Maryland’s Journeyman Restricted license is the specialty form of the journeyman tier: the holder provides heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration services while under the direction and control of a licensed contractor, within the licensed specialty area or areas. PSI examines the license in five separate specialty examinations — Heating – Forced Air, Heating – Hydronic, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration — and there is no combined specialty examination for this tier. The PassProfessor Maryland Journeyman Restricted HVACR program prepares candidates specialty by specialty for those PSI examinations.
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A license built around one idea: the specialty area
Most Maryland HVACR licenses are organised by rank — apprentice, journeyman, contractor tiers. The Journeyman Restricted license is organised differently: by area. The license is issued by the State Board of Heating, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning, and Refrigeration Contractors, in the Maryland Department of Labor, under Business Regulation Article, Title 9A, with Board regulations at COMAR 09.15. Title 9A names exactly six license classes — master, master restricted, limited, journeyman, journeyman restricted and apprentice — and the general rule is that an individual must be licensed before providing, or assisting in providing, HVACR services in Maryland. Maryland licenses individuals only; there is no business or entity license in Title 9A.
Within that frame, the journeyman restricted holder is a worker-tier licensee whose authority is fenced by specialty. The statute’s service definition is broad — to install, maintain, alter, remodel or repair heating, cooling, refrigeration, ventilation or hydronic systems — but the restricted license reaches only the area or areas in which its holder is licensed and examined. Everything about this credential, from its gate to its fees to the shape of its examinations, is written per specialty area, and this page follows that structure.
The companion Maryland Journeyman Restricted HVACR Exam Guide works through the route, the specialty outlines and the fee layers in full depth.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | Maryland Journeyman Restricted HVACR — the PSI specialty examinations for the restricted journeyman tier |
| Regulator | State Board of HVACR Contractors, Maryland Department of Labor, under Business Regulation Article, Title 9A; regulations at COMAR 09.15 |
| Examination vendor | PSI Services LLC — Qualification Information Bulletin, updated September 1, 2024 |
| Specialty examinations | Five, taken separately: Heating – Forced Air · Heating – Hydronic · Ventilation · Air Conditioning · Refrigeration. No combined specialty examination exists for this tier |
| Item counts | 50 items each for Air Conditioning, Forced Air, Hydronic and Refrigeration; 40 items for Ventilation, which is separately set at 90 minutes |
| Passing standard | 70% — printed in the bulletin as a 70% minimum passing score; the statute states a grade of at least 70 percent |
| Book policy | Open book, under the bulletin’s reference and tabbing rules |
| Eligibility gate | At least 3 years holding an apprentice license, completing at least 1,875 hours of training in total during that period, under the direction and control of a licensed contractor — § 9A-302(f) |
| Examination fee | $50 per specialty examination, paid to PSI |
| License fee | $25 for each area licensed, paid to the Board under COMAR 09.15.01.03B |
| Administrator note | PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the State Board of HVACR Contractors or the Maryland Department of Labor |
Five specialties, five examinations
PSI lists the Journeyman Restricted specialties as Heating – Forced Air, Heating – Hydronic, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration. That list is the operative one: it is the Master Restricted specialty structure without the Combined category that appears only at the master restricted level. No combined examination exists for the journeyman restricted tier, and a candidate is examined only on subjects in which the applicant has the experience the statute requires — the examination and the experience are matched area by area.
Four of the five specialty outlines are published as shared “Master Restricted and Journeyman Restricted” outlines at 50 items each. The fifth, Ventilation, is different in kind: PSI prints the Journeyman Restricted Ventilation outline separately, with its own topic mix, at 40 questions in 90 minutes. Candidates should register the asymmetry early, because preparation that treats the five papers as five copies of one paper misreads the program.
Air Conditioning (50 items) — Electrical Knowledge, Motors, and Controls, 15; Piping, 10; Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, 20; Safety, 5. The reference list is the International Mechanical Code, 2018; Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, 21st or 22nd edition; Manual J — Residential Load Calculation, 2006, Eighth Edition; and 29 CFR Part 1926 (OSHA).
Heating – Forced Air (50 items) — Electrical, 15; Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, 5; Heating Systems, 25; Safety, 5. The references are the Air Conditioning list plus NFPA 31, Standard for the Installation of Oil-Burning Equipment (2006 or 2011), and NFPA 54, National Fuel Gas Code, 2002. Half the paper is heating systems, and this specialty is one of only two in the entire Maryland HVACR examination program that carry a fuel-gas text at all.
