Meet the Rivic Heating & Air Conditioning Team

The Merrimack Valley rewards long tenure. A technician who has crawled the same 1908 Osgood Street cellar three winters running remembers which zone valve needs the extra 1/8-turn on the return isolation ball. That kind of knowledge does not transfer through paperwork. It transfers through crew stability. Rivic Heating and Air Conditioning runs a five-person operation on purpose — small enough that every technician sees every house at least once across a service cycle, large enough to keep two crews rolling during a January cold snap. Here is who answers when you call.

Andrew Samples — Founder & Master Refrigeration Technician

Andrew founded Rivic Heating and Air Conditioning in 2013 after eight years at Corbett & Hale Mechanical Services in Lawrence, a Trane and Weil-McLain dealer where he ran hydronic service and gas-piping installations. He holds Massachusetts Refrigeration Technician license #RT-24518 and EPA Section 608 Universal certification #608U-2007-192874, with NATE credentials in Air Conditioning Service, Gas Heating Service, and Hydronics Heating. ACCA Manual J, S, and D coursework completed in 2009 through the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA). BPI Building Analyst certification for Mass Save whole-home assessments.

Andrew handles complex diagnostics that require the combustion analyzer, borescope, and Wohler flue camera in the same visit — the kind of call where a competitor has already condemned the boiler and quoted five figures. He is the crew’s authority on ACCA Manual J load calc for pre-1930 balloon-frame construction, where whole-wall U-value estimates require site-specific insulation probes rather than published tables.

Marcus Devlin — Service Manager & Lead Technician

Marcus joined Rivic in 2015 with twelve years of prior residential and light-commercial HVAC experience at Danforth Heating Services in Haverhill, a small oil-and-gas contractor that specialized in older Bradford housing stock. He holds Massachusetts Refrigeration Technician license #RT-19842 and Massachusetts Journeyman Gas Fitter license #JGF-30521 — the latter matters because it lets Rivic pull gas-piping permits without subcontracting the low-pressure work.

Marcus was among the crews called in for Columbia Gas emergency relight and equipment recommissioning through the winter of 2018–19, working out of the Andover staging area during the coldest weeks of the response. That experience makes him the crew’s authority on post-2018 low-pressure system inspection under 527 CMR 5.00 as amended. His NATE credentials cover Air Distribution, Gas Heating Service, and Air Conditioning Installation. Marcus lives in Bradford, Haverhill, in a 1922 Craftsman he has been slowly restoring for twelve years — the same era of housing he services daily.

Ryan Sullivan — Senior HVAC Technician

Ryan holds Massachusetts Refrigeration Technician license #RT-27834 and EPA Section 608 Universal certification, with sixteen years in the trade — the last nine at Rivic and seven before that at Cranston Air of Chelmsford, a Carrier dealer. He is the crew’s authority on cold-climate heat pump selection and installation: Mitsubishi Hyper-Heat MSZ-FS multi-zone systems, Bosch IDS 2.0 inverter-driven splits, Carrier Infinity Extreme Heat, and Daikin Aurora. He handles almost every Mass Save Whole-Home Heat Pump rebate installation Rivic completes across the eight-city service area.

Ryan is Mitsubishi Electric Diamond-qualified and Mass Save Heat Pump Installer (HPI) certified, which lets homeowners access the rebate ceiling of $10,000 per home plus the Mass Save HEAT Loan (0% financing to $50,000 for seven years) without paperwork friction. He lives in the Kenwood section of Dracut and runs a shop-scale hydronic bench at home where he tests low-water cutoff behavior on rebuilt Weil-McLain and Peerless controls.

Diego Ramirez — HVAC Technician

Diego holds Massachusetts Refrigeration Technician license #RT-31908 and EPA Section 608 Universal certification. He graduated from Greater Lawrence Technical School’s HVAC program in 2015, apprenticed for two years at Merrimack Mechanical in South Lawrence, and joined Rivic in 2017. His NATE credentials cover Air Conditioning Service and Commercial Refrigeration.

Diego is bilingual in English and Spanish, which matters materially in a service area where 82% of Lawrence residents are Hispanic or Latino and roughly a third of Methuen households speak Spanish at home. He handles emergency response dispatch coverage on evenings and weekends and runs the majority of Rivic’s commercial rooftop unit maintenance contracts across the Route 213 and Route 114 corridors. Diego lives in Prospect Hill, Lawrence, a five-minute drive from the office.

Kathleen Brennan — Operations Manager & Dispatcher

Kathleen runs the office. She joined Rivic in 2020 after eighteen years in operations and permit-coordination work with two North Shore mechanical contractors, most recently as senior dispatcher at Bay State Refrigeration in Peabody. She handles permit filings with the Methuen Building Department, Lawrence Inspectional Services, Andover Building Department, Salem NH Building Division, and every other municipal authority in the service area — a workload that ranges from routine gas-appliance permits to full R-454B installation packages requiring cross-referenced load calcs, Manual S selection reports, and manufacturer AHRI matches.

Kathleen also runs the Mass Save rebate paperwork: Whole-Home Heat Pump rebate applications, HEAT Loan pre-qualification, and MassCEC clean-heat incentive filings. Every rebate dollar Rivic customers have collected since 2020 passed through her queue. She lives in central Methuen a mile from the office.

