The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Clean Energy’s "Warm Advantage" program has announced that starting in July, technicians who take and pass the NATE-certification Gas Heating test will be reimbursed upon completion of that certification. The state of New Jersey will work through the Eastern Heating and Cooling Council to identify qualifying technicians and give each one who has earned NATE certification in Gas Heating a rebate of $100.

For the last three years, New Jersey technicians who have taken and passed the NATE air conditioning or heat pump certification and thus earned NATE certification have been awarded a grant of $100 from New Jersey. In a similar program, any technician earning Gas Heating certification (starting in July 2004) will be awarded $100.

Randy Boston, head of training for the Eastern Heating and Cooling Council said, "NATE is the industry-backed certification. This initiative sweetens the pot and makes it financially attractive for many technicians to do what they want to do - earn NATE certification. Many manufacturers offer special "preferred provider" incentive programs to contractors who have NATE-certified technicians, and that coupled with New Jersey’s "Warm Advantage" program will give many of them one more reason to become NATE-certified." Employers of NATE certified technicians can list every city and zip code they serve (for free) on NATE’s Consumer-Contractor Connection business locator web page.

The NATE Gas Heating certification can be earned by those already NATE certified by simply taking and passing the Gas Heating test. Those who are not currently NATE-certified must pass both a NATE Core and a NATE Gas Heating specialty test. Currently there are over 19,000 NATE certified technicians nationwide in every state and seven international countries.

For more information about NATE, go to www.natex.org.