Does New Hampshire Require an HVAC License? Who Licenses HVAC Work Instead

No. New Hampshire has no state HVAC or refrigeration technician license: the OPLC Mechanical Licensing Board's list of who it regulates covers fuel gas fitters, plumbers, a voluntary oil heating technician certification and business entities, with no HVAC or refrigeration category.

What the state does require is the gas-fired layer of the work: in practice, many New Hampshire HVAC technicians who work on gas-fired heating equipment need a fuel gas fitter license.

Work on refrigerant circuits adds the federal EPA Section 608 certification on top of the state rules.

There is no state HVAC license ladder to climb, because there is no state HVAC license: no apprentice, journeyman or master rung for HVAC or refrigeration work exists at the state level.

The rungs the board does issue are the five fuel gas fitter specialties created by RSA 153:27-38 — hearth system installation and service technician, domestic appliance technician, fuel gas installation technician, fuel gas service technician and fuel gas piping installer — plus a trainee license below them.

A fuel gas installation technician installs gas piping and residential and non-residential gas heating and water-heating equipment.

Note the boundary with plumbing: New Hampshire's plumbing license does not apply to plumbing done in connection with installing heating, cooling, air-conditioning or domestic water-heating systems, though code, permit and inspection rules still apply, and gas work still requires a fuel gas license.

Above the individual licenses there is no statewide HVAC contractor license either: a company doing gas work needs the board's Mechanical Business Entity license and must employ an officer or responsible managing employee who holds the matching fuel gas fitter license.

The experience totals are set in statute.

A fuel gas installation technician needs 1,000 hours of field experience within 60 months, of which up to 500 may come from oil-fired equipment work; a fuel gas service technician needs 2,000 hours within 60 months, up to 750 from oil-fired work.

Board-approved classroom training sits on top: at least 100 hours for the installation technician and 140 for the service technician, plus 60 hours for the piping installer.

Fees, as of September 2026, are $88 for a fuel gas fitting trainee, $198 for a fuel gas fitter (piping installer, installation technician or service technician) or hearth installer, and $176 for a domestic appliance technician — and renewal costs the same amounts.

A trainee works under the direct supervision of a licensed fuel gas fitter sponsor, and an apprentice who is also a gas trainee can accrue hours for both at the same time.

There is no state-issued HVAC exam in New Hampshire, because there is no state HVAC license; the exams our research confirms for this trade are the gas fitter exams.

OPLC's education page lists board-approved classroom providers — Advanced Trade School, Granite State Trade School, Heritage Training Academy, HUOT Center, Manchester Community College, Manchester School of Technology, NPGA CETP, The NH School of Mechanical Trades and UA Local Union 131 — and lists licensing exams for gas fitters through Advanced Trade School and Granite State Trade School.

Our research did not capture the exam format, such as whether it is open book or which code editions it tests, so confirm the details with the school or the board before you book.

The federal EPA 608 exam is separate: it comes from an EPA-approved technician certification program, not from the state.

Individual mechanical licenses — the fuel gas, domestic appliance and hearth licenses, alongside the master and journeyman plumber licenses — expire every 2 years on the last day of the month the license was issued.

Each 2-year cycle, a licensee must complete no fewer than 6 hours of board-approved continuing education for each endorsement; OPLC describes that as 3 hours of code update each year.

Renewal fees match the application fees: $88 for a trainee, $198 for a fuel gas fitter or hearth installer, $176 for a domestic appliance technician.

There is no HVAC reciprocity to apply for, because New Hampshire issues no HVAC license for another state's license to match.

For the gas licenses that stand in for one, OPLC's reciprocity list under the state's 2023 universal-recognition law (HB 594, RSA 310:17) shows no qualifying jurisdictions for the fuel gas service technician and marks the other gas specialties TBD.

Confirm the current recognition rules with OPLC before you count on an out-of-state license carrying over.

There is no HVAC license to look up, because New Hampshire does not issue one.

The state's public license lookup for the mechanical licenses the board issues is at forms.nh.gov/licenseverification.

Use it to check that the person doing your gas or plumbing work holds a state license.

Our research did not survey New Hampshire cities and towns, so it does not establish whether any of them — Manchester or Nashua, for example — run their own HVAC or mechanical license.

What the state rules do settle is the permit layer: a licensed mechanical business entity may obtain permits from any municipality in New Hampshire.

And for plumbing work done as part of installing heating, cooling, air-conditioning or domestic water-heating systems, code, permit and inspection rules still apply even where the plumbing license does not.

Before you take a job, ask the building or licensing department in the city or town where the work will be done what it requires.

Two changes matter if you are entering the trade now.

In December 2024, OPLC replaced the single broad Gas Fitter license with specialty-specific license types and discontinued the old upgrade system, with conversions starting for licenses expiring in 2026 — the specialty on your license is now defined at issuance.

Separately, New Hampshire's adopted mechanical and plumbing codes updated to the 2021 editions effective July 1, 2024.

Yes, for the refrigerant work the federal rule covers.

Under 40 CFR 82.161, any person who could reasonably be expected to violate the integrity of the 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 technician certification program.

Universal certification covers all appliance types described for Types I, II and III, and EPA 608 certification does not expire.

It is a federal certification, not a state license, and it applies alongside the gas rules, not instead of them.