Lone Star College System HVAC (Certificate): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Certificate in Heating, Air Conditioning, Ventilation and Refrigeration Maintenance Technology/Technician (HAC, HACR, HVAC, HVACR)
- Public college
- The Woodlands, TX
- About 203 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Lone Star College System HVAC graduates earn less than graduates of most HVAC programs nationally, $32,070 in their first year. Where this program stands out is debt. The typical graduate leaves with $5,500 in federal loans, less than at 95% of HVAC programs in the country. It is one of the higher-paying HVAC programs in Texas.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Texas and national columns are the medians across all HVAC certificate programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Lone Star College System graduates earn more than the national figure and about $22,995 more than the Texas median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Texas HVAC program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Texas medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
What graduates earn over time
Pay rises about 71% between the first and fifth year. Heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers in Texas earn a median of $57,760 across all experience levels, which shows how much room there is to grow after the first few years.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate. BLS figures cover heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers at every experience level.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $58 a month, or 2.2% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
Prices in the Houston area are about 1% below the national average, so a $32,070 salary here buys what about $32,516 buys in a typical US city.
The median Texas HVAC technician earns $57,760, compared with a national median of $61,010. After adjusting for Texas prices, that pay is worth about $59,511, which puts Texas slightly behind.
Careers this field leads to
These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to HVAC, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers
$57,760Median pay in Texas. 34,730 people work in this job in Texas. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 11% from 2025 to 2035, with about 40,600 openings a year. Typical education to start: postsecondary nondegree award.
About Lone Star College System
HVAC ranks 9th of 11 certificate programs at Lone Star College System by first-year earnings. The top three are Diagnostic and Treatment Professions ($69,820), Practical Nursing ($51,028), and Industrial Technology ($43,602).
Other HVAC certificate programs near The Woodlands
Common questions
The median graduate earns $32,070 one year after graduating and $54,727 five years after. Heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers in the Houston metro area earn a median of $58,940 across all experience levels.
The median federal loan balance is $5,500, which ranks the lowest of 5 HVAC certificate programs in Texas. That works out to about $58 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 17% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 29%.
About this data
- Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid (grants or loans).
- Earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school. Graduates who went straight to further study are not included.
- Debt only includes federal loans. Private loans and credit cards are not counted.
- Some schools with several campuses report one combined figure for all of them. We count each of those schools once, and leave them out of Texas comparisons when their main campus is in another state.
- Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.
- School-level numbers like tuition, admission rate, and graduation rate are for the whole school, not the HVAC program.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field of study and institution files, June 2026 release
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025 to 2035
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024
- NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024