How to Start an HVAC Business in Australia
HVAC is a seasonal, capital-heavy trade with its own refrigerant licensing on top of everything else. Here's what setting up your own air conditioning business really takes.
Air conditioning is a good business with two awkward features: the work arrives in waves, and you can't legally touch refrigerant without the right authorisation. Get both of those wrong and a busy summer turns into a lean, stressful winter with an unpaid equipment bill. This guide covers what you actually need to set up on your own — the licensing stack, the gear, how to price install versus service work, and how to build the recurring work that carries you through the off-season.
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Decide which HVAC business you're building
The gap between a residential split-system installer and a commercial mechanical services contractor is enormous — different gear, different clients, different cash flow, different insurance. Pick one to start with and let the second one come later.
- Residential splits — high volume, fast turnaround, price-sensitive, and heavily seasonal. Easiest to start solo.
- Ducted residential — bigger tickets, longer jobs, more design involved, and roof-space work that needs planning.
- Service and maintenance — cleans, gas checks, fault finding, filter changes. Lower ticket, but the most reliable revenue in the trade.
- Light commercial — shops, offices and cafés. Contracts, response times, and equipment you're expected to keep running.
- Refrigeration — coolrooms and commercial refrigeration. Adjacent trade, different skills, different failure consequences.
Almost every HVAC business that survives past the first few years does it by pairing installation with maintenance. Installation pays well in summer; maintenance is what makes July survivable.
The licensing stack
HVAC is unusual in that you need permissions from more than one direction. Refrigerant is regulated nationally, electrical connection is regulated by your state, and any plumbing or building work you touch has its own rules again. The refrigerant side is the one people underestimate, because it's two separate authorisations, not one.
- Refrigerant Handling Licence (RHL) — a technician-level permit held by the person doing the work. It covers installing, commissioning, servicing, decommissioning and decanting. Handling fluorocarbon refrigerant without one is an offence.
- Refrigerant Trading Authorisation (RTA) — a business-level permit that lets the business acquire, possess and dispose of refrigerant. Your personal licence does not let your business buy gas. Both come from the Australian Refrigeration Council under the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Regulations, and wholesalers will ask for the RTA number before they sell you anything.
- Electrical work — connecting and disconnecting equipment is electrical work. Depending on your state and the job, that means a restricted electrical licence, a full licence, or a sparky you work with. Sort this before you quote installs.
- Business registration — ABN and business name, plus any contractor licensing your state requires for the class of work you're doing.
- Standards and codes — installation work has to meet the relevant Australian Standards, and equipment has to be installed to the manufacturer's specification if you want the warranty to hold.
Warranty is a business issue, not just a technical one. Manufacturers back their equipment only when it's installed by someone appropriately licensed and to their spec — and when it isn't, the rectification cost lands on you. Get your supplier to spell out their warranty conditions in writing before you start selling their gear.
What you'll be spending money on
HVAC has one of the heavier tool bills in the trades, because most of the diagnostic kit has no cheap substitute. Price these categories against your own situation rather than trusting a headline number.
| Category | What sits in it |
|---|---|
| Licensing and authorisations | Refrigerant handling licence, refrigerant trading authorisation, electrical licensing, ABN and business name |
| Vehicle | Van or ute with enough load capacity for indoor and outdoor units, plus fit-out and signage |
| Refrigeration gear | Gauges, vacuum pump, recovery machine and cylinders, scales, leak detector, brazing kit, nitrogen and regulator |
| Test equipment | Multimeter, clamp meter, thermometers, manometer, anemometer |
| Access equipment | Ladders, platforms, roof anchors or harness gear for high work |
| Consumables and stock | Copper, insulation, brackets, drain line, refrigerant, ducting and fittings |
| Insurance | Public liability, tools, contract works, income protection |
| Software and phone | Job management, accounting, mobile plan |
| Working capital | Equipment floats and living costs until the first invoices are paid |
The line that hurts most is equipment float. On installs you buy the unit before the customer pays for it, and a busy fortnight can have several thousand dollars of someone else's air conditioners sitting in your van. Either take a deposit that covers equipment, or open a supplier account with terms that outlast your invoice cycle. Preferably both.
