Georgia licenses conditioned air contractors in two classes through the Division of Conditioned Air Contractors of the State Construction Industry Licensing Board. Class I covers residential and light commercial work within stated BTU limits; Class II is unrestricted except for boilers. Both classes sit a PSI examination of 100 scored questions plus 20 pretest questions across seven hours, and each examination is passed at a final scaled score of 70. This guide walks the Georgia route class by class, because the Division examines them separately and this guide never blends them.
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The credential at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | Georgia Conditioned Air Contractor (Class I & II) — one program, two separately examined classes |
| Regulator | State Construction Industry Licensing Board, Division of Conditioned Air Contractors (Secretary of State) |
| Examination vendor | PSI Services, Examination Development and Testing Unit (EDTU); Board approval comes first |
| Presented questions | 120 — 100 scored questions plus 20 pretest (Beta) questions that do not count toward the score |
| Time | Seven hours in two parts of 3.5 hours each, with a break between; the limit includes the pretest questions |
| Passing standard | A final scaled score of 70 on the appropriate examination |
| Book position | Reference-permitted: only the materials on the handbook’s Suggested Reference List may be used in the room |
| Outline | One combined outline for both classes: System Design 55, Installation 25, Maintain and Repair 12, Regulations, Laws and Administrative Functions 8 |
| Practical component | None — both examinations are multiple-choice computer-based tests |
Start with the class decision, because everything follows it
Most Georgia candidates arrive asking how to pass an examination. The prior question — which examination — decides more. The Division of Conditioned Air Contractors issues exactly two conditioned air licenses, and the statute requires separate examinations for Class I and Class II. Class I, labelled Restricted on Board forms with prefix CR, licenses residential and light commercial work inside a capacity ceiling. Class II, labelled Non-restricted with prefix CN, licenses residential and commercial work with no ceiling at all, save one trade carved out entirely. The experience compositions differ, the coursework differs at the top end, one reference sits on the Class II list alone, and a handful of outline tasks are marked Class II only. A plan that treats the two as one paper with two names misleads both candidates.
The authority behind both licenses is the State Construction Industry Licensing Board, acting through its Division of Conditioned Air Contractors and administered through the Georgia Secretary of State. The governing statute is O.C.G.A. Title 43, Chapter 14 — definitions at section 43-14-2, conditioned air licensure at section 43-14-14 — and the working rules sit in Chapter 121 of the Georgia Rules and Regulations. Rule 121-3-.04 holds the common gate, both experience compositions, the education caps, and the course requirement. Board forms still in circulation cite older locations from before the chapter was reenacted; the current locations named here are the ones the fact base verifies.
The two scopes, stated exactly
Class I licenses the holder to conduct business as a residential and light commercial entity for air conditioning and heat pump systems of 60,000 BTUs of cooling or less and gas heating systems of 175,000 BTUs or less. Within that ceiling the scope is complete: permitting, bidding, maintenance, service, repairs, and installation of equipment and components, including ductwork, refrigerant lines, gas piping, controls, and accessories. The rule adds the counting rule that governs borderline jobs: each complete system in a single installation is considered an individual job — a building holding three complete systems is three jobs for scope purposes, each measured against the ceiling on its own.
Class II licenses the holder to conduct business as a residential and commercial entity without limitations or restrictions on project size or equipment types, except the installation of boilers, which is licensed under the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire. The Class II scope expressly includes design alongside bidding, permitting, maintenance, service, repairs, and installation — split air conditioning and heat pumps, package units, variable refrigerant flow systems, chillers, ventilation, and all associated components. The word design in the Class II grant is one of the quiet differences between the classes: the licensed authority to practise design as a business function is a Class II statement.
Two boundaries apply to both classes. First, no dollar-value or project-cost limit exists for either class anywhere in the sources: the Class I boundary is capacity, measured in BTUs, and the Class II boundary is the boiler carve-out — a candidate who goes looking for a project-dollar threshold, a fixture of several other states’ contractor law, will not find one in Georgia’s conditioned air provisions. A license is required before performing the services, the requirement holds at the local level too, and the license is valid statewide.
The route, step by step
Step one — build the experience record for the class sought. Full-time experience means at least 2,000 hours in a calendar year, each 2,000 documented hours equating to one year, and the composition matters as much as the total. For Class I (four years): two years of residential installation as a lead mechanic, one year as a service technician — with evidence of an E.P.A. certification carried in that year — and one year of residential supervisory experience. For Class II (five years): two years of installation as a lead mechanic, at least one of them commercial only; one year as a service technician or service supervisor, again with evidence of an E.P.A. certification; and two years of commercial supervisory experience — plus documented experience with installations of systems exceeding 175,000 BTU of heating and 60,000 BTU of cooling. An E.P.A. Section 608 technician certification requirement applies to applicants as part of this gate, stated here in that general form; the federal certification is a separate regime with its own program in this catalog.
