The Delaware Master HVACR license is issued by the State Board of Plumbing, Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Examiners, within the Division of Professional Regulation, under Title 24, Chapter 18 of the Delaware Code. Its ProV examination presents 100 questions in 240 minutes, open book, keyed to the 2018 mechanical and fuel gas codes, at the regulation’s standard: 70% or greater.
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A board that issues three licenses — and no journeyman license
Delaware concentrates its plumbing and HVACR licensure in a single board: the State Board of Plumbing, Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Examiners, housed in the Division of Professional Regulation. The Board issues exactly three licenses — master plumber, master HVACR licensee, and master HVACR restricted licensee. There is no other license type under this Board, and one verified negative shapes every candidate’s planning: Delaware has no journeyman HVACR license, and no Board-issued apprentice registration. What sits below the master license is a journeyman’s certificate — evidence of completing an apprenticeship program — which functions as an eligibility credential on the road to the master examination, not as a Delaware license to practise under. Candidates transferring their expectations from journeyman states should reset them here: in Delaware, the master examination is the licensure examination, and the certificate is a document in the application file.
Statute: Title 24, Chapter 18; regulations: Title 24, Chapter 1800 of the Administrative Code.
What a Master HVACR licensee may do
A Master HVACR licensee is an individual holding a current license to provide heating, ventilation, air conditioning, commercial hood systems, hydronic systems, refrigeration, and gas piping services under Chapter 18. HVACR services themselves are defined as the design, installation, construction, maintenance, service, repair, alteration, or modification of a product or equipment, including gas piping, in heating and air conditioning, refrigeration, ventilation, or process cooling or heating systems.
Delaware defines its scope terms with numerical precision. A refrigeration system cools a surface or area below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. A ventilation system supplies or removes air at more than 250 cubic feet per minute. A hydronic system uses liquids or steam to transmit or remove heat. Gas piping conveys fuel gas, supplied by one meter, serving a building, structure, or premises, with the statute’s stated exclusions.
No person may provide HVACR or restricted services in Delaware, hold out to the public as a master HVACR or restricted licensee, or use those titles, unless licensed under Chapter 18 or exempt. Unlicensed individuals may provide HVACR services only as an apprentice, journeyman, mechanic or other person under the supervision of a master HVACR or restricted licensee who is that individual’s employer or is employed full time by the same business entity — supervision meaning control and oversight by a master licensee who is an owner or full-time employee of the entity and who is responsible and accountable for the work. A homeowner exemption covers HVACR services other than gas piping in and about the individual’s own home, where the home is not for sale, rent, or lease.
The restricted license, as a boundary
Alongside the full master license stands the Master HVACR Restricted license, in six specialties: heating with forced air systems, ventilation, and gas piping; heating with hydronic systems and gas piping; commercial hood systems; refrigeration; air-conditioning; and gas piping. A person may hold more than one restricted license, each in a different specialty. The restricted licenses are separate credentials with their own routes; they appear on this page only as the boundary that defines the full license by contrast. The Master HVACR license is the unrestricted credential across the whole HVACR services definition.
The examination
Board pre-approval comes first: only complete applications are considered, and applications are submitted online through the Division’s DELPROS system. On approval, Board staff forward the registration to ProV, which contacts the candidate with the examination bulletin. ProV is not authorised to determine which examination a candidate must take.
The Master HVACR examination presents 100 questions in 240 minutes and is open book. Its published content outline is: General Knowledge 28; Equipment 18; System Sizing and Installation 18; Ventilation and Exhaust Systems 14; Piping 12; Testing and Inspection 10. Candidates schedule through ProV, test at a testing center or remotely from home, and receive scoring immediately on completion, with results forwarded to the licensing authority; there is no penalty for a wrong answer. Photo identification with signature, matching the registration name exactly, is required. Rescheduling or cancellation is free online at least 3 days before the date; missing the appointment or deadline forfeits the examination fee.
The passing standard is stated in the Board’s regulation in this form: a score of 70% or greater is required to pass the examination. The bulletin prints the same standard in its headline form. Licensure requires the passing score on a written, standardized examination designated by the Board and administered and graded by a testing service — no hands-on component is part of it as sourced.
