contractor
Union route
UA Local 787
Ontario figures for hvac & refrigeration, from the first day on site to the top of the trade. Approximate, and worth checking against current collective agreement rates and job postings in your region.
| Stage | Pay | What is going on at this stage |
|---|---|---|
| Apprentice (313D/313A) | $20–28/hr | Climbs as you accumulate hours and add tickets. |
| Journeyperson 313A + G2 | ≈$58k–78k | The gas ticket is what unlocks most residential money. |
| Commercial / refrigeration (HVAC/R) | $37/hr median+ | Cold-chain and industrial refrigeration pay above standard HVAC. |
| Comfort advisor / in-home sales | High (commission) | The replacement-sales side — top earners live here, off the tools. |
| Owner / contractor | $100k–250k+ | Business income — install volume, service contracts, and how you run it. |
Two HVAC technicians with the same ticket can be twenty dollars an hour apart because they picked different work.
Furnaces, ACs, and heat pumps in homes. Seasonal rushes (AC in summer, heat in the first cold snap), on-call, and a lot of customer and sales contact.
Best for: People who like variety, customers, and the path to their own service business.
Rooftop units, chillers, and refrigeration/cold-chain. More technical, less seasonal, steadier hours.
Best for: Technical people who want the higher, steadier ceiling.
Every figure above is what HVAC technicians get paid. It is not what you charge once you run a HVAC business. Your rate has to carry the hours you are not on the tools, the truck, the tools themselves, WSIB, insurance, the quote you wrote and lost, and the holdback sitting in someone else's account for 60 days. Contractors who set their rate off their old hourly wage are the ones who work every weekend and still cannot say whether the year was profitable.
The step from paid by the hour to paid by the jobOff the tools: service manager, estimator, comfort-advisor sales, instructor, TSSA inspector, manufacturer rep, or owning a contracting business. The seasonal swing and on-call grind are exactly why so many HVAC techs move into management, sales, or ownership — and a service business with a book of maintenance contracts is a genuinely sellable asset.
Wage data, union rate sheets, and the places HVAC technicians talk about money openly.
The rates above are the market. The live feed is the market this week: which builders and contractors just pulled a permit or won a contract in Ontario, what they are about to need, and who to call.
HVAC, Refrigeration and Mechanical Jobs in Ontario: Who Is HiringAEC Stack handles incorporation, WSIB, insurance certificates, quoting, invoicing, and chasing the money, so a HVAC business runs like one with an office behind it.
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