Step two — complete the course and credit steps. Every applicant completes a Board-approved heat loss and gain and duct design course covering Manuals J and D; Class II applicants additionally complete a course covering Manuals N and Q or the Carrier Design Manuals 1, 2, and 3. The Georgia technical-college course AIRC 1060 meets the requirement as the Board’s course sheet records it. Education substitutes only within caps: a technical school diploma program in the named fields counts for no more than two years, and a vocational-technical certificate program for no more than one year.
Step three — apply and be approved. The application carries three references from an architect, professional engineer, inspector, or licensed conditioned air contractor; a signed experience affidavit from each supervising licensee or official; identity and lawful-presence documents; and a fingerprint criminal background check whose fees the applicant pays. The Board’s published application fee is $30 for either class, with a $10 processing fee added, stated on the form as a $40 total. Board approval is the gate to the examination room: the Board notifies PSI, and PSI sends registration instructions.
Step four — sit the class examination, detailed in the sections below: 120 presented questions, seven hours in two parts, the combined outline, the reference discipline, and the scaled passing standard.
Step five — hold, renew, and keep the business qualified. Licensure is biennial, expiring November 30 of odd-numbered years, with continuing education of four hours per year owed along the way; the business layer is covered near the end of this guide.
The sitting itself, in full
Each examination is a multiple-choice computer-based test delivered at PSI test centers throughout the Southeast, by appointment only, Monday through Saturday. Check in at least 20 minutes early with two forms of identification, one a current government-issued identification bearing name, signature, and photograph; temporary identifications are not accepted. Arriving more than 15 minutes late, failing to appear, or cancelling late forfeits the appointment and the fees; one free reschedule is allowed online at least two business days before the appointment.
The arithmetic deserves slow reading. The examination presents 120 questions: 100 scored and 20 pretest (Beta). The Beta questions do not count toward the score, but they consume the same clock: the total time is seven hours, in two parts of 3.5 hours each with a break between, and the limit includes the Beta questions’ time. A candidate pacing for 100 questions is in fact pacing for 120, and the difference surfaces in the final half hour of Part 2.
The passing standard is a final scaled score of 70. Scaled scoring means the raw score is transformed taking question difficulty into consideration before the standard is applied, so a raw-count target borrowed from any other state’s paper is meaningless here. The rule and the statute state the same requirement in their own words: a minimum score of seventy (70) on the appropriate examination. Score reports are issued in person in print or by United States mail, never by phone, email, or fax, and PSI’s official report to the Board may take up to six weeks. A failing candidate receives subscores for the major content areas — the most useful document a retake candidate owns, because it converts a failure into a weighted study plan.
The examination is reference-permitted, with specific discipline. Only the reference materials on the Suggested Reference List may be used. References may be highlighted, underlined, or tabbed, with permanent tabs only; photocopied materials and handwritten notes are not permitted, even pasted into a book. A silent, non-programmable calculator without alpha keys or printing capability is allowed, and there is no penalty for guessing. There is no practical component: no hands-on practical, drawing exercise, or performance component appears anywhere in the handbook or rules.
The combined outline, block by block
PSI publishes one combined content outline for both classes, summing to the 100 scored questions, with individual tasks marked as Class II only. The handbook does not publish separate per-class blueprints, and this guide claims none: beyond the Class II-only tasks and the Class II-only boiler reference, what differs between the two sittings is not stated in the handbook.
System Design — 55 questions. More than half the scored paper is design: load calculation, duct design, equipment and system selection, and the judgement connecting a building’s heat loss and gain to the system that will serve it. This is why the application gate demands an approved heat loss and gain and duct design course from every applicant — the licensing system tests at the desk what it first required in the classroom. Class II candidates meet additional marked tasks here, including boiler and steam design territory at the edge of the Class II carve-out: designing around a boiler is examined even though installing one is licensed elsewhere. A candidate whose preparation is mostly service experience will find the majority of the paper waiting in the one area that experience underweights.
Installation — 25 questions: equipment 2, duct systems 4, flue venting 6, gas piping and tubing 3, refrigerant piping, tubing, and accessories 3, condensate piping, tubing, and accessories 1, electrical control systems 3, and placing the system in operation 3. Flue venting is the largest single installation sub-area — the gas side of this trade is examined as core work, not as an annex.
Maintain and Repair — 12 questions: general work 7, electrical work 5. This is the block experienced service technicians expect to carry them, and at 12 questions it cannot — a perfect score here supplies barely a tenth of the paper. Secure it quickly, from strength, and spend the freed hours in design.
