HVAC Apprentice

You won't be able to carry your weight and keep up with the men.

What were some of the hardships that you had just jumping into this new career path? &gt;&gt; I think the hardest one was being a female. Getting into the career where you're doing any kind of construction or any kind of hands on work, being a female you kind of get looked at as you're not gonna be able to carry your weight, you're not gonna be able to basically keep up with the guys. And I always feel with work like this, you have to make that step and prove yourself and show that you're capable of handling just as much as anybody else can handle. I walked in here not having a single clue. I mean, I knew how to use a screwdriver and how to use a hammer, but the logistics of it, what wire went where and how to get a furnish running and how to do gas lines, I was clueless. And I think just changing my mindset coming in. And instead of being scared of, okay, this is something new that I have to completely change my outlook and perspective on, I came in and thought, this is something I want to learn. This is something I wanna continue a career on, and I wanna take it as far as you can go with it. I mean, it's consistently in this field it's a competition to see, who's gonna be able to do the next best thing, and you'll just have to keep up with the times. And I'm going through the apprenticeship program right now. So that is a five-year program that I've been offered. I'm already through a year of it. I'm going to start doubling up on courses, and hopefully I actually finished that within three years. Once I finished that, I have my journeyman card and basically I can take that anywhere in the US with me and do what I do now anywhere I wanna go. So who knows, ten years from now I'll be in New York helping New York change, getting rid of all their fossil fuels? So lots of doors opportunity I see. It'll be something that in time will take over and replace all the fossil fuels and garbage that we're dumping into the atmosphere, and it'll be nice to see. I mean, you see the car chargers popping up everywhere. So it's only a matter of time. 

Confidence

Negativity

Finding My Confidence As A Woman In A Male-dominated Field

Through different courses I've taken and different providers that we use. One of the things that was discussed was actually them going geothermal for a whole town. So not just homes individually. So that could be something coming in the future. Basically, what they discussed was getting rid of main gas lines completely. And doing electric stoves, getting rid of furnaces, doing electric water heaters, or we have what's called heat pump water heaters. And then for your heating and cooling purposes, you'd be using geothermal. So instead of each house having to use smaller wells or smaller lines, you do it throughout the whole city, and each house would be piggybacking and that'd be a new source of heating and cooling. Now, the only thing with that is individual landlords who have to agree upon the project and be willing to, okay, we have to come in. And the way these wells get brought into your house, we basically drill out through a basement wall or a crawl space wall and we drill into the side of the foundation, bring this piping in, re-cement it up, and then put these units in. So it's a very interesting and creative idea, and would be awesome to see. But it's something that if you have that one person who doesn't agree to it, you won't be able to piggyback from the house to house to house and it kinda breaks that chain. So I feel like there has to be a lot more awareness and a lot more education brought to the aspect of geothermal before it's actually completely introduced into a town, because a lot of people don't like change. And when you get this new high techy field of things, a lot of people, it scares them off. I mean, now in 2022, it's gotten better. I mean, but it's just like when they first introduced the cellphone, people were like, I've never owned a cellphone. And now everybody has one plugged to their hand. And I think it's just something as time goes on and people see the positive impact it has and the positive effects it has, not only for them financially and for their towns, but also for the ecosystem and for generations to come, I think that'll be a eye-opener. And it's just gonna take time, just as everything else does. 