Open-book discipline follows the bulletin: exact titles, permanent tabs only, pen highlighting and underlining done beforehand, no marking during the examination, and no handwritten notes or formulas in any book. References marked for examination use are permitted during the sitting; all other listed references are for preparation only.
The reference list — tested on the 2018 editions
The examination’s reference list, as printed, is: International Fuel Gas Code, 2018 edition; International Mechanical Code, 2018 edition; Low Pressure Boilers, 5th edition; Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, 21st edition; the ACCA duct slide rule; and Residential Load Calculation — Manual J-Abridged, 8th edition. The Advanced Mechanical Study Guide, 2nd edition, is listed for study only and is not permitted during the examination. The content key is the 2018 editions as listed, and preparation for this program is built to those editions.
Three code layers, never merged
Delaware is the clearest case in this catalog of a state whose code story collapses if its layers are merged, so this page states them as three separate layers and keeps them separate everywhere.
Layer one — the tested layer. The examination keys to the International Mechanical Code 2018 and the International Fuel Gas Code 2018, as the reference list above states. A candidate is examined on the 2018 editions. Any description of this examination as based on an earlier edition is wrong, and no preparation for this program is built on one.
Layer two — the adopted layer. The Board’s regulation adopts the 2015 International Mechanical Code and the 2015 International Fuel Gas Code, as amended. That adoption is the Board-regulation layer: it describes the code the Board’s regulation names, and it is the correct source for the adopted position stated in the regulation’s own terms. It is not the examination key, and the two layers must not be traded for each other in either direction — the adopted regulation does not pull the examination back to its editions, and the examination list does not rewrite the regulation.
Layer three — the statutory duty. The statute directs the Board to adopt the most recent version of the mechanical and fuel gas codes within one calendar year of their issuance, with Board modifications. That standing instruction is its own layer, distinct from both the regulation’s current text and the examination’s current list.
A candidate who answers a Delaware code question with a single edition, without naming its layer, has merged layers Delaware itself keeps apart.
Who may qualify: two experience paths and a certificate gate
Delaware offers two experience paths to the master examination, plus prerequisites that apply across both.
Path A — with a journeyman’s certificate. The applicant holds a journeyman’s certificate, issued in any state, following completion of an HVACR (or HVACR restricted) apprenticeship program that meets or exceeds the Federal Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training Standards — and thereafter completes two years performing HVACR services under the supervision of a master HVACR or restricted licensee, or a similar-level out-of-state licensee. The sequence is strict: the two years must be post-apprenticeship and under direct supervision, and experience gained before receipt of the journeyman’s certificate does not qualify and will not be counted.
Path B — without a journeyman’s certificate. The applicant completes seven years performing HVACR services under the supervision of a master HVACR or restricted licensee, or a similar-level out-of-state licensee — and thereafter successfully completes the apprenticeship equivalency examination series approved by the Board and administered through a Delaware vocational-technical school. These equivalency examinations, known as the Bypass Exams, must be passed before approval to take the HVACR examination; passing them carries automatic approval for the licensure examination. The Division’s operational route runs the Apprenticeship By-Pass examination through the builders and contractors association channel the Division names, after Board approval of experience, with the pass standard and study materials the Division provides and results delivered to the Board.
The refrigerant-handling prerequisite. Every Master HVACR applicant must have been certified at the appropriate level for handling chlorofluorocarbons by a testing organization approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, and must provide a copy of that certification card with the application. In Delaware practice this is the federal refrigerant credential, required here as a state licensure prerequisite fact; it is a condition of this license, stated in the statute and regulation, and it remains a separate federal certification from the Delaware examination itself.
Fees, stated in their layers
Delaware’s dollars for this credential sit at two different counters, and this program never adds them into a single figure. The Division’s application fee for Master HVACR is $173, processed through DELPROS; processing fees are non-refundable, and the statute provides that the application fee may not be combined with any other fee. The ProV examination fee for the Master HVACR examination is $100, paid to ProV at registration. Application and examination are separate payments to separate parties at separate steps. No renewal dollar is stated in this program, because no renewal amount is published in the sources: the Division notifies licensees of the renewal amount at renewal time, and a late renewal carries an additional late fee set as a percentage of that renewal fee.