Regulations, Laws, and Administrative Functions — 8 questions: complying with laws 1, complying with regulations 2, complying with administrative requirements 5. A small block with an outsized pass-line effect, because it tests the licensing frame and business duties many technically strong candidates never study.
Tested references and adopted codes: read the layers apart
The examination’s own reference list governs preparation, and it is dated. PSI’s Suggested Reference List is effective January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026, listing the 2024 Georgia Gas Code (2024 International Fuel Gas Code), with Georgia amendments and the 2024 Georgia Mechanical Code (2024 International Mechanical Code), with Georgia amendments. Each carries the printed transition rule: beginning May 1, 2026 the exam will be based only on the 2024 Georgia Gas Code and the 2024 Georgia Mechanical Code. The pre-May list also allowed the 2018 Georgia codes; that either-or window is closed.
The rest of the tested list: the 2023 National Electrical Code; ACCA Manual D (2016, 3rd edition, version 2.5) and Manual J (2016, 8th edition, version 2.5); Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Technology (2025, 10th edition) or Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (2025, 22nd edition); the NASCLA Contractors Guide to Business, Law, and Project Management — Georgia (5th edition); 29 CFR Part 1926 (OSHA), latest available edition; the Carrier System Design Manuals 1 through 3; Flexible Duct Performance & Installation Standards (2010, 5th edition); and the Trane Ductulator or equivalent. The energy reference surprises candidates who assume the newest book governs: the International Energy Conservation Code (2015) with 2015 Georgia Amendments remains the energy reference inside the 2026 list. *Class II candidates add Low Pressure Boilers (2019, 5th edition)* — the one reference on the Class II list alone. The list is a floor, not a ceiling: some questions come from unlisted references such as Manual N and Manual Q, with the needed information provided inside the examination, and some are based on field experience.
The adopted layer — the codes field work must satisfy — is separate and must never be merged with the list above. Georgia’s Department of Community Affairs publishes the State Minimum Standard Mechanical Code as the International Mechanical Code, 2024 Edition, with Georgia State Amendments and the State Minimum Standard Gas Code as the International Fuel Gas Code, 2024 Edition, with Georgia amendments, with every amendment item in both packets marked effective January 1, 2026. The layers converge on the same 2024 editions on different dates and by different authority: the field standard took effect January 1, 2026, while the examination completed its move to the 2024 Georgia codes only on May 1, 2026 — and a candidate should still be able to say which instrument governs the examination room and which governs the jobsite.
After a failure: the review-course gate
A candidate who fails must retake and pass to be considered for licensure. But a candidate who fails the examination twice must complete a Board-approved review course before being allowed to test a third time. If the candidate fails again after the review course, no further courses are required; the gate is a single intervention, not a repeating toll. The second sitting is therefore the last ungated one, and a candidate who treats the first attempt as free reconnaissance is spending something real. No attempt cap or waiting period beyond the review-course gate is stated in the sources. Veterans meeting the statutory conditions are eligible for five or ten points added to examination scores, on submission of a DD Form 214.
Holding the license: renewal, education, reinstatement, and the business
Licenses are issued and renewed biennially and expire November 30 of odd-numbered years. The late-renewal window runs December 1 through December 31 of odd years, with the Board’s published figures at $75 on time, $100 for late renewal within 30 days of expiration, and $150 for a license lapsed more than 30 days but less than three years. An unrenewed license is deemed invalid and its holder is not authorised to engage in the business; the Board’s failure to send a renewal form does not excuse the failure to renew. Reinstatement submitted more than three years after expiration requires taking and passing the appropriate examination in any case.
Continuing education runs at four hours per year — eight hours across the biennial cycle — in safety, technological advances, business management, or government regulations, from the provider categories the rule lists; manufacturer courses specifically promoting products are not approved. Records must be kept at least five years and produced on request, and failure to document is itself grounds for discipline, including denial of renewal. An applicant initially licensed for less than two years must have completed four hours before renewal; one licensed for less than a year owes none, and licensed contractors who are registered professional engineers are exempt under the rule. For a license lapsed less than three years, reinstatement education runs at four hours for each year since the last renewal — eight hours for a lapse under one year, twelve under two, and sixteen under three on the Board’s form guide.
