How Do You Get an HVAC License in Maryland?

Yes.

Maryland requires a state license before an individual provides or assists in providing heating, ventilation, air-conditioning or refrigeration (HVACR) services anywhere in the state, and the issuer is the Maryland Board of Heating, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Contractors (the HVACR Board).

The requirement reaches apprentices, not just contractors: anyone entering the trade of HVACR work must obtain an apprentice license first, and there are no prerequisites for it.

Two counties also add a county-level HVACR license on top of the state one; see the county section below.

The HVACR Board's license types are Apprentice, Journeyman, Journeyman Restricted, Limited, Master Restricted and Master, and everyone entering the trade starts at the apprentice level.

A Master may provide all areas of HVACR work.

A Master Restricted license covers one or more named areas — air conditioning, heating/forced air, hydronic heating, ventilation, refrigeration — under the master experience rule.

A Limited license is a contractor-level credential, not a helper tier: it entitles the licensee to exclusively maintain and repair one or more HVACR systems.

Maryland has no separate HVAC company license; contracting runs on the individual Master, Master Restricted or Limited license.

The employer-side detail lives in our HVAC contractor license by state guide.

Every path starts with the apprentice license, which has no prerequisites.

Journeyman Restricted takes at least 3 years as a licensed apprentice with at least 1,875 hours of training in forced-air heating, hydronic heating, ventilation, air conditioning or refrigeration, plus an exam.

The Journeyman license takes at least 4 years as an apprentice with at least 6,000 hours of training under a licensed contractor and a 70% score on the journeyman exam.

Master takes at least 3 years of active experience as a licensed journeyman (or higher) under a master, at least 1,875 hours worked in the year before applying, and 70% on the master exam; Master Restricted follows the same 3-year / 1,875-hour rule for its areas, and Limited requires 2 years as a journeyman and 1,000 hours in the prior year.

Completing a program approved by the Maryland Apprenticeship and Training Council, with a Department of Labor certificate of completion, qualifies you for either journeyman license without the exam.

Board fees as of July 1, 2025: Master $94.50, Limited $94.50, Master Restricted $31.50 per area, Journeyman and Journeyman Restricted $25.00, Apprentice $12.00, Inactive $31.50 — PSI exam fees are separate.

PSI Examination Services provides all testing for the HVACR Board, with test centers in Baltimore, College Park, Hagerstown, Lanham and Salisbury.

A failed exam can be retaken after 30 days.

The journeyman and master exams each require a 70% score.

Our research does not describe what the Maryland HVACR exams cover, so the board's exam page and the PSI candidate information it points to are the place to check the current content outline.

Note the apprenticeship alternative above: a completed Maryland Apprenticeship and Training Council program waives the journeyman exam entirely.

Maryland HVACR licenses are issued for 2-year terms that expire on October 1 of odd-numbered years, and each renewal runs for another 2-year term.

Continuing education is not part of the cycle — the HVACR Board does not require continuing education credits, so there are no CE hours to log before you renew.

If you step away from the trade, the board's fee schedule also lists an inactive license at $31.50.

Only from two states.

The HVACR Board currently has reciprocal agreements with Delaware and Virginia, and no other states are listed.

Our research did not capture the agreements' terms — which license levels they cover and what Maryland still requires of a reciprocating licensee — so confirm the specifics with the board before you rely on an out-of-state license.

The rule reaches companies too: out-of-state HVAC contractors need a Maryland HVACR license to work in the state even without a Maryland office, and may be asked to designate a resident agent.

Maryland's official HVACR license search runs through the state's DLLR Electronic Licensing system, and the official lookup link on this page goes straight to the HVACR search.

Use it to confirm a contractor's license before you take a job under their credential, and to check that your own license shows up once the board issues it.

Our research recorded the search's address, but no verified fact describes what the search covers, so how you can search it is not established in our research — confirm anything surprising directly with the board.

Yes — two of them.

Anne Arundel County and Prince George's County require individuals to hold a county HVACR license as well as the Maryland HVACR license in order to perform HVACR services there.

The county licenses sit on top of the state license, not instead of it.

If you will work in either county, confirm the county-level requirement with that county's licensing office before you take the work.

Gas fitting is licensed separately from HVACR in Maryland, and it sits with a different board.

The Maryland State Board of Plumbing issues a Propane Gas Fitter certification, which takes NPGA Distribution Systems Operations training or the equivalent, and natural gas fitter licenses, with the journeyman level requiring 3,750 working hours over at least 2 years as an apprentice gas fitter.

The same requirements give an HVACR master with 2 years of gas-fitting experience a path to the Master Natural Gas Fitter license by exam.

If your work will touch gas piping or propane systems, plan the plumbing-board credential alongside the HVACR license.