Hawaii’s C-40 Refrigeration Contractor is a specialty contractor classification under HRS Chapter 444, licensed to a contracting entity or sole proprietor through its responsible managing employee, for refrigeration work controlling air temperature below fifty degrees Fahrenheit. Hawaii examines contractor candidates in two written parts, and the Contractors License Board’s framework for C-40 — its scope, its experience gate, its fees, and its renewal cycle — is fully published. One element is not: the current PSI candidate bulletin contains no C-40 trade section at all, and this page states that gap as the sourced position rather than filling it. The PassProfessor Hawaii C-40 Refrigeration Contractor program prepares candidates on everything Hawaii has verified for this classification.
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The classification below the fifty-degree line
Some classifications are defined by a system; C-40 is defined by a temperature. Exhibit A to HAR Title 16, Chapter 77 states the scope as follows: to assemble and install devices, machinery, and units, including temperature insulation units, ducts, blowers, registers, humidity, and thermostatic controls, for the control of air temperature below fifty degrees Fahrenheit in refrigerators, refrigerator rooms, and insulated refrigerator spaces — and to construct walk-in refrigerator boxes. That fifty-degree line is the operative boundary of the classification as written: refrigeration work below it belongs to C-40, and it separates this classification from the air conditioning territory of the neighbouring ventilating and air conditioning classification. A candidate who cannot place a described job on the correct side of that line does not yet know this license.
The scope repays word-by-word reading. The classification reaches the assembly and installation of devices, machinery, and units — the building-up of refrigeration installations, not merely the servicing of finished plant. It expressly includes the ancillary apparatus of controlled cold space: temperature insulation units, ducts, blowers, and registers, and the humidity and thermostatic controls by which a cold room holds its conditions, and its construction element is named outright: to construct walk-in refrigerator boxes — not incidental, but in the scope’s final clause. One subclassification sits beneath it: C-40a, the prefabricated refrigerator panels contractor, authorised to install prefabricated refrigerator panels. A specialty licensee automatically holds the subclassifications of its own specialty, without examination or additional fees; neither an “A” nor a “B” licensee acquires C-40 automatically.
An entity license, qualified by an RME — and no tier beneath it
Hawaii licenses the business, not the individual tradesperson. Under HRS Chapter 444, the Contractors License Board (CLB), within the Professional and Vocational Licensing Division (PVL) of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA), licenses the contracting entity or sole proprietor, and the license is qualified by a responsible managing employee (RME) — the individual who holds the experience in the classification and passes the examinations. The license issues to the entity through its principal RME, in residence in the State, who signs or initials all contracts and is held responsible for violations. An RME may serve more than one entity only on Board approval (HAR §16-77-72).
There is no Hawaii journeyman, apprentice, technician, or helper license for refrigeration work. Neither HRS Chapter 444 nor HAR Chapter 16-77 creates one; journey-worker licenses exist in Hawaii only for electricians and plumbers, under HRS Chapter 448E and a different board. Unlicensed individuals perform refrigeration work only as wage employees of a licensed contracting entity — the RME is the qualifying individual of a licensed business, not the top rung of a ladder that does not exist. A license is required to act, assume to act, advertise, or bid as a contractor. The one general relief is the handyman exemption: a project priced at not more than $1,500 for labor and materials — unless a building permit is required, or the work is part of a larger project or split to evade the chapter. Work outside the classifications held is unlicensed activity, and Hawaii has no reciprocity agreements with any other state: the only examination waiver is for prior qualification by written examination in Hawaii in the same classification (HAR §16-77-41).
The examinations at a glance — with one row stated as a gap
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Regulator | Contractors License Board (CLB), PVL, DCCA |
| Examination vendor | PSI Services LLC, from January 2023; Board approval required before registration |
| Structure | Two written parts: Part I Business and Law (common) and Part II Trade (C-40) |
| Part I | 80 questions, 180 minutes, closed book — the common examination for Hawaii contractor classifications |
| Passing standard | A grade of seventy-five per cent is the minimum passing grade for each part (HAR §16-77-44) |
| Part II (C-40 Trade) as printed | NOT PUBLISHED — Bulletin 10661 contains no C-40 section; no Part II trade mechanics are stated in any direction |
| Code position | No statewide mechanical code exists in Hawaii |
Two parts, and what is — and is not — published about the second
Hawaii’s contractor examination structure has two parts, never one sitting. Part I — Business and Law is a single common examination, not classification-specific: by rule it tests general knowledge of the building, safety, health, labor, and lien laws of the State and the basic administrative principles of the contracting business (HAR §16-77-39). Its mechanics are published and stated here in full: 80 questions, 180 minutes, closed book. All new approved applicants take Part I; an already-licensed candidate adding C-40 takes only the Part II trade examination for the added classification. Part I is treated here as structure and boundary, its detailed content belonging to the catalog’s business and law family.