Plan for the season before it plans for you
Seasonality is the defining financial fact of an HVAC business. The first hot week of summer is when everyone rings at once and the last cold week of winter is when nobody does — and a business that spends its summer money as it arrives will not make it to the following November.
- Work out your quiet-month number. Add up what the business costs to run in a month with no installs — vehicle, insurance, software, phone, your own wage. That's the number you have to be able to cover from savings.
- Put summer money aside on purpose. Move a fixed share of every peak-season invoice into a separate account the day it lands, and treat it as spent. This is the single most useful cash-flow habit in the trade.
- Build a maintenance base. Every install is a future service. Offer a service at the end of the first season and put it in the diary before you leave — recurring maintenance is what fills autumn and spring.
- Sell heating in the cold months. Reverse-cycle systems heat as well as cool, and most customers never think about it. A winter campaign to your own install list is cheaper than chasing new leads.
- Use the quiet weeks. Off-season is when you do the licensing renewals, the supplier negotiations, the website, and the pricing review. If you leave them for summer they won't happen.
Pricing installs and service differently
Installation and service are priced on different logic and mixing them up is a quiet way to lose money. An install is a fixed-price job with equipment cost, labour and a margin on both. A service call is time-based with a minimum, because the drive is most of the cost.
- Build your charge-out rate from your own overheads and genuinely billable hours — travel, quoting, supplier runs and warranty callbacks all come out before you bill an hour.
- Set a minimum service charge that covers travel and diagnosis whether or not the job proceeds.
- Quote installs with the hard parts itemised — roof access, long pipe runs, core drilling, electrical upgrades, crane or lift hire. That's where the profit disappears.
- Price warranty labour into your install margin. Manufacturers cover the part; your time going back is usually yours to wear.
- Decide your equipment margin and hold it. Competing on the price of the unit is a race you can't win against a big retailer.
Our guide to working out your charge-out rate covers the calculation, and quoting split-system installs covers what to itemise on the job itself.
Insurance, records and the systems you'll need on day one
HVAC generates paperwork that has to survive for years — refrigerant records, commissioning data, warranty registrations and service history. Set up somewhere for it to live before you have any, because reconstructing it later is impossible.
- Public liability, tools, contract works and income protection as your baseline cover, plus workers compensation the moment you employ anyone. Requirements vary by state — check with your state authority.
- Refrigerant records — what you bought, what went into which system, what you recovered. Keep it as you go, not at the end of the year.
- Commissioning data and photos on every install. When someone claims the system was never right, this is the evidence.
- Service history per system, not per customer. Equipment outlives tenancies and owners, and the history is what makes you the obvious person to call.
- Warranty registrations lodged on the day of install, while you still have the serial numbers in front of you.
ServiceYak keeps the whole job on one record — the quote built from your saved rates, the photos and commissioning notes from the install, the equipment details, and the invoice that follows from the accepted quote. When the same system needs a service two summers later, the history is already there.
Frequently asked questions
What licences do I need to start an HVAC business in Australia?
Two separate refrigerant permits, both from the Australian Refrigeration Council: a Refrigerant Handling Licence for the technician doing the work, and a Refrigerant Trading Authorisation for the business, which is what lets you buy, hold and dispose of refrigerant. Holding the personal licence does not let your business buy gas. On top of that you need the right electrical authorisation for connecting equipment in your state, plus an ABN and business name.
Can I install air conditioners without an electrical licence?
Connecting and disconnecting equipment is electrical work, so it depends on your state and the specific job. Many HVAC techs hold a restricted electrical licence for this; others work alongside a licensed electrician. Sort out which applies to you before you start quoting installations.
How do I survive the HVAC off-season?
Work out what the business costs to run in a month with no installs, then move a fixed share of every summer invoice into a separate account the day it lands. Build a maintenance base off your own install list, and sell heating to those same customers in winter. The businesses that struggle are the ones that spend peak-season cash as it arrives.
Should I supply the equipment or let the customer buy it?
Supply it. The margin on the unit is a real part of your income, and when you supply it you control the brand, the warranty conditions and the install quality. Customer-supplied equipment leaves you carrying the blame for someone else's purchasing decision with none of the margin.