Dan Holohan

Dan Holohan began his career working with his father at a NY-based manufacturers representative. Big Ed Holohan encouraged him to join the heating industry saying, “Kid, this is the best business to be in because people are always going to need heat, especially in the winter.” Dan couldn’t help but agree and so he got to work.

While Dan worked he’d listen to the old-timers who stopped by and they became teachers of a lost art. They’d tell stories about old heating systems they’d come across. They’d also pepper in tips and tricks they’d learned on the job. Dan wanted to learn even more, so he went to the library and poured over books about how heating systems (particularly steam- and hot-water heating systems) were invented and how they’d evolved over time. Those long-gone authors, whom Dan fondly refers to as the Dead Men, told him the story of the industry.

Dan worked at that company for 19 years and spent a lot of time in the field working with contractors. There are so many older heating systems in New York City, and each job was different. Dan would figure out what that strange object in that dark basement was – that big, cast-iron device with the 19th-Century patent date on its side – and research how to make it work better. The goal was to undo what so many people who didn’t know what they were doing had done over the years, and to put it back to the way the Dead Men had intended it to be. And oftentimes, the fix was as simple as a clogged air vent.

Dan decided to share the knowledge he’d gathered from the Dead Men. He knew that while these older heating systems weren’t going away anytime soon, the stories behind them were in danger of slipping away. So Dan preserved this knowledge and shared it through his seminars, his books, and HeatingHelp.com.

Since his retirement, Dan has been writing novels that have nothing whatsoever to do with heating. Surprise!