What are all these certifications about? Read on to learn about NATE, NCI and EPA certifications. I'll also throw in some comments about licensing, bonding and the Better Business Bureau.

Unfortunately the single most important thing you need to know about a contractor can't vouched for by means of a written test or consumer group. The character of the company and their tradesman matters more than anything else. It's a fact that the biggest crooks out there use the acronyms discussed on this page as cover for their severe lack of character.

To discover my company's character read this site and give me a call. Just as you get to know someone through conversation, so too will you get to know my company by reading what I've written here and talking to me on the phone.

NATE Certification

From NATE's website:
"North American Technician Excellence, Inc. (NATE) is the leading certification program for technicians in the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC/R) industry and is the only test supported by the entire industry."

NATE provides third party verification that a tradesman has a good understanding of the fundamentals, with the emphasis being on the word "fundamental". I've heard off the record that the test is designed to ensure that a technician knows 80% of the knowledge that he needs 80% of the time. That may or may not be true. And such a standard may or may not sound good to you. But even if it doesn't, know that the failure rate amongst those that take the test is alarmingly high. As such I believe that it is indeed a somewhat valid (though incomplete) way of separating the hacker from the professional. In one respect it can be compared to ASE certification for the auto industry. But unlike ASE certification, the heating and air conditioning trade has no mandatory competency testing. NATE certification is purely voluntary.

As for me, I was certified but have allowed that certification to expire. It's mostly a question of time. Running up to Sacramento to take a long test hasn't been a priority. Plus this site demonstrates my ability my better than NATE can.

NCI Certification

One of the great weaknesses of the HVAC trade is the widespread lack of knowledge concerning proper duct design and airflow. One would think that ducts and airflow are fundamental to the trade. Yet most trade schools teach their students how to fix the box (your heater or AC) and pay only cursory attention to the ducts. In reality the duct system is more important to system performance than most customers and even some technicians realize. When you consider that various industries use multi-million dollar wind tunnels and supercomputers to study air, it makes the typical service man's hand to the vent followed by an "It's fine." look inadequate. It may very well be fine. But feeling the air coming out of a vent with a hand hardly qualifies as measured diagnostics.

The National Comfort Institute helps to fill that void with advanced performance training in several areas including air balancing. Technicians who have been in the trade for decades have gone through their training and have had revelations about things they never knew. Though it's not as comprehensive, NCI certification is one of the few and possibly only widely recognized alternatives to the NEEB and AABC certification. The NEEB, AABC and TABB are almost exclusively focused on the commercial market.

Unfortunately, as is the case with much of this trade the very good knowledge they impart is coupled with a lot of good time rock-'n-roll marketing. Few contractors seem willing or able to separate the good knowledge they provide from the marketing they fabricate. My last recertification was especially bad. The class teacher was almost flippant when talking about homeowners. As such I haven't been back to recertify again.

EPA Certification

Unlike NATE and NCI certifications, EPA certification does not focus on measuring a technician's skill in the trade. The EPA's primary concern when it comes to HVAC is the environment. It is theorized that the chlorine found in Type I and Type II refrigerants can damage the ozone. The following is a simplified summary of what HVAC tradesmen are required to do about it: Don't purposely vent refrigerant to the atmosphere. By law anyone (contractor or not) who works on the refrigerant circuit of any type of HVAC equipment must be EPA certified.

Licensing

A contractors license is in part obtained in the same way as the above certifications: You pass a test. The test given by the State of California to become a contractor is a purely academic affair. There is no practical testing. What's worse is that it's multiple choice. And as you might guess there's a cottage industry devoted to providing license applicants with the equivalent of Cliff's Notes for the test. In addition one must realize that in most cases only the owner of the company has taken the test. Once he or she passes the test it's left to their judgment to find qualified (or not) people to represent their license.

It's not my intent to paint an overly negative picture regarding licensing. Licensing serves a purpose. However, at the same time you should realize that none of the credentials talked about on this page are by themselves enough to determine the quality of a contractor. I don't want you to make the age old mistake of being content with only checking a contractor's license and insurance. Some of the biggest hacks in town are licensed and insured.

Bonding

To many bonding has come to represent something more than it really is. They believe that being bonded means that a background check or something along those lines was performed. In California a bond is nothing more than a limited form of insurance like protection. That protection covers damages incurred from specific violations of Contractors' State License Law. I'm no lawyer, but it would appear that if you can't prove that your damages were incurred through specific violations of the CSLL then you're out of luck. Since most damages are likely to be linked to code violation, that's not too big a deal.

What is a big deal is that most contractors carry only the minimum bond required in California of $12,500. That money covers all jobs a contractor performs, not just yours. Should a contractor perform a series of botched HVAC jobs and then disappear, it's likely that only one to a few of his customers will be covered. It's first come, first served. If multiple claimants file at the same time then they'll receive partial/proportional payments. Once the bond company pays the money out then anyone else with a claim will have to hunt their former contractor down or just eat it. See for yourself.

That may seem like a far fetched scenario, but it happens more often than you think. It's quite easy for a contractor in this trade to perform dozens of bad installs before it finally catches up with him and he disappears. It's likely that that scenario played out with this contractor.

One might assume that a contractor's liability insurance would fill the void left by a bond. However, liability insurance is optional in California. And even if the contractor does have insurance, a typical insurance policy pays only for property damage and bodily injury. The botched job linked in the paragraph above resulted in neither.

Better Business Bureau

The Better Business Bureau provides a useful service. Checking a company's BBB record can save you the costly mistake of dealing with an incompetent contractor.

However, as is my iconoclastic habit I've got to point out that the BBB is only one small piece of the puzzle. The BBB does not publish verification of insurance, licensing either with the CSLB or the city, bonding or anything else that you could describe as official. In my experience the BBB's primary role is that of a central repository for complaints. The BBB does perform a limited investigation of its active business members, but it's very limited. One could argue that they face a conflict of interest in that their primary source of funding comes from the member businesses that they're supposed to be keeping tabs on.

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