A new company with room to grow offers big opportunities for new employees .
Absolute Heat and Air , which opened in Springdale less than a year ago , has experienced workers and is ready to take off . Owner Chad Dewey helped his brother , Derek Dewey , start the first Absolute Heat and Air in Gainesville , Texas in 2006 .
Chad Dewey moved to Arkansas to open the local branch of the company , employing 10 people in Springdale .
“ We hired what we needed at the moment ,” Dewey said . “ We are serving residential , commercial , construction , retrofitting and bidding on jobs .”
The time was right to open in Northwest Arkansas , Dewey said . “ Heating and AC units have a 10 to 15 year life span ,” he said . “ A lot of the houses and buildings were built in 2004 and 2005 . They will need new units now .”
The time is also right for recent graduates to start a career in heating , ventilation and air conditioning , or HVAC .
“ The profession is undermanned . The demand is there ,” said Terry Robinson .
Robinson is a technician at Absolute Heat and Air and has eight years of experience in the field .
Robinson went to college , but he said there were more career opportunities in a skilled trade like HVAC .
“ My wife has a master ’ s degree ,” Robinson said . “ I ’ m making more than her . I ’ ve got a degree in criminal justice , but I had to go to HVAC school to get a job .”
The Absolute Heat and Air team includes a service crew , a retrofit crew and a construction crew with a foreman .
Working in HVAC can be challenging .
“ It ’ s not for the desk-bound ,” Dewey said . “ You have to go up and down ladders , wrap pipes with insulation . Sometimes in heat that is tough for a lot of people .”
Absolute Heat and Air employees must be ready to respond to the challenge .
“ You have to be like MacGyver .” Dewey said . “ Sometimes it ’ s field fabrication and coming up with creative ideas .”
The creativity comes in when fitting a system to the unique features of each house , explained Mike Neil , co-owner . The Springdale High graduate spent 16 years with another company before coming to Absolute Heat and Air to work in systems design and sales .
“ It ’ s the same code and same equipment ,” he said . “ You know the load you need . You have to fit it to the characteristics of the home per the money the homeowner has to spend .”
“ I ’ ve worked on everything from an 80-ton unit , so big you have to have a ladder to get on top of it , to as small as a window unit ,” he said .
Robinson said it ’ s those challenges that keep his job interesting . “ I haven ’ t seen it all in my eight years of work . I run into something new every day ,” he said .
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