Michigan licenses mechanical contractors by work classification under 2016 PA 407, Article 8. The HVAC Equipment classification is examined by PSI in an open-book sitting of 150 questions in 3 hours, with a minimum passing score of 75%, keyed to the Department reference list Rev. 08/01/2024. This guide maps the credential, the sitting, and the study sequence for that one classification.
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The credential at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | Michigan Mechanical Contractor — HVAC Equipment |
| Regulator | Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Bureau of Construction Codes |
| Classification | HVAC Equipment, MCL 339.5807(2)(b) — one of ten classifications |
| Examination | 150 questions, 3 hours, open book, computer-delivered by PSI |
| Passing standard | Minimum passing score 75% |
| Tested references | Department reference list, Rev. 08/01/2024 |
| Field code layer | Part 9A adopts the International Mechanical Code, 2021 edition, with Michigan exceptions |
| Administrator note | PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Department or PSI |
Start with the classification system, not the code book
Most Michigan errors begin before the code book opens. The licence is classified, and the examination follows the classification. Article 8 lists ten classifications at MCL 339.5807(2): (a) hydronic heating and cooling and process piping; (b) HVAC equipment; (c) ductwork; (d) refrigeration; (e) limited heating service; (f) limited refrigeration and air conditioning service; (g) unlimited heating service; (h) unlimited refrigeration and air conditioning service; (i) fire suppression; and (j) specialty. A separate examination is required for each classification sought, so a candidate’s first study task is to confirm that HVAC Equipment is the classification the work requires — and to resist studying neighbouring classifications as if they were part of this sitting.
HVAC Equipment sits in a particular place in that system. Its examination title adds, in parentheses, that it includes ductwork and gas piping. Its holders are exempt from the five specialty licences listed at R 339.5161(1) — solar heating and cooling; solid fuel and vented decorative gas appliances; LP distribution piping; fuel gas piping; and fuel gas piping and venting. A specialty licence is limited to the specific installation type for which it is issued and is not required where the work is covered under a different classification. Read together, those positions tell the candidate how Michigan expects HVAC Equipment work to be practised: as integrated equipment, air-distribution, and fuel-gas work under one classification.
The system has no ladder beneath the contractor. Article 8 creates no journeyman mechanic, master mechanic, or apprentice licence for mechanical work. Other workers perform work under a licence holder designated contractor of record. That single-tier structure changes how experience is proved, how firms organise work, and how the statute questions on the sitting should be read: every duty in Article 8 runs to or through the classified contractor.
The authority behind the licence
The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, principally its Bureau of Construction Codes, administers the licence. The Board of Mechanical Rules continues under the act: the state fire marshal or a designee as a permanent member, plus fourteen Michigan residents appointed by the governor, including a representative of each work classification. Eight members form a quorum, decisions require two-thirds of members attending, and the board recommends Michigan Mechanical Code rules to the State Construction Code Commission. Executive Reorganization Order 2017-1 transferred the board’s powers and duties to the Department.
For the candidate, the operational consequence is simple and often missed: eligibility belongs to the Department. Only the State of Michigan may determine eligibility for a licence. PSI administers the sitting, but PSI does not approve the applicant. The route is application to the Department, Department approval, a notification letter with instructions to pay for and schedule the examination, and notification sent to PSI as well. A candidate who is not approved is told which elements are needed to complete the application. Scheduling before that approval is not part of the route.
Eligibility in full: the two routes and their proof
An applicant for a classification examination must meet the requirements of Article 2 of the act, possess good moral character, and satisfy one of two experience routes at MCL 339.5807(1).
Route one is experience in the classification sought: a minimum of 3 years or 6,000 hours of experience in the work classification for which licensure is sought, or an equivalent acceptable to the board. The proof standard is specific. Experience is shown by a statement signed under penalty of perjury from each contractor of record who is a present or former mechanical-contractor employer, stating the 3 years or 6,000 hours in each work classification sought and providing a detailed, specific description of the type of work performed and its duration. Vague summaries fail the purpose of that statement: the Department may verify an applicant’s work and experience using inspection, photographs, diagrams, and other evidence.