Renewal and continuing education: the 2026 position
Master HVACR licenses renew biennially. Plumbing and HVACR licenses expire on October 31 of even years. A late renewal may be filed up to one year after expiration with the late fee; practising while expired is unlawful and the late period is not a grace period, and failure to renew within that year terminates the license, after which the person reapplies as a fresh applicant. Inactive status is available on request within its own window, for no more than five years, during which the licensee cannot practise; failure to reactivate inside that period terminates the license.
Continuing education is a current Delaware requirement: five hours per renewal period, effective for the 2026 renewal — three hours in code changes, one hour in safety, and, for HVACR licensees, one hour in the energy code, in Board-approved courses. Renewal requires an electronic attestation, and audits attach from 2026 onward. Older material stating that Delaware HVACR licensees have no continuing-education requirement is out of date.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
The Delaware Master HVACR program in the PassProfessor catalog prepares candidates for the ProV examination as Delaware currently constitutes it: the 100-question outline with its General Knowledge weight, the 2018 mechanical and fuel gas code editions as the tested layer, the full printed reference list and its study-only title, open-book retrieval under the bulletin’s discipline, and the regulation’s 70% or greater standard. Around the sitting, the program teaches the three code layers in their separation, the two eligibility paths with the Bypass gate on the second, the refrigerant-handling prerequisite, the Board-approval and DELPROS route, the layered fee position, and the held license’s biennial renewal with its five hours of continuing education effective for the 2026 renewal.
PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider and is not affiliated with the State Board of Plumbing, Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Examiners, the Division of Professional Regulation, or ProV. Completing this program confers no license and no Board approval; the Board alone licenses, and candidates apply through DELPROS and schedule through ProV. The companion guide — Delaware Master HVACR Exam Guide (/delaware-master-hvacr-exam-guide/) — works through the outline, the eligibility paths, and a study method in full.
Frequently asked questions
Does Delaware have a journeyman HVACR license?
No. Chapter 18 creates no journeyman license and no Board-issued apprentice registration. The tier below master is a journeyman’s certificate of apprenticeship completion — an eligibility credential, not a license.
What does the Master HVACR license cover?
Heating, ventilation, air conditioning, commercial hood systems, hydronic systems, refrigeration, and gas piping services, as Chapter 18 defines HVACR services — design, installation, construction, maintenance, service, repair, alteration, or modification across those systems.
How is the examination structured?
100 questions in 240 minutes, open book, administered through ProV after Board approval. The outline is General Knowledge 28, Equipment 18, System Sizing and Installation 18, Ventilation and Exhaust Systems 14, Piping 12, and Testing and Inspection 10.
What score passes?
The regulation states it in this form: 70% or greater is required to pass the examination.
Which code editions is the examination on?
The 2018 editions of the International Mechanical Code and the International Fuel Gas Code, as printed in the examination reference list. Separately, the Board’s regulation adopts the 2015 editions, and the statute directs adoption of the most recent editions — three layers this page keeps distinct. The examination is not based on the regulation’s editions.
What are the two eligibility paths?
With a journeyman’s certificate: a qualifying apprenticeship, then two years of supervised HVACR service after the certificate. Without one: seven years of supervised HVACR service, then successful completion of the Board-approved apprenticeship equivalency examinations before approval for the licensure examination.
Is refrigerant certification required?
Yes, as a licensure prerequisite: certification at the appropriate level for handling chlorofluorocarbons by an EPA-approved testing organization, with a copy of the certification card provided. It is a separate federal certification, required by Delaware as a condition of this license.
What does it cost at each step?
The Division application fee is $173. The ProV examination fee is $100, paid to ProV at registration. They are separate payments and are not combined here. No renewal amount is published in the sources, so none is stated.
How much continuing education does renewal require?
Five hours per renewal period, effective for the 2026 renewal: three hours in code changes, one hour in safety, and, for HVACR licensees, one hour in the energy code, in Board-approved courses.
When do licenses expire?
October 31 of even years, on a biennial cycle. Late renewal is available for one year after expiration with a late fee; practising while expired is unlawful.
Can I retake the examination?
Up to three attempts rest on a single Board approval; after that, the applicant reapplies to the licensing authority. A passed examination cannot be retaken unless the licensing authority requires it.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Board or the Division?
No. PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Board, the Division of Professional Regulation, or ProV.
When does enrollment open?
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.