Heating – Hydronic (50 items) — Electrical, 10; Piping, 20; Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, 7; Heating Systems, 8; Safety, 5. The references are the Forced Air list — including NFPA 54 (2002) — plus Modern Hydronic Heating for Residential and Light Commercial Buildings, Second Edition. Piping is the largest single block on any restricted outline, which fits a specialty built around moving heated water.
Refrigeration (50 items) — Electrical, 15; Piping, 15; Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, 15; Safety, 5. The references are the International Mechanical Code, 2018; Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, 21st or 22nd edition; 29 CFR Part 1926; and the Industrial Refrigeration Handbook, 1998 — the one specialty whose list reaches into industrial refrigeration practice rather than residential load calculation.
Ventilation (40 items, 90 minutes) — Air Distribution Systems, 35; Safety, 5. The references are the International Mechanical Code, 2018; Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, 21st or 22nd edition; Fibrous Glass Duct Construction Standards, Fifth Edition, 2002; HVAC Duct Construction Standards, Metal and Flexible, 2005, 3rd edition; the ACCA Ductulator; and 29 CFR Part 1926. Thirty-five of forty items sit in air distribution — the most concentrated outline in the restricted set.
In every specialty the mechanical code reference is the IMC 2018 only: the bulletin lists earlier editions with the printed note that effective May 15, 2025 only the 2018 edition is used. No International Fuel Gas Code appears on any restricted reference list; the only fuel-gas text in this tier is NFPA 54 in its 2002 edition, in the Forced Air and Hydronic lists only.
The gate: three apprentice years and 1,875 training hours in total
Section 9A-302(f) states this license’s own eligibility gate, and it should be read exactly as written. The applicant shall have held an apprentice license for at least 3 years, and during that period shall have completed at least 1,875 hours of training in total in providing forced air heating, hydronic heating, ventilation, air-conditioning or refrigeration services, under the direction and control of a licensed contractor — and shall pass the examination for the specialty sought.
Two precisions matter. The 1,875 hours are a total accumulated across the apprentice period; the statute does not state them as an annual figure, and preparation material that spreads them evenly year by year has added something the law does not say. And this gate belongs to the Journeyman Restricted license alone: it is a different gate from the one governing the unrestricted Journeyman license, and the two must never be exchanged for each other. The Board may also credit, within stated limits, comparable formal study, comparable work experience whose shortfall is not the applicant’s fault, and time spent teaching formal HVACR courses — the guide sets those credit rules out in full.
One route bypasses the examination itself. The Board shall issue a journeyman restricted license without examination to an individual who has successfully completed an apprentice program approved by the Apprenticeship and Training Council and who applies within two years of graduation. Everyone else sits the PSI specialty examination for the area sought.
What this license does not allow
The limits are as much a part of the credential as the specialties. A journeyman restricted licensee works only under the direction and control of a licensed contractor; the licensee is not a “licensed contractor” under Title 9A and may not contract independently with the public — the contracting tiers are master, master restricted and limited. The licensee may not work outside the licensed specialty area or areas: performing services outside the license’s scope is a disciplinary ground. And this is a worker-tier license, not a maintenance-only contractor license — the “maintain or repair only” language belongs to the separate Limited contractor license, not to this one.
Fees, in their two separate layers
Maryland splits this credential’s costs by instrument, and the layers must never be merged into a single figure. The examination fee is $50 for each specialty examination, paid directly to PSI; a candidate examined in more than one specialty sits and pays for each specialty separately, and no combined-specialty price exists. The license fee is $25 for each area licensed — original and renewal at the same fee, nonrefundable — set by the Board’s fee regulation, COMAR 09.15.01.03B, in the schedule as of January 1, 2025. The $50 is a vendor examination charge; the $25 is a Board license charge. They are different payments to different recipients for different steps.
Tested code and field code are different layers
Candidates are examined on the IMC 2018, as the specialty reference lists above state. Maryland’s field layer points elsewhere: the Board’s code chapter adopts the most recent version of the mechanical code as incorporated in the Model Performance Code, which currently incorporates the IMC 2021, and enforcement runs through local adoption and county arrangements. The tested edition and the field edition are therefore not the same book in Maryland right now. Preparation keys to 2018; field judgement must still respect the code actually enforced on the job. No Maryland source makes federal EPA certification a condition of this license, and none is stated as one here.
