// Editorial

Editorial standards

Our guides are read by homeowners making five-figure equipment decisions under time pressure. This page documents the rules we write to, the sources we accept, and the things we will not publish.

⚡ Key points
  • Every guide is written by a licensed HVAC pro or a credentialed editor
  • Fact-checked by a NATE-certified master technician before publication
  • Primary sources only — EPA, DOE, manufacturer spec sheets, ACCA standards
  • No manufacturer-sponsored content. No pay-to-play rankings.
  • Corrections are published on-page with timestamps

01Who writes

Editorial content on nationalacsolutions.com is produced by one of three author types:

Credentialed staff editorswith HVAC certifications (NATE Core or higher) and at least three years of HVAC-industry writing experience.
Contributing licensed contractors— field pros who hold current state licensure and EPA 608 certification, writing in their area of direct expertise.
Contributing subject-matter expertsin adjacent disciplines (building science, indoor air quality, residential electrical) who are commissioned for specific technical segments.

Marketing staff, business-development staff, and contractor-network operations staff do not write or approve editorial. Contractors in our referral network do not write editorial covering their own market or specialty. These firewalls are in the standing editorial policy and are enforced by the Senior HVAC Editor, Jordan Reeves.

02Who fact-checks

Every guide goes through a two-pass review before publication:

  1. Editorial pass — a staff editor who did not write the piece reviews for clarity, structure, and obvious errors. This pass is primarily stylistic and is not considered a fact-check.
  2. Technical fact-check — a NATE-certified master technician reviews every technical claim in the piece and checks it against primary sources. Our senior fact-checker is Terrence Ahmad, a 22-year residential and light-commercial HVAC contractor with NATE Senior Level certification and EPA 608 Universal.

A piece that has not cleared the technical fact-check does not publish, regardless of editorial calendar pressure. If Terrence flags a claim that cannot be substantiated within the publish window, the claim is cut, the publish is delayed, or the piece is returned to the author — in that order of preference.

03Source requirements

We are strict about sourcing because most HVAC content on the open internet is not. The acceptable source hierarchy is:

Federal regulatory bodiesU.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of Labor (for workforce statistics).
Standards bodies — ACCA (Air Conditioning Contractors of America), ASHRAE, AHRI (Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute), RESNET, and the International Code Council.
Manufacturer spec sheets and installation manuals — used as the authoritative source for equipment-specific claims (SEER2 ratings, refrigerant charge, operating ranges).
Peer-reviewed building-science literature — where load calculations, duct design, or IAQ claims are involved.
State contractor licensing boards — for anything related to licensing requirements, continuing-education rules, or disciplinary records.

Sources we do not accept as authoritative: contractor marketing pages, manufacturer press releases (as distinct from spec sheets), affiliate-review sites, generic “Top 10 best X” blog posts, and LLM-generated summaries of any of the above.

04What we do not publish

Manufacturer-sponsored contentWe do not accept payment, in cash or in kind, from HVAC equipment manufacturers in exchange for coverage, placement, or editorial framing. We do not run “brand spotlights,” “sponsored reviews,” or advertorials.
Pay-to-play rankingsNo contractor, manufacturer, distributor, or utility pays to appear higher in any ranked list we publish. The word “best” in a headline is an editorial determination.
AI-generated technical claimsWe use large language models internally for outline drafting and copy-editing. We do not use them as a source of factual claims. Every number, model number, SEER2 figure, and regulatory citation in a published guide is verified against a primary source by a human.
Scare-tactic framingWe will not publish a guide whose main rhetorical move is to frighten the homeowner into a purchase. HVAC decisions are expensive enough; the copy does not need to help.

05Affiliate and commercial relationships

National AC Solutions earns revenue from contractor referral fees (see About). We disclose this business model on every page of the site. A small number of guides include outbound links to third-party tools (for example, a load-calculation calculator or a utility-rebate finder). We do not currently run affiliate monetization on those links. If we ever do, the link will carry an explicit rel="sponsored" attribute and an on-page disclosure. The disclosure standard is non-negotiable.

06Correction policy

We correct errors on-page, not by silent revision. When a published guide is updated to correct a substantive claim, the correction is:

  • Logged in a visible correction notice at the bottom of the page
  • Timestamped with the original publish date, the correction date, and the nature of the change
  • Signed by the editor who authorized the correction

Routine copy-edits (typo fixes, broken link repair, minor clarifications) do not require a correction notice, but substantive corrections — a wrong spec, a misattributed source, a regulatory claim that turned out to be out of date — always do. If you spot an error, email editorial@nationalacsolutions.com. Corrections are reviewed within five business days.

07Reader complaints

We take complaints about editorial content separately from complaints about a contractor match. Both have a channel; they do not share one. Editorial complaints go to the editorial inbox and are reviewed by the Senior HVAC Editor. Contractor match complaints go to our operations team and are reviewed as part of the vetting process described in How We Vet Contractors.

08What this policy does not cover

This page covers editorial content we publish. It does not cover contractor-generated content (which we do not host), user-generated reviews (which we do not publish), or advertising content on other sites that links to ours (which we do not write).

If you see something on another website attributed to National AC Solutions that you believe is not accurate or not ours, let us know. We periodically request takedowns of scraped or misattributed content, but we can only act on what we find out about.

// FAQ

More questions.

Do contractors in your network write these guides?+

No. Contractors in our referral network do not write or approve editorial. Contributing licensed contractors who write guides are separate from the referral network and do not receive matches in the markets they cover in editorial.

Do you use AI to write articles?+

We use large language models as internal tools for outlining and copy-editing. We do not use them as a source of factual claims. Every technical number, model number, and regulatory citation is verified by a human against a primary source.

How do I report an error in a guide?+

Email editorial@nationalacsolutions.com with the page URL and the specific claim you believe is incorrect. Corrections are reviewed within five business days and, if substantiated, published as an on-page correction notice.

Do you accept guest posts or sponsored articles?+

We accept contributed articles from credentialed subject-matter experts on a non-paid basis. We do not accept sponsored articles, paid placements, or manufacturer-funded content under any framing.

Questions or need to talk?

Free · Licensed contractors · No obligation

☎ Call 1-877-877-6723