Route two is crossover. An applicant who has continuously held an active licence for at least 3 years immediately before applying in one classification may use it toward specified others. For a holder starting from HVAC Equipment, the supported classifications are ductwork, limited heating service, limited refrigeration and air conditioning service, unlimited heating service, unlimited refrigeration and air conditioning service, and specialty. The list is closed. A candidate planning a portfolio of classifications should sequence applications around it rather than assume general credit between any two classifications.
Two credits can feed route one. Completion of a 2-year or equivalent HVAC program at a recognised trade school, community college, or university, or a United States Department of Labor-approved 2-year HVAC training program, counts toward the 3-year or 6,000-hour requirement, capped at 1 year or 2,000 hours. Armed-forces experience also counts when documented by DD Form 214 or DD Form 215 showing an honourable discharge, or a discharge under honourable conditions (general), plus an affidavit or letter from a commanding officer, supervisor, or military superior with direct knowledge.
No minimum age for this licence was retrieved from the sources for this guide, and none is stated here. Candidates should confirm any age question directly with the Department rather than rely on secondary summaries.
The sitting: mechanics a candidate can plan around
The HVAC Equipment examination is titled HVAC Equipment (includes ductwork and gas piping). It is open book, contains 150 questions, allows 3 hours, and requires a minimum passing score of 75%. The rule states the same standard in its own form: a score of 75% is required to pass. No scored-versus-unscored split is published for this examination, and this guide presents 150 simply as the published question count.
Delivery is by computer, with a tutorial available. The score is displayed on screen at the end, a score report is provided and printable from the candidate’s online account, and a failing candidate’s report includes a diagnostic report by examination type. Commenting on questions through the Comments link is the only review of examination materials available — there is no later paper review to plan around, so the diagnostic report is the retake candidate’s main instrument.
Time discipline follows from the arithmetic: 150 questions in 180 minutes is a steady pace with little slack for long searches. That is why the reference-handling rules, covered next, matter so much in Michigan. A candidate who must hunt for a section in an unfamiliar book will spend the sitting’s margin on navigation.
Candidates must pass within one year of the eligibility date; a candidate who does not must re-apply with the Department. Within that year, retakes are unlimited. Examination fees are not refundable or transferable, are valid for one year from the date of payment, and are paid to PSI at scheduling.
Exam-day rules: arrive fifteen minutes before the appointment; present one government-issued, current identification bearing a photograph and signature — temporary identification is not accepted. Cancellation or rescheduling without forfeiting the fee requires notice two days before the appointment, and voice mail or email is not an acceptable form of cancellation. Late cancellation, no-show, late arrival, or improper identification forfeits the fee. Extra time of time-and-a-half is available for an additional $50 fee per examination, at the vendor layer. Candidates granted disability accommodations must schedule by telephone.
Open book, clean book: Michigan’s reference rules
Michigan’s open-book posture is the most distinctive feature of this sitting. All reference material must be bound. Materials printed from the Bureau of Construction Codes website must be bound by three staples on the left edge, in separate documents. Candidates bring their own listed materials. Those materials may not contain any highlights, underlining, or marking of any type; highlighting, marking, and tabs in printed documents are not permitted. Materials are allowed only as published, with no additional papers, loose or attached. A candidate caught writing in, highlighting, underlining, or indexing materials before or during the examination will be reported to the Bureau of Construction Codes.
Study method must adapt to that rule. In many open-book trades sittings, candidates build a personal index in the book over months of study. In Michigan that artefact cannot enter the room. What can enter is structural fluency: knowing each tested book’s organisation cold — which chapter holds which system, where the tables live, how the Michigan amendments are arranged — so that a clean, unmarked copy is still fast to use. Practice should therefore be done, at least in its later stages, from clean copies or from memory of structure, timed, with no reliance on personal markings.
Tested editions: the Rev. 08/01/2024 list, in full
The Department document titled Mechanical Contractor and Mechanical Inspector/Plan Reviewer Licensing Exam Reference Materials, Rev. 08/01/2024, keys the examinations. For HVAC Equipment the list is: Michigan Mechanical Code 2021; Michigan Residential Code 2015, with related referenced standards; ACCA Manual J-2011; ACCA Manual D-2016; ANSI/SMACNA 006-2020, HVAC Duct Construction Standards — Metal and Flexible, 4th edition; SMACNA Fibrous Glass Duct Construction Standards, 2010, 7th edition; International Fuel Gas Code 2021; 2016 PA 407; and 1972 PA 230.
