Oklahoma licenses its Mechanical Journeyman — HVAC Limited through the Oklahoma Construction Industries Board under the Mechanical Licensing Act. The Limited category is defined by a cap measured appliance by appliance — cooling including process piping at or below 25 tons, and heating including process piping at or below 500,000 Btu per hour per appliance — and its journeyman examination is a single trade-only sitting through PSI: 60 questions in 180 minutes, open book, passed at 70 percent, which is 42 correct. The PassProfessor Oklahoma Mechanical Journeyman — HVAC Limited program prepares candidates for that sitting and the Oklahoma rules around it, with the full route and study method in the companion guide at /oklahoma-mechanical-journeyman-hvac-limited-exam-guide/.
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What this credential certifies
The Mechanical Journeyman — HVAC Limited is an individual journeyman license in the Limited mechanical HVAC category, one of twelve mechanical categories listed at OAC 158:50-5-2(b). It is issued by the Oklahoma Construction Industries Board under the Mechanical Licensing Act, 59 O.S. Chapter 43A, and the Board’s rules at OAC Title 158, Chapter 50. A journeyman performs mechanical work within a licensed category without direct supervision, while employed by an HVACR contractor, but contracts work only through a contractor; a contractor additionally plans, contracts, supervises, or furnishes labor and materials. That contracting line is the first boundary of this credential: the license authorizes the work itself, inside its caps, and does not authorize contracting directly with the public.
The caps are the credential. In rule terms, Limited mechanical HVAC covers a ventilation (duct) system and/or cooling including process piping at or below 25 tons, heating including process piping at or below 500,000 Btu per hour per appliance, natural gas piping, refrigeration, and sheet metal. The heating cap is stated per appliance — not per building, not per system total, and not per job — a distinction candidates flatten at their peril, because the same installation can sit on opposite sides of the line depending on whether the heating figure is read appliance by appliance or added together. Work above either cap belongs to the Unlimited category, a separate license with its own examination and its own PassProfessor program; the two journeyman programs are never blended.
Below this license stands the registered apprentice, who works in the same category as the supervising licensee under the direct supervision of a licensed mechanical contractor or journeyman, with a maximum of three apprentices under one licensee. Above it stands the Mechanical Contractor, whose examination adds a second part this sitting does not contain. The stand-alone categories are each taken by a separate examination and belong to separate programs. This page serves the Limited journeyman category only.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | Oklahoma Mechanical Journeyman — HVAC Limited: the trade-only journeyman examination in the Limited mechanical HVAC category |
| Regulator | Oklahoma Construction Industries Board (CIB), under the Mechanical Licensing Act, 59 O.S. Chapter 43A, and OAC Title 158, Chapter 50 |
| Examination vendor | PSI, under the Candidate Information Bulletin effective September 11, 2026; the CIB determines eligibility and approves the applicant, who then schedules with PSI |
| Examination form | 60 questions, 180 minutes, open book, trade only — there is no Business and Law portion for this license |
| Passing standard | 70 percent, printed by PSI as 42 of 60 |
| Scope | Limited mechanical HVAC: cooling including process piping at or below 25 tons; heating including process piping at or below 500,000 Btu per hour per appliance; natural gas piping, refrigeration, and sheet metal |
| Tested codes | International Mechanical Code and International Fuel Gas Code, 2018 or 2024 with Oklahoma Revisions, on the transition dates stated on this page; adopted Oklahoma codes are the 2024 editions effective September 14, 2026 |
| Administrator note | PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Oklahoma Construction Industries Board or PSI |
No numeric pretest count is published for this examination, and none is stated here.
One part only: trade, without Business and Law
Journeymen are examined on the trade only. There is no Business and Law portion for this license. The two-part structure — trade plus Mechanical Business and Law, both parts required — belongs to the contractor license alone. One bridge rule connects the tiers without merging them: a passing contractor trade portion may instead be applied to a journeyman license in the same category if the journeyman application and fees are received no more than one year after passing. The bridge moves a passed trade score; it does not add a law portion to the journeyman route.
General sitting rules apply as PSI publishes them. Candidates arrive 30 minutes early and present one valid signature-bearing photo identification. A silent, non-printing, non-programmable calculator is permitted, and a magnifying glass is available on request. Where a reference conflicts with a legal requirement, the legal requirement controls, and state-specific law controls conflicts. Eligibility approval carries no expiration date, and the contractor rule about passing both parts within three years of approval does not apply to this single-part examination.
