• NATE Announces 2006 Certified Technician Competition Finalists

    March 1, 2006
    North American Technician Excellence (NATE) will sponsor the seventh annual Certified Technician Competition at Comfortech 2006 in Baltimore, MD, September

    North American Technician Excellence (NATE) will sponsor the seventh annual Certified Technician Competition at Comfortech 2006 in Baltimore, MD, September 17-18. Seven HVAC Technicians will compete for the title of Top Tech 2006 as they diagnose and solve residential heating and cooling problems on equipment and simulators in the exhibits area.
    The 2006 finalists were selected from thousands of HVAC technicians who took the NATE exam in 2005. Semi-finalists are technicians who took the NATE test in CY 2005 and scored exceptionally well. Over 200 semi-finalists identified. From these, seven regional high-scorers were chosen as finalists to compete in Baltimore at NATE’s Certified Technician Competition 2006.
    The 2006 NATE Top Tech finalists are: Walter Mellott, Comfort Master Heating, Nicholasville, KY; Steven Robison, REC, Tucson, AZ; Jack Cypher, University of Alaska, Palmer, AK; William Jeffries, Comfort Designs Heating Cooling, Springhill, KS; Ronald Rego, Friscine Mullin Inc., Toledo, OH; Skip Egner, Service Experts, Fort Myers, FL; and Charles Russo, Chuck Russo Heating A/C, Castleton, NY.
    Corporate sponsors of the Certified Technician Competition are Service Experts and Lennox Industries, and co-sponsors are Penton Media and NATE. Eastern Heating and Cooling Council (NJ) and HVACChannel.tv will recognize the winner with additional awards.
    CTC contestants compete in timed events to diagnose problems. Each contestant has a maximum of twenty minutes to correctly diagnose a problem on a simulator or a unit with a built-in problem. The contestant with the most correct answers wins the Top Tech title. In the event of a tie, the technician with the fastest time wins.
    Besides competing for the title and trophy, finalists will receive free air fare and accommodations for themselves, as well as free registration for Comfortech.
    The Comfortech Competition was founded by NATE in 2000 and was created to showcase the knowledge and proficiency required to work on today’s highly sophisticated and complex heating and cooling systems. These competitors epitomize the statement “NATE-certified technicians know heating and cooling.”