How Do You Get an HVAC License in Georgia?

Yes for contracting, no for technicians: Georgia licenses conditioned air contracting statewide, and it issues no separate license for individual HVAC technicians.

The statute is direct — no person shall engage in conditioned air contracting unless the Division of Conditioned Air Contractors of the State Construction Industry Licensing Board, under the Secretary of State, has issued them a valid license.

A technician employed by a licensed contractor needs no Georgia license, but federal law still applies: under 40 CFR 82.161, any person who could reasonably be expected to violate the integrity of a refrigerant circuit while maintaining, servicing, repairing or disposing of appliances containing CFC/HCFC or non-exempt substitute refrigerants must pass an exam from an EPA-approved certification program, and apprentices are exempt only while closely and continually supervised by a certified technician.

Our research did not examine whether individual Georgia cities add their own HVAC requirements, so also check with the building department where the work happens.

Georgia has exactly two conditioned air licenses, both held by individuals.

Class I (restricted) covers residential and light commercial air conditioning and heat pump systems of 60,000 BTU cooling or less and gas heating systems of 175,000 BTU or less.

Class II is unrestricted as to project size and equipment type, except boiler installation, which the Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner licenses.

There is no journeyman or technician license beneath them — the licensed individual is the contractor, and a company doing conditioned air work must have a licensed conditioned air contractor regularly connected with it full-time.

That structure is why employees work under the employer's licensee rather than holding a credential of their own.

Class I requires 4 years of qualifying experience: 2 years of residential installation as a lead mechanic, 1 year as a service technician and 1 year of residential supervisory experience, plus EPA 608 Type II certification and a board-approved heat loss/gain and duct design course.

Class II requires 5 years: 2 years of commercial supervisory work, 1 year as a service technician or service supervisor, and 2 years installing as lead mechanic — at least 1 year of them commercial-only, on systems over 175,000 BTU heating and 60,000 BTU cooling — plus EPA 608 Type II and Type III certifications and the same design course.

Education counts: Georgia credits up to 2 years for a technical college diploma in air conditioning technology or engineering, or up to 1 year for a vocational-technical certificate.

Fees are published on the Secretary of State's GOALS fee schedule; our research did not capture exact current amounts, so check GOALS before you apply.

Passing takes a minimum score of 70 on the board-approved examination.

Georgia's testing vendor for construction-board exams is PSI, confirmed on the plumbing division's FAQ: the board approves you first, and PSI then contacts you to set up an account and register for the exam you were approved to take.

Our research did not capture a content outline for the conditioned air exam, so confirm the current exam plan with the division when you are approved.

The EPA 608 certification the license paths require is a separate, federal exam given by EPA-approved certifying organizations: Type II covers medium-, high- or very-high-pressure appliances — the type that covers residential split-system AC and heat pumps — while Type III covers low-pressure appliances such as chillers.

Unlike the Georgia license, EPA 608 certification does not expire.

All Georgia construction-board licenses are valid for 2 years and renew biennially, with a 31-day late renewal window.

Conditioned Air Contractors must complete 4 hours of continuing education per year.

One caution: Georgia rewrote its licensing law effective July 1, 2026, and the board's rules had not been renumbered to match when we read them in September 2026, so confirm the current CE and renewal mechanics with the division before you renew.

Georgia's divisions may grant a license by reciprocity when three conditions hold: you are licensed in a state whose requirements are substantially equal, you have been principally engaged in the practice that license authorizes for not less than 2 years immediately preceding the application, and your state offers Georgia licensees the same privilege.

That statute governs the conditioned air contractor license — Georgia has no technician-level license for another state's technician credential to map onto.

Our research did not identify a published list of partner states, so ask the division how your license would be treated.

Georgia licenses are checked through the Secretary of State's licensee search at goals.sos.ga.gov.

Look up a contractor by name or license number before you sign a contract, and before you take a job with a company that says it is licensed.

EPA 608 certification works differently: EPA runs no national lookup — since January 1, 2018, each non-federal certifying program must publish an online list, updated at least annually, of the technicians it certified on or after January 1, 2017.

Georgia rewrote its construction licensing law, Title 43, Chapter 14, through SB 553, effective July 1, 2026.

The conditioned air provisions now sit in section 43-14-14, and content based on the older versions of those sections is out of date.

When we read the board's rules in September 2026, they had not yet been renumbered to match the new statute, so where a board rule and the statute appear to disagree, confirm with the division before relying on either.