About us

Marcus Reilly

EPA 608 Universal, NATE-certified, 14 years HVAC

Marcus is a residential and light-commercial HVAC service technician based in the Midwest. He holds EPA Section 608 Universal certification, which is the federal credential required to handle refrigerant on any equipment type from window units through high-pressure commercial chillers, earned by passing the proctored Core exam plus all three Type I, II, and III specialty exams under 40 CFR Part 82 Subpart F. He is also NATE-certified in air conditioning and heat pump service, the Traditional Pathway track that requires the Core exam plus a 100-question specialty exam, with biennial recertification through 16 hours of continuing education.

Sam Ortiz

HVAC installer, ACCA Manual J trained, 9 years field work

Sam is an HVAC installer working in the southwest US. He has put in roughly 800 residential systems across nine years on the truck, mostly heat pumps and split-system air conditioners on retrofit jobs, plus a meaningful share of new construction in production homes. He completed ACCA's Residential HVAC Design certificate program, which covers Manual J Eighth Edition load calculations, Manual S equipment selection, and Manual D duct sizing across the three-day in-person course taught by ACCA instructors.

Dana Okafor

HVAC contractor & estimator, ACCA member, 11 years

Dana owns a small residential HVAC contracting business and has spent eleven years in the trade, the last seven running her own shop. The company writes between 250 and 400 replacement and new-system estimates a year across roughly 60 percent forced-air and 40 percent heat pump installs, with a growing share of mini-split conversions as homeowners electrify. She holds an ACCA contractor membership and stays current on the federal incentive landscape because half her sales conversations now involve heat-pump tax credits and state rebate programs that change quarterly.

Priya Natarajan

P.E. Mechanical, LEED AP, energy modeling consultant

Priya is a licensed Professional Engineer in mechanical engineering, which under most state engineering boards requires an ABET-accredited four-year engineering degree, passing the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, four years of supervised engineering practice under another PE, and passing the discipline-specific Principles and Practice of Engineering exam. She also holds the LEED AP Building Design + Construction credential through GBCI, which adds continuing-education requirements (30 CE hours every two years, six of them LEED-specific) on top of the PE renewal cycle.

Tom Hendricks

Sheet metal journeyman, SMACNA, 18 years ductwork

Tom is a sheet metal journeyman who completed a four-year apprenticeship through a SMACNA-affiliated joint apprenticeship and training committee (JATC), the standard path that combines about 8,000 hours of on-the-job training under journeymen with classroom instruction in welding, layout, fabrication, drafting, and HVAC system installation. SMACNA represents over 3,500 contractor companies engaged in sheet metal and air conditioning construction across the United States and Canada, and the journeyman credential is the qualifying tier that lets a worker fabricate and install on commercial projects without supervision.

Luis Arroyo

EPA 608 Universal, RSES CMS, refrigeration specialist

Luis works as a refrigeration specialist on commercial and supermarket systems. He holds EPA Section 608 Universal certification (the federal credential required to service all refrigerant equipment classes under 40 CFR Part 82 Subpart F, earned by passing the proctored Core exam plus Type I, II, and III specialty exams) and the RSES Certificate Member Specialist credential in Commercial Refrigeration. The CMS designation from the Refrigeration Service Engineers Society requires first passing the 18-category Certificate Member exam, then passing the specialty exam in commercial refrigeration, and maintaining 90 continuing-education hours every five years through RSES-approved courses.

Jen Whitaker

Master electrician, NATE-certified, HVAC electrical

Jen is a master electrician focused on HVAC branch circuits, motor starting circuits, and equipment control wiring on light-commercial jobs. The master credential is the top tier of state electrician licensing, requiring seven to ten years of documented field experience as a journeyman (the exact threshold varies by state, with Delaware requiring six years or 8,000 hours, New York City requiring 10,500 hours, and most other states landing in between) plus passing the master examination on NEC code, electrical theory, complex system design, and load calculations. The license is what lets her pull electrical permits, supervise other electricians on a project, and sign off on inspector-grade work.