Salaries / HVAC Technician
Skilled Trades · SOC 49-9021
HVAC Technician salary
HVAC technicians install and service heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration systems.
Tennessee · 2025
Median annual (TN)
$55,490
Median hourly (TN)
$26.68
Typical range (TN)
$38,540 to $81,590
Tennessee source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS 2025.
National
Median annual
$61,010
Median hourly
$29.33
Typical range
$40,050 to $95,210
National source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025. Figures are gross pay and vary by location, employer, and experience.
The pay range, visually.
Low end (about the 10th percentile), median, and high end (about the 90th percentile).
By state, at a glance
These at-a-glance figures are estimates derived from the national median and a state wage index, shown to give a rough sense of local differences. Pick any state (here or in the selector above) to look up its real figures.
Your skills are a business
Ideas we have for people in skilled trades.
The same experience that earns a paycheck as a hvac technician can start a business. Here are real ideas from our marketplace that fit this field.
Start a Skilled Trades Business
Run a licensed HVAC, plumbing, or electrical company where demand is constant, tickets are high, and good operators are scarce.
Start a Standby Generator Installation Business
Sell and install commercial and residential standby generators: the automatic backup that starts itself when the grid drops. Demand is running hot because 2026 has brought repeated Department of Energy emergency orders and extreme-heat outages, and homeowners and small businesses want power that does not depend on a stressed grid.
Start a Chimney Sweep and Fireplace Inspection Business
Clean, inspect, and certify chimneys and venting systems for homeowners and real estate transactions, a certified seasonal trade with almost no competition in most towns.
Start an In-Home Appliance Repair Service
Fix washers, dryers, refrigerators, ovens, and dishwashers in customers' homes, a mobile trade with a diagnostic-fee-plus-parts model, steady demand, and low overhead run from a van.
You could hire hvac technicians, not just be one.
We have a staffing calculator to price the work and a full course on how to start a staffing agency, so you can turn a field you already know into a business that puts other people to work.