How We Hire

Every technician on the crew came in with a full Refrigeration Technician license and an established job history before Rivic. We do not run apprentice-heavy staffing. There are two reasons. First, ACCA Manual J load calcs on pre-1940 Merrimack Valley housing require judgment calls a first-year technician cannot make reliably — whole-wall U-value estimates for balloon-frame construction with no wall insulation and single-pane sash windows require site-specific probing, not table lookups. Second, post-2018 gas-piping work in the Lawrence-Andover-North Andover zone answers to a stricter inspection protocol under 527 CMR 5.00 as amended, and mistakes cost the customer their permit trail and the company its licensing standing.

Hiring runs through a hands-on evaluation, not a written test. A candidate spends a day on a rig with Marcus or Ryan. They diagnose an installed system with the crew’s tools — Yellow Jacket manifold, Fieldpiece Wireless Combustion Analyzer, Fluke thermal imager, TruTech dual-port static pressure gauge. If the diagnostic reasoning holds up under pressure, we move to reference calls. If it does not, we thank them for the day.

Combined Experience Across the Merrimack Valley

The crew carries 60+ combined years of HVAC and operations experience — 57 years of technical work across Andrew, Marcus, Ryan, and Diego, plus Kathleen’s operational depth. Every technician has worked in the Merrimack Valley for the entirety of their career. Nobody transferred in from Boston south-shore, nobody trained on Miami cooling loads and expects Methuen boilers to make sense. When you get a return visit five years after an install, you get the same technician who signed the permit.

What Continuous Training Looks Like

Massachusetts Board of State Examiners of Refrigeration Technicians requires continuing education every two years. Rivic technicians log annual hours on: 527 CMR 5.00 gas code updates, 2023 IECC as adopted through the Massachusetts Stretch Energy Code, R-454B/R-32 handling procedures for the January 2025 refrigerant transition, and manufacturer-specific certification cycles from Mitsubishi Electric, Bosch, Carrier, and Weil-McLain.

Marcus attends the Northeast Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) annual technician training in Rhode Island. Ryan renews his Mitsubishi Diamond and Mass Save HPI credentials annually. Diego completes ACCA Manual J recertification through NESEA. Andrew is a member of the Refrigeration Service Engineers Society (RSES) Class HE and files continuing-education documentation with the state board every renewal cycle.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many technicians work at Rivic Heating and Air Conditioning?

Four licensed HVAC technicians plus one operations manager. Andrew Samples (founder), Marcus Devlin (service manager), Ryan Sullivan (senior tech), and Diego Ramirez (tech) each hold a Massachusetts Refrigeration Technician license and EPA Section 608 Universal certification. Kathleen Brennan handles dispatch, permits with municipal building departments, and Mass Save rebate paperwork. Combined technical experience: 57 years in Merrimack Valley HVAC.

Are Rivic technicians bilingual?

Yes. Diego Ramirez is a bilingual English/Spanish technician. He handles emergency service in Lawrence, where 82% of residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, and Spanish-speaking households in Methuen, Haverhill, and Salem NH. Diego is a graduate of Greater Lawrence Technical School’s HVAC program.

Which technician handles Mass Save Whole-Home Heat Pump installations?

Ryan Sullivan runs almost every Mass Save Whole-Home Heat Pump rebate installation. He is Mitsubishi Electric Diamond-qualified and Mass Save Heat Pump Installer (HPI) certified, which unlocks the rebate ceiling of $10,000 per home plus the Mass Save HEAT Loan financing at 0% interest for seven years. Kathleen Brennan runs the rebate paperwork on his behalf.

Did any Rivic technicians work on the 2018 Columbia Gas response?

Yes. Marcus Devlin was among the crews called in for Columbia Gas emergency relight and equipment recommissioning through the winter of 2018–19, working out of the Andover staging area during the coldest weeks. That first-hand experience with post-explosion low-pressure system inspection makes him the crew’s authority on 527 CMR 5.00 permit work in the affected Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover zone.

Do the same technicians return for follow-up service?

Yes. Rivic runs a five-person crew on purpose — small enough that every technician sees repeat customers year after year. When you call for a service follow-up on an install we did in 2019, you get the same technician who pulled the permit. Crew turnover in the four years since 2022 has been zero.

Contact Rivic Heating and Air Conditioning — Meet the Team in Person

The 225 Broadway office in central Methuen is open for walk-in consultations, Manual J load-calc appointments, and Mass Save rebate paperwork sessions Monday through Saturday. Meet Andrew, Marcus, Ryan, Diego, or Kathleen in person, or schedule a technician visit through the emergency line.

• Emergency Line (24/7): (351) 240-2627
• Address: 225 Broadway #306, Methuen, MA 01844
• Email: info@rivicheatingairconditioning.xyz
• MA Refrigeration Technician License: #RT-24518
• MA Home Improvement Contractor: #HIC-191847
• EPA Section 608 Universal: #608U-2007-192874

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Office Hours

• Monday – Saturday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
• Sunday: Closed
• Emergency Service: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (emergency line always active)