Holding the license: renewal, retakes and continuing education
The license runs on Title 9A’s standard cycle: a two-year term expiring on the first October 1 in an odd-numbered year after the license’s effective date, renewed on the Board’s form and the renewal fee. Maryland imposes no continuing education hours on this license — the only continuing-education duty in Title 9A binds HVACR inspectors, not journeyman restricted licensees, and that negative is stated here affirmatively so candidates are not sold hours they do not owe. A candidate who fails may not sit the examination more often than every 30 days, and each attempt carries a new application and a new fee; examination fees are nonrefundable. After passing, the candidate must apply for licensure within one year for the result to remain valid.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
Specialty by specialty, the way PSI examines. The program is organised around the five specialty examinations rather than around a generic HVACR syllabus: the shared reference core of IMC 2018, Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning and the OSHA selections; the Forced Air and Hydronic fuel-gas and oil-burner layer, including NFPA 54 (2002) at its sourced edition; the Hydronic piping weight and its dedicated hydronic text; the Refrigeration specialty’s industrial handbook; and the Ventilation paper’s air-distribution concentration with its duct construction standards. Every item is written from scratch against the bulletin outlines and the statute; no item is drawn from another provider’s material.
The gate and the limits taught as content. The § 9A-302(f) gate in its exact statutory form, the direction-and-control condition, the bar on independent contracting, and the discipline that attaches to working outside the licensed area or areas are treated as examinable Maryland structure, not as fine print.
Independence, stated plainly. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the State Board of HVACR Contractors, PSI or the Maryland Department of Labor. Completing this program confers no license and no exemption; the Board alone licenses, and candidates register for examinations through PSI. The full route is set out in the Maryland Journeyman Restricted HVACR Exam Guide.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The Maryland Journeyman Restricted HVACR 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
How many specialty examinations are there for the Maryland Journeyman Restricted license?
Five, as PSI lists them: Heating – Forced Air, Heating – Hydronic, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration. Each is a separate examination, sat and paid for separately. There is no combined specialty examination for this tier.
How many questions does each specialty examination have?
Air Conditioning, Forced Air, Hydronic and Refrigeration are each built on shared 50-item outlines. Ventilation is printed separately for this license at 40 questions in 90 minutes, with 35 of its 40 items in Air Distribution Systems.
What score passes a specialty examination?
70%. The bulletin prints a 70% minimum passing score, and the statute states the standard as a grade of at least 70 percent.
What experience does the Journeyman Restricted license require?
Under § 9A-302(f): at least 3 years holding an apprentice license, completing at least 1,875 hours of training in total during that period in the specialty services, under the direction and control of a licensed contractor, plus passing the specialty examination. The hours are a total over the apprentice period, not an annual figure.
What does the examination cost, and what does the license cost?
Two separate layers. PSI charges $50 for each specialty examination. The Board’s license fee is $25 for each area licensed, under COMAR 09.15.01.03B. The two are never a single combined fee.
Which fuel-gas book is on the examination?
NFPA 54, National Fuel Gas Code, 2002 edition — and only in the Forced Air and Hydronic reference lists. No International Fuel Gas Code appears on any Maryland restricted list, and no other specialty in this tier carries a fuel-gas text.
Can a journeyman restricted licensee contract directly with customers?
No. The license is exercised only under the direction and control of a licensed contractor. A journeyman restricted licensee is not a licensed contractor and may not contract independently, and may not perform services outside the licensed specialty area or areas.
Is the examination open book?
Yes. The restricted examinations are open book under the PSI bulletin’s rules: candidates bring the listed references, which may be indexed and highlighted or underlined but must be unmarked by writing and contain no additional papers, with only the bulletin’s permitted permanent tab types allowed.
Does Maryland require continuing education for this license?
No. Title 9A imposes no continuing-education hours on journeyman restricted licensees; the statute’s only continuing-education duty binds HVACR inspectors.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Board or PSI?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider. The State Board of HVACR Contractors alone licenses, and PSI administers the examinations.
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.