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HVAC SCHOOLS IN FLORIDA — Federal Data, September 2026

HVAC Schools in Florida, Ranked On What Graduates Owe And Earn

4 accredited institutions in Florida report enough federal data on this program to be compared. They are ranked here on a single measure: how many months of gross pay it takes a graduate to cover the median debt.

See The Ranking

U.S. Department of Education data. No school paid to be listed.


Across the 4 ranked programs in Florida, the median graduate needs 4.2 months of gross pay to cover a median federal debt of $12,125, against median earnings of $31,997 one year after completion.

That is slower than the national median of 3.9 months for this field, measured across the 191 institutions in our national HVAC schools ranking. The best performer in the state is Florida Education Institute in Miami, at 3.6 months.

Every figure on this page is recalculated on Florida institutions only. Nothing is carried over from the national page.

At A Glance

What the federal data says about HVAC schools in Florida

4.2 mo
state median to cover the debt
$12,125
median debt at completion
$31,997
median earnings, one year out
58%
median completion rate

The Ranking

4 HVAC schools in Florida, ranked by months of gross pay to cover the debt

Lower is better.

#SchoolTypeAwardMonthsDebtEarningsCompletion
1Florida Education InstituteMiami, FLfor-profitCertificate3.6$9,500$31,24774%
2Southern Technical CollegeOrlando, FLfor-profitCertificate4.2$11,250$31,99063%
3Fortis Institute-Port Saint LuciePort Saint Lucie, FLfor-profitCertificate4.3$13,000$36,48553%
4Fortis Institute-PensacolaPensacola, FLfor-profitCertificate4.9$13,000$32,00454%

Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, Most Recent Cohorts by Field of Study and by Institution (published 9 June 2026). Debt is the median federal Stafford and Grad PLUS loan debt of completers in this program; earnings are median earnings one year after completion. Where a school offers the program at both certificate and associate level, the shorter payback is shown. Completion is the institution’s published rate, not the program’s.

The Top Five, In Detail

The five fastest payback programs in Florida, one by one

Florida Education Institute

Miami, FL

Florida Education Institute is a private for-profit institution in Miami. Its HVAC graduates leave with a median federal debt of $9,500 and report median earnings of $31,247 a year after completing, so the debt is covered by 3.6 months of gross pay: the fastest payback in the state, and 0.6 months faster than the Florida state median of 4.2. The award measured here is a certificate. The institution reports a 74% completion rate.

Southern Technical College

Orlando, FL

Southern Technical College is a private for-profit institution in Orlando. Its HVAC graduates leave with a median federal debt of $11,250 and report median earnings of $31,990 a year after completing, so the debt is covered by 4.2 months of gross pay: the second fastest in the state, and right on the Florida state median of 4.2. The award measured here is a certificate. The institution reports a 63% completion rate.

Fortis Institute-Port Saint Lucie

Port Saint Lucie, FL

Fortis Institute-Port Saint Lucie is a private for-profit institution in Port Saint Lucie. Its HVAC graduates leave with a median federal debt of $13,000 and report median earnings of $36,485 a year after completing, so the debt is covered by 4.3 months of gross pay: the third fastest in the state, and right on the Florida state median of 4.2. The award measured here is a certificate. The institution reports a 53% completion rate.

Fortis Institute-Pensacola

Pensacola, FL

Fortis Institute-Pensacola is a private for-profit institution in Pensacola. Its HVAC graduates leave with a median federal debt of $13,000 and report median earnings of $32,004 a year after completing, so the debt is covered by 4.9 months of gross pay: fourth in the state, and 0.7 months slower than the Florida state median of 4.2. The award measured here is a certificate. The institution reports a 54% completion rate.

Read It Carefully

What this ranking does not measure

With only 4 institutions publishable here, this page is a short list by construction. It is not a directory of every school in Florida: many programs, especially at institutions that do not take federal student aid, never appear in this data at all.

Absence from this page is not a verdict. The Department of Education suppresses figures for programs with small cohorts, so a small, excellent school will often have no publishable data at all. Schools that enroll no students on federal aid are outside this dataset entirely.

The measure is a ratio, not a repayment plan, and it counts federal loan debt only. Cash payments, private loans and employer sponsorship are invisible here. Local wages shape earnings as much as the school does, which is exactly why comparing inside one state, as this page does, is more informative than comparing across the country.

For FLORIDA School Operators

Want to know how your program ranks against these?

We run this analysis for individual schools against their own federal data and show them where they sit against both the Florida median and the national one. Where the answer is good, it is the strongest recruitment argument a school owns.

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