Part II — Trade is the classification examination: by rule it tests specialised knowledge in the particular classification (HAR §16-77-40), and for C-40 that classification knowledge is the refrigeration scope set out above. It is a written examination by rule. The passing standard that governs it is the standard that governs every part: a grade of seventy-five per cent shall be a minimum passing grade for each part of any examination (HAR §16-77-44). Board pre-approval, the six-month pass window, the per-part examination fee, and the bulletin’s general delivery mechanics, stated below, are likewise verified.
Beyond that verified frame, this page states nothing about the C-40 trade part’s printed mechanics, because Hawaii’s own bulletin does not state them. PSI Bulletin 10661 — the Hawaii Contractor Examinations Candidate Information Bulletin of record, dated January 20, 2026 — contains no C-40 section. A full-text search of the retrieved bulletin finds no C-40 entry at all, and its classification sequence passes directly from C-37B to C-41. The bulletin gap is therefore the sourced position, stated here as a fact about the published record, not as a problem this page will solve by borrowing: no figure belonging to any other classification’s trade examination is transferred to C-40 anywhere in this package, in either direction, and secondary material presenting a settled C-40 trade syllabus should be checked against the bulletin itself — where, at present, the candidate will find the same absence this page reports. The practical course follows: confirm the current position with the Board and PVL when approval is sought, treat the classification scope and the licensing framework as the verified core of preparation, and let no vendor’s list stand in for a bulletin section that does not exist.
No statewide mechanical code — and what that means for C-40
Hawaii has no statewide mechanical code. No statute or rule in the licensing frame adopts one, and HRS Chapter 444 and HAR Chapter 16-77 contain no mechanical-code adoption at all. Building regulation instead runs through the State Building Code process under HRS Chapter 107 and county adoption and enforcement — the negative must not be overstated into a claim that Hawaii has no building regulation, because the State Building Code exists and the counties enforce adopted codes. For C-40 the consequence is direct: with no C-40 trade reference list published and no statewide mechanical code adopted, this package states no examination reference list and no field mechanical-code edition for C-40. The verified anchors are the ones Hawaii has actually published — the Exhibit A scope, the licensing frame, and the rule frame for the examinations.
The gate: four supervisory years in this classification
The experience gate is measured per classification: every individual applicant or RME must have had, within the past ten years immediately preceding application, not less than four years of supervisory experience as a foreman, supervising employee, or contractor in the C-40 classification — experience describing on-site supervision and direction of employees in refrigeration work of the kind the scope describes. A candidate seeking two classifications must qualify in each. Training may count up to a maximum of one year (HAR §16-77-19) — the whole of the training credit — and there is no journeyman-status prerequisite, because no lower tier exists. The applicant must be at least 18 years old and of good reputation for honesty, truthfulness, financial integrity, and fair dealing — an undisputed debt or judgment failure within six years creating a presumption against financial integrity (HRS §444-11(a)). Proof is documentary: not less than three notarised certificates, plus a Chronological History of Projects Form (Project List) for the classification. Insurance prerequisites stand at issuance, at rule minimums: workers’ compensation coverage, plus liability and property-damage coverage of at least bodily injury $100,000 each person and $300,000 each occurrence, and property damage $50,000 each occurrence, together with any Board-imposed bond. Federal EPA Section 608 certification is not a condition of the C-40 license in any source in the fact base; Hawaii’s contractor law treats refrigerant conduct as a matter of licensee discipline, not as an application prerequisite.
Fees, the six-month window, and the biennial clock
Hawaii’s fee layers are separate instruments and are never merged here. The PVL application fee is $50 per application, non-refundable; the contracting entity and the RME each file and each pay separately, one application may carry more than one classification, and an additional-classification application is likewise $50. The PSI examination fee is $80 per part, non-refundable and non-transferable, valid for one year from payment. No initial-license fee total is printed on this page: the only published totals in the fact base are dated figures that do not reconcile with the rule components, and PVL’s current packets give specific initial amounts at the appropriate time.
