PSI is a testing vendor that delivers the HVAC license exam for a group of state boards — in our state-file research, boards from Texas and Maryland to New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma and North Carolina.
In the states we checked, the board approves your application and sets the exam's rules; PSI takes the booking and runs the test — at its centres or online where the board allows.
Here is how that works, step by step.
Which states use PSI for HVAC license exams?
PSI does not run every HVAC license exam: in our research, which company delivers yours is decided state by state, by the board that licenses you.
The list below is drawn from the state files our research checked in 2026 — your board has the final word.
Where licensing sits in your state at all (worker, journeyman, contractor or none) is the ladder's question; our guide to HVAC license requirements covers it.
Across those state files, PSI delivered HVAC and/or plumbing license exams in Arizona, California, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana (LSLBC), Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada (NSCB), New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas (TDLR ACR) — plus Virginia, and plumbing-only boards in Colorado, Massachusetts and Washington.
For HVAC candidates, the state files name these PSI boards directly:
| State | Board | What runs through PSI |
|---|---|---|
| Texas | TDLR | ACR contractor and Certified Technician exams |
| Maryland | Maryland HVACR Board | every HVACR license exam the board gives |
| New Jersey | Master HVACR program | the exam, once the board approves you |
| New Mexico | CID | journeyman exam approval and testing |
| Oklahoma | CIB, Mechanical License Act | mechanical licensing exams |
| Idaho | DOPL | HVAC (and contractor) exams |
| North Carolina | Plumbing, Heating & Fire Sprinkler board | all of its exams, computer-based |
| Virginia | DPOR contractor board | contractor and qualifier exams |
Contractor licenses put HVAC companies in front of PSI too: the Arizona ROC's trade exam, California CSLB's law-and-business and trade exams, Michigan's mechanical contractor exams at five testing centres, Ohio's OCILB exams, Mississippi's MSBOC exams, Nevada's NSCB exams and South Carolina's CLB exams are all PSI-delivered, and Louisiana's LSLBC has run every trade exam through PSI since August 5, 2025.
PSI is not the only vendor.
Prov delivers Arkansas's HVACR contractor exams, and it took over Tennessee's contractor exams from July 1, 2026 — PSI only keeps exams already scheduled there through September 2026.
Elsewhere the research found Pearson VUE running Florida's CILB exams and Texas TSBPE's written exams, Prometric serving Hawaii, Indianapolis's HVAC exam and one of Kansas's designated exams, ICC exams in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Denver, Casper/Cheyenne and New Orleans, IAPMO testing Montana's plumbers, and boards like Massachusetts's OPSI running their own.
Our guide to the HVAC license exam compares the vendors our research found.
Confirm the vendor with your board before you book
The candidate bulletin and how PSI scheduling works
PSI delivers the exam; the board decides who may sit it.
The pattern is consistent across the states we verified: you apply to the board first, and only an approved candidate gets a PSI booking.
Texas ACR applicants apply to TDLR and then receive an eligibility email from PSI.
New Jersey Master HVACR candidates schedule the exam through PSI once the board's Phase II concludes.
New Mexico contracts PSI to run journeyman exam approval and testing, and candidates there must test within 6 months of eligibility — contractor candidates must also pass the trade exam and the PSI Business and Law exam (or an approved Business and Law course) within one year.
Your state's candidate bulletin is the document that turns that approval into an exam day.
Oklahoma's testing page lists a PSI candidate information bulletin, and New Mexico's exams have one too — these bulletins are where the specifics live: the exam codes, fees, reference list, question counts and time limits.
New Mexico's journeyman bulletin lists the JR (Journeyman Refrigeration) exam at $68.88 — a figure from the bulletin updated 4/13/2023, which may since have changed.
Its contractor bulletin, updated 4/3/2026, prices the Business and Law exam and the MM-1 through MM-4 trade exams at $68.88 each, and shows the MM-3 heating, ventilating and air-conditioning exam as 100 questions in 245 minutes, with 75% to pass.
Budget for two fee streams, because the state and the vendor bill separately.
New Mexico's rules set CID's mechanical journeyman exam fee at $25, with a $25-per-year renewal per classification, while PSI charges its own $68.88 for the exam itself.
Arizona's contractor exams split across two vendors instead: $61 to Gmetrix for the statutes-and-rules course exam, $66 to PSI for the trade exam.
Louisiana collects its trade exam fees directly through PSI when the qualifying party registers, and Virginia's exam fees are paid directly to PSI — $40 for one portion, $72 for two and $85 for three, with the QI specialty exam at $85.
PSI open-book rules: what you can bring into the exam
Whether an exam is open book is set per exam, and your bulletin names it.
Our research confirmed open-book status for three: Oklahoma's journeyman mechanical licensing exams, which test the statewide codes the Oklahoma Uniform Building Code Commission adopted; New Mexico's JR exam — 50 questions in 120 minutes at 75% to pass, with references that include the 2021 Uniform Mechanical Code and the New Mexico Mechanical Code per the 2023 bulletin (New Mexico adopted a 2021 New Mexico Mechanical Code via a 2026 rule hearing, so the bulletin's editions may have moved — check the current list); and all of Mississippi's MSBOC exams.
For the other PSI states in our research — Texas, Maryland, New Jersey, Idaho, North Carolina and Virginia — the state files we read did not settle open-book status, so take it from your bulletin rather than from this page.
The book-handling rules are bulletin-specific.
PSI's New Mexico bulletin requires references to be bound, allows you to highlight, underline and index them beforehand, bars any writing in them — and permits permanent tabs only, so Post-it-style temporary tabs have to come off.
Idaho's program takes a different line on the container: its Contractors' Business and Law Reference Manual may come in as a binder, with pre-highlighting allowed and no writing during the exam.
Do not carry book rules across vendors.
Prov's Indiana bulletin allows handwritten notes when they are formulas written in ink, and bans moveable tabs, Post-its, photocopied pages and study guides outright — where PSI's New Mexico bulletin bans all writing.
Two vendors, two rulebooks; the one that governs you is printed in your own bulletin.
Prep the books, not just the material
Retakes: what happens if you fail a PSI exam
The retake rule is the board's, even though PSI is the one that takes the booking, and the verified waits differ state by state.
Maryland allows a failed HVACR exam to be retaken after 30 days.
New Mexico's rule caps repeats — an exam cannot be taken more than twice in 30 days — though CID held a rule hearing in April 2026, so confirm the current rule before you rebook.
If your exam has portions, a failure may not mean retaking all of them.
North Carolina's failed candidate faces a 90-day wait, a Re-Examination Application and a new fee — but a failed portion can be retaken within six months without retaking the portion you passed.
Oklahoma's contractor applicants who pass one portion retake only the failed one, if they do it within three years of approval.
Texas ties its retests to the application itself: TDLR lets failed contractor exams be retaken until the application expires one year after filing.
Retest fees are part of the rules, too: North Carolina's retest carries a new fee, and Louisiana collects its trade exam fees through PSI when the qualifying party registers.
The cheapest attempt is the first one, prepared against your bulletin.
Once the license is in hand, the next step is the work itself: browse HVAC technician jobs to see who is hiring.
This page is career information, not legal or licensing advice. Exam vendors, fees, references and retake rules are set by state boards and, where licensing is local, by city and county offices — confirm the current rules with the board for where you work before you book.