hey you're up late BD! Nothin better to do here this AM, raining like H---! My own personnel take is that it might be a good tool eventually for contractors like you to help determine if a guy is worth hiring. If the guy can't pass a NATE test than maybe all he can do is well,,,, urinate! As for customers, its kind of like Mr Goodwrench. But they haven't pushed an advertising campaign for our trade yet. If one of your vans broke down on the road all you're concerned about is getting in back up and running and back out where its making the company money again right? Do you care who does the work? I think the same would go for someone faced with a heating or cooling dilema when its 110 degrees or minus 10. Nate who?!!! I live in NH and for the heating and cooling profession no license is required so any bimbo can try to make a living in the trade. So a NATE up here would purge the trade of most of the ones who should give it up. But when I lived in CT they had several different journeyman licenses with limitations, plus just burner licenses and probably some others I just didn't care to persue. You also needed documented proof of X amount of time in the trade to test for a particular license or to test up to the next level. Only a fool of a contractor would send an unlicensed tech out alone. The fines are pretty steep and you have to show your license to anyone who asks and some bldg. inspectors are just downright jerks about it. So my point being what good is a NATE certification in a state like that? Its our answer to Mr Goodwrench.