What the 60 questions cover
The bulletin accounts for all 60 items in six areas, and this page prints the outline only in that full accounted form: Electrical Knowledge and Controls carries 15 questions; Natural Gas carries 9; Air Distribution Systems carries 10; Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Systems carries 13; Heating Systems carries 10; and Safety carries 3. Preparation should follow those weights. Electrical knowledge and controls is the single largest area — a quarter of the paper — which surprises candidates who picture a Limited sitting as mostly refrigeration and heating work. A study plan built on habit, or on the weights of a different Oklahoma form, will not meet this paper as PSI built it.
All mechanical examinations in the bulletin are open book. Candidates bring their own references. Highlighting, underlining, and indexing beforehand are permitted; writing in references before or during the examination is not permitted; tabs must be permanent only. Open book changes the skill the sitting rewards: finding the governing provision, reading it accurately under time pressure, and applying it to a described installation — including whether that installation falls inside or outside the Limited caps.
References and the tested-edition transition
The tested reference list includes the ACCA Ductulator; the International Mechanical Code, 2018 or 2024, with Oklahoma Revisions; the International Fuel Gas Code, 2018 or 2024, with Oklahoma Revisions; Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, 20th, 21st, or 22nd editions — the 22nd usable as of August 13, 2026, and the 20th no longer allowed starting November 1, 2026 — or Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technology, 5th edition (2005), likewise no longer allowed starting November 1, 2026; the Manual J reprint (2006), the manual item on this Journeyman Limited list; Mathematics for Plumbers and Pipefitters, 8th edition; and OSHA 29 CFR Part 1926. NCCER HVAC Books 1–4 are additionally allowed but were not used in examination development.
The code transition carries exact dates, stated exactly as the bulletin states them. Its note reads, for each code-alternating list: starting September 14, 2026 the 2024 code can be used; as of December 14, 2026 the 2018 code will no longer be used or allowed. During the window, either the 2018 or the 2024 editions with Oklahoma Revisions may be used; after December 14, 2026, the 2018 editions are barred and the durable tested key is the 2024 editions only. Material in this program keys to the 2024 editions, and no material here depends on a provision that exists only in the 2018 editions or that differs between 2018 and 2024. The adopted layer is separate: Oklahoma’s adopted field codes are the 2024 editions with Oklahoma amendments, effective September 14, 2026.
Who may sit: experience, substitutions, and the endorsed apprentice
All applicants must be 18 or older. Verifiable experience means mechanical experience employed by a licensed mechanical contractor, or a Committee-approved means including United States military service. One year equals 2,000 hours. Experience gained in Oklahoma requires a Board apprentice registration for that period; experience obtained while unregistered does not count, except experience lawfully obtained under applicable federal or state law. The experience affidavit must be signed and notarized by a certifier with personal knowledge. Application and its fees must be received no less than three working days before the examination date, and the application fee is forfeited if the applicant fails to meet minimum qualifications.
The standard route requires three years of verifiable experience in the category. Committee-approved education may substitute at published steps: 1,000 hours or more plus one year of experience; 500 hours or more plus two years; 375 hours or more plus two and a quarter years; 334 hours or more plus two and a third years; or 250 hours or more plus two and a half years. Equivalent verifiable military experience, a special certification required for the category, and a current good-standing out-of-state license complete the route list. The contractor gate is this framework plus one additional year; that fourth year is not part of this program’s gate.
This Limited program alone carries one further route. A registered apprentice at least 17 years old who has completed a Committee-approved formal educational program of 1,000 hours or more, with no grade lower than 70 percent in all trade courses, and who is in good standing with the school, may be approved to sit for this examination early. An endorsed apprentice is one who has passed that examination and is completing the required one year of verifiable experience as a registered apprentice. If that experience is completed within three years of the passing score and the apprentice is at least 18, the Limited journeyman license issues without further examination on the journeyman application and its fees. The route is an early sitting, not a waived year: the experience year is still owed in full.
Reciprocity runs by written agreement and substantial equivalence, stated in full in the companion guide; partner-state names are not in the rule, and none are printed here.