Goals

Transitions

Opening People Up To The Future Of Geothermal Heating

My name is Janine Sia, but people call me Jenny. I live out in probably an hour south of Rochester. I do HVAC, I'm actually in the middle of my apprenticeship, so I work full-time, and I also go to school two nights a week. I grew up working on cars with my dad so I always knew I liked hands-on work and building and fixing stuff. So this kinda opened up a big door of that. And since I've stepped into this, I've gotten my hands on electrical work, heating and cooling, plumbing. Anything you can think of that involves a house, we kinda do, so it's pretty cool experience. &gt;&gt; Did you start off with working inside of HVAC, or do you have any other previous experience? &gt;&gt; Prior to this, I was in the medical field. Started doing that when I was 18. I actually was going to college for that for a little while. I thought I wanted to be a doctor or nurse, and just decided one day it wasn't for me. I stepped into law enforcement for a little bit, did that for about a year and a half, decided that wasn't for me. For a sense, I went there for cushion and security in a job basis, and I did it and I did not love it, to say the least. I wanted to do something that I had some kind of reward and accomplishment when I finished my job. Then I met with a friend's father who had a tie into HVAC, and I pitched an idea of being interested in going into the union for electrical work. And he's like, I know somebody, why don't you come check out this and shadow with them, and see what you think of this experience and proceed from there. But honestly, walking into this line of work, I had no experience with anything with HVAC. I mean, other than my furnace in my house, and my water heater in my house, I was clueless to it, but I'm glad I did it. 

My Career Path

Tell me about how you guys are working with energy conservation. &gt;&gt; My company that hired me on, their name is Snug Planet. Right off the bat they introduced me into what's called geothermal, that's ground source heat pumps. So we do these in ground source heat pumps and the systems that we're installing actually run on glycol water mixture, and it eliminates any gas use, propane use. So it eliminates that fossil fuel that's affecting the ozone, polluting the air and stuff like that, and I feel like New York's a step in the right direction. Years to come, there's a lot of work in progress to happen. I mean, I would like to see it happen all over. And hopefully, we do get there someday, cuz we definitely need it. I mean, if we want our environment to last and to continue for generations on, we definitely need to change something and go on the right course. 

How Geothermal Heat Pumps Are Eliminating The Use Of Fossil Fuels

My name is Janicia but people call me Jenny. I live out in probably an hour south of Rochester. I do HVAC, I'm actually in the middle of my apprenticeship so I work full time and I also go to school two nights a week. I grew up working on cars with my dad. So I always knew like, I liked hands-on work and building and fixing stuff. So this kinda opened up a big door of that and since I've stepped into this I've gotten my hands on electrical work, heating and cooling, plumbing. Anything you can think of that involves a house we kind of do this so it's pretty cool experience. &gt;&gt; Did you start off with working inside of a truck or do you have any other previous experiences? &gt;&gt; Prior to this, I was in the medical field started doing that when I was 18. I actually was going to college for that for a little while. Thought I wanted to be a doctor, nurse and just decided one day it wasn't for me. I stepped into law enforcement for a little bit, did that for about a year and a half, decided that wasn't. For me for a sense I went there for cushion and security and a job basis and I did it and I did not love it to say the least. I wanted to do something that I had some kind of reward and accomplishment when I finished my job. Then I met with a friend's father who had a tie into HVAC, and I pitched an idea of being interested in going into the union for electrical work. And he's like, I know somebody, why don't you come check out this and shadow with them and see what you think of this experience and proceed from there. But I, honestly walking into this line of work I had no experience with anything with HVAC, I mean other than my furnace in my house, and my water heater in my house, I was clueless to it, but I'm glad I did it. &gt;&gt; Tell me about how you guys are working with energy conservation. &gt;&gt; My company that hired me on their name a Snug planet. Right off the bat they introduced me into what's called geothermal, that's ground source heat pumps. So we do these in-ground source heat pumps, and these systems that we're installing actually run on glycol water mixture. And it eliminates any gas use, propane use, so it eliminates that fossil fuel that's affecting the ozone polluting the air and stuff like that. And I feel like New York's is stepping in the right direction but I feel like it's gonna years to come, years to come, there's a lot of working progress to happen. I mean, I would like to see it happen all over and hopefully we do get there someday cuz we definitely need it. I mean, if we want our environment to last, and to continue for generations on we definitely need to change something and go on the right course. &gt;&gt; What were some of the hardships that you had just jumping into this new career path? &gt;&gt; I think the hardest one was being a female, getting into the career where you're doing any kind of construction or any kind of hands-on work. Being a female you kind of get looked at as a you're not gonna be able to carry your weight, you're not gonna be able to basically keep up with the guys. And I always feel with work like this, you have to make that step and prove yourself and show that you're capable of handling just as much as anybody else can handle. I walked in here not having a single clue, I mean, I knew how to use a screwdriver and you got to use a hammer. But the logistics of it, what wire went where and how to get a furnish running and how to do gas lines, I was clueless. And I think just changing my mindset coming in, and instead of being scared of okay, this is something new, that I have to completely change my outlook and perspective on I came in and thought, this is something I wanna learn. This is something I wanna continue a career on, and I wanna take it as far as I can go with it. I mean, it's consistently in this field. It's a competition to see who's gonna be able to do the next best thing. And you just have to keep up with the times. And, I'm going through the apprenticeship program right now. So that is a five-year program that I've been offered, I'm already through a year of it. I'm gonna start doubling up on courses. And hopefully I actually finish that within three years. Once I finished that I have my journeyman's card. And basically I can take that anywhere in the US with me and do what I do now I know where I wanna go. So who knows ten years from now I'll be in New York, helping New York change, getting rid of all their fossil fuels, so lots of doors opportunity I see. It'll be something that in time I will take over and replace all the fossil fuels and it'll be nice to see. I mean you see the car chargers popping up everywhere, so it's only a matter of time. 

