Air conditioning (A/C) technicians usually also install and repair heating, ventilation and refrigeration systems, so they're commonly called HVAC or HVACR technicians. Some of these techs specialize in air conditioning or another aspect of the work, and some specialize further in installation, maintenance or repair. Average salaries for HVAC technicians in central Florida are lower than the statewide average for this occupation.
Statewide Salary Range
Florida HVAC technicians statewide earned an average salary of $18.63 per hour, or $38,750 per year, as of May 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The salaries for the middle 50 percent of Florida HVAC technicians ranged from $14.29 to $22.31 per hour, or $29,730 to $46,400 per year. The bottom 10 percent were making $24,450 and below, and the top 10 percent had salaries of at least $56,180 per year.
Highs and Lows
The highest-paying region in Florida for HVAC technicians in 2009 was the south nonmetropolitan area of the state, where they were earning $48,270 per year on average. The lowest-paying region was the Panama City-Lynn Haven area, at an average yearly salary of $31,220. Average salaries for HVAC technicians in central Florida ranked in the middle of these two extremes, but closer to the lower end of the scale.
Central Florida
In central Florida, HVAC technicians had an average annual salary of $32,440 in Lakeland-Winter Haven, $36,110 in Ocala and $36,410 in the Orlando-Kissimmee area. In west-central Florida, the average salary was $35,520 per year in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area, and $41,400 in the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice metro area. On the opposite coast in east-central Florida, the average HVAC technician salary was $37,510 in the Sebastian-Vero Beach area and $39,110 in the Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville area.
Employment
Of the estimated 244,410 HVAC technicians working in the United States in 2009, about 22,220 of them were employed in Florida, according to the BLS. Florida had about 9 percent of the country's HVAC technicians in 2009, ranking the state second for the number of these workers per capita by state, with 3.02 tech for 1,000 workers. Florida also had the top four metropolitan areas for the number of HVAC technicians per capita: Sebastian-Vero Beach, Lakeland-Winter Haven, Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Panama City-Lynn Haven. The BLS does not include self-employed workers in its salary data, and says that about 16 percent of HVAC technicians throughout the country were self-employed as of 2008.
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