Board pre-approval is mandatory before PSI registration, and the approval letter starts a hard clock: applicants must pass the examinations within six months of approval, failing which a new application and application fee are required (HAR §16-77-45). Within the window, the bulletin’s general delivery mechanics apply: testing is unlimited, no appointment may be made on the same day as a taken examination, an unsuccessful candidate may be able to retest within two business days, and rescheduling or cancelling without forfeiting the fee requires notice two days before the appointment, by a channel other than voicemail or email. Delivery runs through test centers in Kapaa, Honolulu, Kahului, and Kailua Kona, with remote proctored delivery also offered.
The license then runs on Hawaii’s fixed biennial cycle: all licenses renew by September 30 of each even-numbered year. Missing that date is an automatic forfeiture without a hearing, effective October 1, after which the licensee may not practise. For the October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2028 period, the published on-time renewal figures are $338.00 for a contractor entity (active), $338.00 for a sole proprietor (active), $208.00 for an RME (active), and $160.00 for any license on inactive status. A forfeited license may be restored on all documents and fees plus a penalty within sixty days from September 30 — on or before November 30 — at published restoration totals of $388.00, $388.00, $258.00, and $210.00; failure to restore inside that window terminates the license. Renewal conditions include continued qualification, a current state tax clearance issued within six months whose tax name matches the PVL license name exactly, and continuous insurance at the minimums. And one renewal burden is verified absent: Hawaii imposes no continuing education requirement for these licenses.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
The verified core, taught as the core. The Exhibit A scope and its fifty-degree boundary, read word by word; the walk-in construction element and the C-40a panels subclassification; the entity-and-RME framework; the four-year supervisory gate and its proof documents; the fee layers, the six-month window, and the biennial renewal date. This is published Hawaii law and rule — the ground on which a C-40 candidate’s preparation can honestly stand.
Part I as structure, prepared seriously. The common Business and Law part is stated here with its full published mechanics and prepared as the real examination it is, while its detailed content belongs to the catalog’s business and law family.
The bulletin gap, handled honestly. The program states the absence of a published C-40 trade section as the sourced position, builds no syllabus on borrowed figures from any other classification, and directs candidates to confirm the current bulletin position with the Board and PVL at application. If the position changes, trade preparation will be built on the published section — and not before.
Independence, stated plainly. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the Contractors License Board, the Professional and Vocational Licensing Division, the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, or PSI. Completing this program confers no license; the Board alone licenses.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The program is in the works. Leave an email address and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program. The companion guide, the Hawaii C-40 Refrigeration Contractor exam guide, walks the scope and the gap in full.
Frequently asked questions
What work does C-40 cover?
Assembling and installing devices, machinery, and units — including temperature insulation units, ducts, blowers, registers, and humidity and thermostatic controls — for the control of air temperature below fifty degrees Fahrenheit in refrigerators, refrigerator rooms, and insulated refrigerator spaces, and constructing walk-in refrigerator boxes. C-40a covers prefabricated refrigerator panels.
How is the Hawaii contractor examination structured for a C-40 candidate?
In two written parts: Part I Business and Law — the single common examination, 80 questions in 180 minutes, closed book — and Part II Trade for C-40, a written examination on specialised knowledge in the classification under HAR §16-77-40. An already-licensed candidate adding C-40 takes only Part II.
What score passes?
A grade of seventy-five per cent shall be a minimum passing grade for each part of any examination (HAR §16-77-44).
Why does this page not describe the C-40 trade examination in more detail?
Because the current PSI candidate bulletin — Bulletin 10661, dated January 20, 2026 — contains no C-40 section: its classification sequence passes from C-37B to C-41. The gap is the sourced position. This package therefore states no C-40 trade-part mechanics in any direction and borrows no other classification’s figures.
How much experience does a C-40 RME need?
Not less than four years of supervisory experience in the C-40 classification, within the past ten years, describing on-site supervision and direction of employees — proven by at least three notarised certificates and a Project List. Training may count for up to one year.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Hawaii Contractors License Board or PSI?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the Contractors License Board, PVL, DCCA, or PSI. The Board alone licenses contractors.