The business layer is where the license operates day to day. No partnership, limited liability company, or corporation may engage in conditioned air contracting unless a licensed person is regularly connected with it and actively engaged in the business on a full-time basis; each branch office must have such a licensee stationed there; the qualifying licensee may not qualify more than one business at a time and must supervise while work is in progress. On the qualifying licensee’s death, the business may continue for 90 days, plus one discretionary additional 90-day period. Every business holds a business registration number — the qualifying licensee’s license number with its CN or CR prefix — shown on both sides of commercial vehicles in characters at least two inches high and on advertisements, invoices, and proposal forms. If the qualifier leaves, the business must cease conditioned air contracting until a licensee qualifies it again. Georgia also provides licensure by endorsement or reciprocity under formal written agreements with boards whose requirements are substantially equal to Georgia’s and which offer Georgia licensees a similar privilege; the applicant must still document Georgia’s prerequisite experience.
A study plan built on the Georgia paper’s actual shape
Begin with the class, then the design block. Confirm the class from the scope and experience record first. Then give System Design the majority of the hours, because the paper does: load calculation through Manual J, duct design through Manual D, and for Class II candidates the Manual N and Q territory their coursework introduced. Work the tested editions, not the familiar ones — the 2024 Georgia codes in the examination’s own list, with the 2015 energy code kept in the set. Prepare the physical references early: permanent tabs and highlighting done in advance, no photocopies and no handwritten notes. Secure the small blocks: installation from trade strength, and the eight regulations and administrative questions studied as their own subject. Pace to 120: every timed rehearsal runs at the presented count across a 3.5-hour part. Treat the second attempt as gated: aim to pass within two sittings, converting any failure’s subscore report into a revised weighting of the next study block.
The errors this examination is built to catch
Blending the classes — preparing Class I scope for a Class II sitting, or missing the Class II design authority, commercial composition, and boiler reference. Pacing to 100 and discovering the Beta questions inside the same seven hours. Misreading the pass mark — the standard is a scaled score, and raw-count intuitions mislead in both directions. Studying the adopted code as though it were the reference list, or the reverse. Reaching for a dollar limit that does not exist, where the BTU ceiling and the boiler carve-out are the whole analysis. Assuming the newest energy code and leaving the listed 2015 edition unread. And treating the administrative block as padding, when its questions test the very machinery the candidate is applying through.
Georgia in one view
Georgia in one view is a two-class system with a single centre of gravity. The classes divide the trade cleanly — a BTU ceiling and a residential and light commercial grant on one side, an unrestricted grant with boilers carved out on the other — and both are then examined on one combined outline in which design outweighs everything else combined. The system is coherent in a way candidates can use: the course the application demands is the course the design block examines; the codes the examination keys are the codes the state adopted, reached by a dated transition the candidate is expected to know; and the business duties the administrative block tests are the duties the licensee will actually carry. The candidate who reads Georgia as that single coherent system — class, composition, course, code layer, outline — is studying the examination the Division actually built. The companion program page, Georgia Conditioned Air Contractor (Class I & II) exam preparation, summarises the program this guide supports.
Independence, stated plainly. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider and is not affiliated with the State Construction Industry Licensing Board, its Division of Conditioned Air Contractors, the Georgia Secretary of State, or PSI. This guide states the published route; the Division alone licenses, and only Board approval followed by PSI registration puts a candidate in the examination room.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The Georgia Conditioned Air Contractor (Class I & II) program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program.
Frequently asked questions
What are the exact scope limits for Class I?
Systems of 60,000 BTUs of cooling or less and gas heating systems of 175,000 BTUs or less, for residential and light commercial work. Each complete system in a single installation is an individual job against those limits.
Why is boiler work treated separately for Class II?
Because the statute carves it out: Class II is unrestricted except the installation of boilers, licensed under the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire. Class II candidates are still examined on marked design tasks in that territory.
Can education replace experience?
Partly, within caps applying to both classes: a technical school diploma program in the named fields counts for no more than two years, a vocational-technical certificate program for no more than one year. The approved design course is required of all applicants regardless.
Which code editions should I study?
The examination’s own list, effective January 1 through December 31, 2026: the 2024 Georgia codes with Georgia amendments — the only basis from May 1, 2026 — plus the 2023 National Electrical Code, Manuals J and D in the listed editions, and the 2015 energy code with 2015 Georgia amendments. Class II adds Low Pressure Boilers (2019, 5th edition).
How do the tested codes relate to the codes I work under?
They are separate layers converging on the same 2024 editions: the adopted codes are the 2024 international codes with Georgia State Amendments effective January 1, 2026, while the examination keys to PSI’s list and its May 1, 2026 transition.
What happens if I fail twice?
You must complete a Board-approved review course before testing a third time. A further failure after the course requires no additional course. Use the subscores on the failing score report to weight the next study block.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Georgia board or PSI?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the State Construction Industry Licensing Board, the Division of Conditioned Air Contractors, the Georgia Secretary of State, or PSI.
When does enrollment open for the PassProfessor program?
The program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address on this page and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program.