Fees in their separate layers, and what is not a journeyman step
The vendor layer is PSI’s: $92 for this examination, nonrefundable and nontransferable. The rule layer states the mechanism behind it — the Board or its designated representative may collect the actual cost of the examination, posted at the testing site — and the PSI-charged amount is the $92 in this paragraph. The PSI fee is a separate instrument from every Board fee, never added to them into a single figure.
The Board layer is the current journeyman schedule at OAC 158:50-9-2, as charged on Board application forms: application $25; initial license $50 — a total at application of $75; renewal $75; renewal late fee $25. Board fees are payable to the Board. A one-time low-income fee waiver exists in the Board’s rules. The contractor’s bond and insurance activation, required after a contractor passes both contractor parts, is a contractor step only: no bond or insurance proof is a condition of issuing or holding this journeyman license.
Retakes, renewal, and continuing education
After a first failure, a candidate waits 30 days; every failure after and including the second requires 90 days. Examination misconduct brings expulsion, an invalid examination, and disqualification from retaking for not less than 30 and not more than 365 days as determined by the Board’s Administrator.
A license runs not more than one year and expires the last day of the licensee’s birth month each year; the renewal application and fee must be delivered or mailed on or before that date. An expired license may be reinstated with the renewal fee, the late fee, and proof of all renewal requirements, and no license may be issued or renewed until all outstanding fines owed to any Board division are paid. Continuing education is six hours every three years, within the 36 months preceding license expiration, required for renewal of any mechanical contractor or journeyman license, with course and instructor approved in advance by the Mechanical License Committee; holders are exempt for three years from the date they passed their current licensing examination. The companion guide carries the renewal rules in full.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
The cap, taught appliance by appliance. The program is built around the Limited category’s defining discipline: reading tonnage and Btu figures against the rule’s caps, with the heating cap applied per appliance every time, and scope questions sorted into Limited work, Unlimited work, and work the license does not authorize at all because contracting runs through a contractor. Practice follows the six accounted areas at their published weights, keyed to the 2024 code editions with Oklahoma Revisions.
Open-book performance. Because the sitting is open book, the program trains lookup speed and accuracy inside the candidate’s own tabbed references alongside knowledge — finding the governing provision, checking it against Oklahoma law where the two could conflict, and applying it under time pressure.
Independence, stated plainly. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the Oklahoma Construction Industries Board or PSI. Completing this program confers no license and no exemption; the Board alone licenses, and candidates schedule examinations through PSI after Board approval. The companion guide at /oklahoma-mechanical-journeyman-hvac-limited-exam-guide/ carries the full route and study plan.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The Oklahoma Mechanical Journeyman — HVAC Limited program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address to be notified when it is ready.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are on the Limited journeyman examination, and how long is it?
60 questions in 180 minutes, open book, through PSI. The examination is trade only; there is no Business and Law portion for a journeyman license.
What score passes?
70 percent, printed by PSI as 42 of 60.
What work does the Limited category cover?
Ventilation (duct) systems and/or cooling including process piping at or below 25 tons, heating including process piping at or below 500,000 Btu per hour per appliance, natural gas piping, refrigeration, and sheet metal — performed without direct supervision while employed by an HVACR contractor, with contracting done only through a contractor. The heating cap is measured per appliance; that qualifier is part of the category definition.
Which manual is on this examination’s reference list?
The Manual J reprint (2006) is the manual item on the Journeyman Limited list.
What does the examination cost?
PSI charges $92 for the examination. Board fees are separate: $25 application and $50 initial license, $75 at application; renewal $75; renewal late fee $25.
Can an apprentice sit for this examination early?
Yes, on the endorsed-apprentice route for this Limited category only: a registered apprentice at least 17 years old who has completed a Committee-approved program of 1,000 hours or more with no grade lower than 70 percent in all trade courses may be approved to sit early, then completes one year of verifiable experience as a registered apprentice before the license issues without further examination.
Which code editions are tested?
The 2018 or 2024 editions of the International Mechanical Code and International Fuel Gas Code, with Oklahoma Revisions, during the transition window. After December 14, 2026, the 2018 editions will no longer be used or allowed, and the tested key is the 2024 editions only. Oklahoma’s adopted field codes are the 2024 editions effective September 14, 2026. No bond or insurance proof is a condition of this journeyman license; bond and insurance activation belongs to the contractor tier.
When does enrollment open?
The program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address on this page to be notified when it is ready.