The PSI bulletin prints no edition lists of its own; it defers to that Department document. Any study material keyed to a different edition set is, for this sitting, material for a different examination. Candidates should work from the list above and re-confirm it close to the sitting date, because the list — not habit, not a supplier catalogue — is the examination basis.
The field layer, kept separate
Part 9A of the State Construction Code, R 408.30901a, effective March 12, 2024, adopts by reference the International Mechanical Code, 2021 edition, with enumerated Michigan exceptions, as the field mechanical code. Under Part 9A, references in the code to other model codes mean the corresponding Michigan codes, and ASHRAE 15-2022 and ASHRAE 34-2022 appear among the standards listed with the adopted code.
That field layer and the tested layer are neighbours, not twins. The tested list pairs the 2021 Michigan Mechanical Code with the 2015 Michigan Residential Code and the 2021 International Fuel Gas Code, plus the ACCA and SMACNA references. A proposal that would adopt a later mechanical code edition for field work is pending only. It is not law, it is not an adopted edition, and it is not a tested edition. This guide builds nothing on it, and candidates should answer sitting questions from the tested list and field questions from Part 9A, never by blending the two.
What the outline actually examines
No percentage weights are published for the HVAC Equipment outline, and none are invented here. The bulletin describes coverage in four strands: heating and cooling principles and theories; installation of HVAC equipment and systems to provide air conditioning for occupants of buildings and structures; installation of ductwork, gas piping, and venting; and knowledge of codes and standards.
The experience description behind the outline fills in the working picture: forced-air heating and cooling in residential and commercial applications, including heat pumps — air-to-air and water-air — mini splits, rooftop units from 2 to 25 tons, geothermal systems, commercial kitchen exhaust systems for type 1 and type 2, complete duct systems in commercial and residential work, Type B vents, gas piping systems using natural gas, propane, and fuel oil, layout and installation of CSST piping, and exhaust and special venting systems. A study plan that treats those as separate trades will miss the examination’s habit of treating them as one installation: equipment selection drives air distribution, air distribution drives duct construction, and fuel supply and venting close the system.
Statute content runs through every sitting. All Michigan mechanical contractor examinations include questions on the Skilled Trades Regulation Act, 2016 PA 407, and the Stille-DeRossett-Hale Single State Construction Code Act, 1972 PA 230. Candidates should therefore study definitions, licensing duties, the contractor-of-record system, and permit duties as examination content in their own right — the definitions at MCL 339.5801, including HVAC, air conditioning, servicing, process piping, and the refrigeration exclusion for portable self-contained units of not more than 1.5 horsepower, are a good model of the precision the statute strand rewards.
Fees, layered correctly
Four dollars figures belong to this credential, in three layers, and merging them produces wrong budgeting and wrong answers alike. At the vendor layer, the PSI examination fee for HVAC Equipment is $100. Also at the vendor layer, extra time of time-and-a-half costs $50 per examination. At the statute layer, the initial and per-year fee for issuance of a mechanical contractor’s licence is $100, payable to the Department. The application fee is the initial licence fee for the licence cycle, and it is nonrefundable; adding a classification likewise requires the Department’s application and a nonrefundable application fee. Examination fees are paid to PSI at scheduling — since June 14, 2017 they are no longer submitted to the State. A full licence cycle involves the per-year licence fee across its three years as arithmetic, but there is no separate standalone application instrument beyond the form described here, and this guide prints none.
Holding the licence: cycle, duties, and limits
The licence expires on August 31 every third year and is renewable by filing an application and paying the licence fee on or before October 31. An initial licence or relicensure sought outside that window is charged yearly pro rata to the end of the three-year cycle; renewal fees are not prorated. A licence not renewed is void for the purpose of obtaining a permit. Relicensure is only by reinstatement application plus the licence fee, and a renewal or reinstatement filed within three years after voiding does not require reexamination. Beyond that, the general rules require meeting the reinstatement provisions and taking and passing the required examination.
No continuing-education requirement for mechanical contractors was found in the statute or rules retrieved for this guide, and the position is stated only in that form. No general-liability insurance or surety-bond requirement for this licence, and no reciprocity or endorsement provision in Article 8 as retrieved, was found either; eligibility runs through the MCL 339.5807 routes for every applicant.
