An engineer-led mechanical contractor.
Summit is a residential HVAC contractor in Denver that does things the way a small commercial engineer would do them, load calcs, documented commissioning, published scope, honest sizing.
Because residential HVAC is mostly winging it.
Summit was founded in 2018 by Dan Rhee after a decade as a mechanical engineer on commercial projects. Dan had been replacing residential HVAC for family and friends on weekends and watched, over and over, contractors quote rule-of-thumb tonnage from the doorstep. A house that needs 2.5 tons of cooling gets a 4-ton unit because that's what the truck had and because the contractor gets paid by the job not by the correctness.
The result: oversized systems, poor humidity control, short cycling, $400 utility bills, and a whole industry quietly accepting it because nobody demanded otherwise. Summit exists to demand otherwise.
How we're different.
Manual J on every install.
No estimate leaves our office without a room-by-room heat-load calculation per ACCA Manual J. It takes us 2–3 hours of engineering time per home. Most contractors won't do it because they're not billed for engineering hours. We are.
Published scope.
The estimate shows you the math. Equipment model numbers, install hours, permit fees, post-install commissioning, and warranty terms, all itemized. You can send it to another contractor for apples-to-apples bidding. Nobody else in Denver residential HVAC does this and we're fine being strange.
Commissioning documentation.
After install, we measure and record: actual refrigerant charge, supply/return temperature split, static pressure, CFM per room, combustion efficiency on gas appliances. You get the sheet. It's how we (and you) prove the system works as designed.
02 / The teamEngineers, technicians, and a foreman who cares.
Summit has six full-time employees: two installers, two service techs, one estimator/engineer (Dan), and a foreman who runs install days and commissioning. All on payroll, all W-2, all drug-tested, all through our apprentice program. We haven't subcontracted an install since 2020.
03 / Certifications & complianceLicenses, certifications, what they mean.
- Colorado MP-2215, Master plumber/mechanical license, primary compliance authority for state-level inspections.
- NATE certified, Every technician passes the North American Technician Excellence exam. Industry's most rigorous HVAC certification.
- EPA 608 Type II, Required to handle refrigerant. Every tech on our truck carries it.
- IRA 25C registered, We file the paperwork for your federal heat-pump tax credit. Most clients get $1,500–$2,000 back.
- Xcel rebate partner, Pre-qualified to submit Xcel Energy's rebate applications. We do it for you, not for extra fee.
- Licensed + bonded + insured, $2M commercial general liability, $2M workers' comp. Documentation available on request.
Denver metro only.
We service the Denver metro area, roughly bounded by Broomfield to the north, Highlands Ranch to the south, Golden to the west, Aurora to the east. Outside that, we'll refer you to one of three partner contractors we trust. The reason we stay small geographically is the reason we stay good technically.
Want to work with a contractor that shows the math?
Free estimate on any qualifying residential project. 4 business days to schedule, in most weeks.