Interview

My name is Janicia but people call me Jenny I do HVAC. We do these in ground source heat pumps and the systems that we're installing eliminates any gas use, propane use, so it eliminates that fossil fuel that's affecting the ozone, polluting the air, and stuff like that. But I honestly walking into this line of work, had no experience with anything with HVAC. I mean, I grew up working on cars with my dad. So I always knew I liked hands-on work and building and fixing stuff. So this kind of opened up a big door of that. And I think just changing my mindset coming in and instead of being scared of okay this is something new that I have to completely change my outlook and perspective on. I came in and thought this is something I wanna learn, this is something I wanna continue a career on so lots of doors opportunity I see. It'll be something that in time I will take over and replace all the fossil fuels and it'll be nice to see I mean if we want our environment to last and to continue for generations on. We definitely need to change something and go on the right course. 

Jennitsia Rodriguez Highlight

It's actually pretty interesting how it works. For geothermal, we dig either a well or a pit, and wells can go anywhere between 300 and 600 feet in the ground. Or we do a pit, which goes a 100 feet into the ground. We lay these pipes down and they stay underneath the ground and get buried, and they stay at a consistent temperature of about 50 degrees. That way they don't freeze and you get a consistent thermal temperature throughout your whole seasoning. That basically replaces the gas and the propane usage. So these get pumped from these fields outside, brought into the house into these units. These units cycle and they produce whether it's the air or the warm water throughout the house. Now the systems that we install they can be used for forced air systems, which is basically what your furnace does, pushes air through your house. Or they can be used for what we call water to water systems, which is where you'd find if you have baseboard heating, or in floor radiant heating. So these systems are supposed to be the new up and coming things. You look at it as with a furnace,you have to replace anywhere between every 10 and 15 years, and these geothermal units you only have to replace every 50 to 60 years &gt;&gt; Wow. &gt;&gt; So not only is it saving on product cost and production, you're also gonna save your customer money on a system. And the only thing you're gonna be using on that system is energy. So a lot of the times what you see is you have people putting geothermal in their house, and on top of putting geothermal they're installing solar. So now that's complete green energy and you're eliminating everything there. &gt;&gt; Wow, that sounds crazy. &gt;&gt; Yeah, it's definitely an interesting thing to see happening. 

Jennitsia Rodriguez

HVAC Apprentice

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Jennitsia Rodriguez

Milestones

Career

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

My work combines:

Engineering

Technology

Building Things

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The Noise I Shed

From Peers:

Jennitsia Rodriguez

HVAC Apprentice

Videos

Jennitsia Rodriguez

Milestones

Career

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

My work combines:

Engineering

Technology

Building Things

Hurdles

The Noise I Shed

From Peers:

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