Working duties complete the picture. A person shall not perform installations, alterations, or servicing of the regulated classifications unless the person, or an employee of the person, holds a mechanical contractor’s licence that is not revoked or suspended, classified or limited under MCL 339.5807 for that work, and the licence holder has secured the appropriate permit from the enforcing agency. The person performing the work shall designate the licence holder as contractor of record and notify the Department in writing; the contractor of record need not personally perform the work in a facility that regularly employs a qualified maintenance crew. Except for replacement of minor parts, mechanical work shall not be started until a permit is issued. Permit exceptions are narrow: portable equipment; gas burners with inputs of less than 30,000 Btu per hour; self-contained refrigeration systems and window air conditioners of 1.5 horsepower or less; and oil burners not requiring a flue connection. Permits for steam or vapour boilers operating at not more than 15 psig in private residences or apartment houses of fewer than six families must be secured by a contractor classified in hydronic heating and cooling and process piping — a boundary that reminds HVAC Equipment holders that boiler permit work of that kind belongs to a neighbouring classification. The minimal standard of acceptable practice is 1972 PA 230, and deviation may constitute incompetence under MCL 339.5607(g). Owner-occupants of single-family dwellings may perform mechanical work without a licence but must still secure a permit, and security-alarm providers need no mechanical licence or permit for thermostat work on HVAC or hydronic systems.
No hands-on or drawing component for the HVAC Equipment examination is stated in the sources for this guide; the examination as sourced is computer-delivered. The general rule provides only that a hands-on examination, if administered, is pass or fail. Candidates should plan for the computer sitting described here and confirm any change with the Department.
A study sequence built for this sitting
First, the classification map. Learn the ten classifications, the specialty layer, and the HVAC Equipment holder’s position inside both, until scope questions answer themselves. Second, the statutes. Study PA 407 Article 8 and PA 230 as examination strands: definitions, eligibility, contractor of record, permits, renewal. Third, the tested books by structure. For each book on the Rev. 08/01/2024 list, learn its organisation before its details, because the clean-book rule rewards navigation speed. Fourth, integrated installation practice. Work heating, cooling, duct, fuel-gas, and venting problems as whole systems in the settings the outline names — rooftop units, heat pumps, kitchen exhaust, CSST layout, Type B venting. Fifth, timed practice from clean references. Simulate the sitting’s real constraint: 150 questions, 180 minutes, unmarked books. Review every miss by strand — principle, installation, duct and gas work, code, or statute — and return to the tested edition, not to a field-adoption summary.
For the program overview and the notify-me enrollment route, see the companion page: Michigan Mechanical Contractor — HVAC Equipment Exam Preparation.
Frequently asked questions
Is the HVAC Equipment examination really the largest Michigan mechanical sitting?
As published, yes in structure: HVAC Equipment is listed at 150 questions in 3 hours, open book, at a minimum passing score of 75%. Other classifications carry their own published figures, which this guide does not build on.
Why must my books be unmarked if the examination is open book?
Because Michigan’s rule requires it. Materials must be bound and clean, with no highlights, underlining, marking, or tabs, and marking materials before or during the examination is reported to the Bureau. Study for navigation fluency instead of annotations.
Which residential code is tested?
Michigan Residential Code 2015, as listed in the Department’s Rev. 08/01/2024 reference list, alongside Michigan Mechanical Code 2021 and International Fuel Gas Code 2021.
Does field adoption change what is tested?
No. The field layer under Part 9A and the tested layer under the Department reference list are separate. A pending proposal for a later field edition changes neither layer as sourced here.
May experience in another classification count toward HVAC Equipment?
Through the crossover route only, where the statute specifies it: continuous active licensure for at least 3 years in a classification that the statute lists as supporting the classification sought, or through the in-classification experience route itself.
What happens if I fail?
Within the one-year eligibility window you may retest an unlimited number of times. The failing score report includes a diagnostic report by examination type. If the year expires without a pass, re-application to the Department is required.
Is there a practical part to study for?
No practical component for this examination is stated in the sources used for this guide. The sitting as sourced is computer-delivered and open book under the clean-book rules described here.
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