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You are here: Home › Careers › New Zealand Careers › Careers Descriptions › Mechanical Engineering, Machinery and Equipment Manufacturing Careers › Refrigeration/Air-conditioning Design Engineer

Refrigeration/Air-conditioning Design Engineer

Refrigeration design engineers design refrigeration systems for making frozen foods such as ice cream, or chilling products such as fruit, flowers, meat and dairy foods. Air-conditioning design engineers design air-conditioning systems for commercial and industrial buildings, private homes and cars.

 

Tasks & duties

Refrigeration/air-conditioning design engineers may do some or all of the following:

  • discuss specifications for refrigeration or air-conditioning systems with clients
  • visit sites of proposed systems with clients and analyse their requirements
  • recommend design improvements for existing systems
  • design new systems using computer-aided design (CAD) software and draughting equipment
  • calculate costs of constructing systems or repairing and/or modifying existing systems
  • contract the construction and installation work to refrigeration and/or air-conditioning installation companies
  • oversee work of contractors who build and install systems
  • check that finished systems comply with the design
  • organise testing and balancing of systems once they are installed
  • liaise with architects, contractors and other professionals
  • write reports and operation manuals

 

Skills & knowledge

Refrigeration/air-conditioning design engineers need to have:

  • analytical skills to assess the advantages of different refrigeration and air-conditioning systems and select the best system for different buildings and climates
  • understanding of thermodynamics (the effects of heat on materials), including heat and mass transfer
  • excellent communication and people skills to enable them to work with clients and come up with design solutions
  • CAD (computer-aided design) skills
  • the ability to give and follow instructions clearly
  • problem-solving skills
  • organisational skills to manage projects efficiently
  • good report writing skills

 

Entry requirements

To become a refrigeration/air-conditioning design engineer an engineering degree in mechanical engineering is needed. Students usually add refrigeration and air-conditioning papers to this degree and specialise in one of these fields.

 

Secondary education

A tertiary entrance qualification is required to enter a mechanical engineering degree. Useful subjects include Bursary or NCEA equivalent English, maths, physics and chemistry.

 

Training on the job

Refrigeration/air-conditioning design engineers often start as interns on graduate programmes and receive training on the job. They also attend seminars and workshops to learn about new products.

 

Useful experience

Engineering workshop or assembly experience is useful, and can be learned through tertiary training. Experience working in a team or organising people and projects is also useful.

 

Related courses

Mechanical Engineering
Refrigeration, Heating and Air Conditioning

 

For more information, please refer to Career Services.

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