Oklahoma licenses its Mechanical Journeyman — HVAC Unlimited through the Oklahoma Construction Industries Board under the Mechanical Licensing Act. The Unlimited category states no tonnage or Btu cap at all — any cooling and heating, including process piping, with natural gas piping, process piping, refrigeration, and sheet metal — and its journeyman examination is a single trade-only sitting through PSI: 70 questions in 180 minutes, open book, passed at 70 percent, which is 49 correct. The PassProfessor Oklahoma Mechanical Journeyman — HVAC Unlimited 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-unlimited-exam-guide/.
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What this credential certifies
The Mechanical Journeyman — HVAC Unlimited is an individual journeyman license in the Unlimited 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.
Read the scope sentence for what it does not contain. Unlimited mechanical HVAC covers any cooling and heating including process piping, natural gas piping, process piping, refrigeration, and sheet metal — and the category states no tonnage cap and no Btu-per-hour cap. The absence of a size ceiling removes equipment-size limits only. It does not remove the contracting line: an Unlimited journeyman contracts work only through a contractor and may not contract directly with the public on the strength of this license. Candidates who read “unlimited” as unlimited authority misread the credential in its most consequential place. The word describes the plant the holder may work on, not the business the holder may run.
One figure that follows this category must be placed correctly. The Board’s application requires Unlimited experience to be certified above 25 tons and 500,000 Btu/h. That is an experience threshold — a statement about the size of work the applicant’s qualifying experience must have reached — not a scope cap, not a minimum job size, and not a line drawn anywhere in the category definition. The category itself remains uncapped, and this page states the threshold only as an experience threshold.
Below this license stands the registered apprentice, who works 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. Sibling to it stands the Mechanical Journeyman — HVAC Limited, a separate license with its own caps, its own examination form, and its own PassProfessor program; the two journeyman programs are never blended.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | Oklahoma Mechanical Journeyman — HVAC Unlimited: the trade-only journeyman examination in the Unlimited 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 | 70 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 49 of 70 |
| Scope | Unlimited mechanical HVAC: any cooling and heating including process piping, natural gas piping, process piping, refrigeration, and sheet metal — no tonnage or Btu cap is stated in the category |
| 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.
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 sitting runs at a brisk pace: 70 questions in 180 minutes leaves roughly two and a half minutes per question, so open-book lookup discipline matters more here, not less. 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 70 questions cover: four read areas and one combined residual
The bulletin accounts for this sitting differently from every other Oklahoma form, and honest preparation starts by respecting that difference. Four areas carry individually stated counts: Natural Gas carries 10 questions; Air Distribution Systems carries 16; Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Systems carries 16; and Heating Systems carries 10. The remaining 18 questions are carried as a combined residual covering Electrical Knowledge and Controls together with Safety. This page prints the residual only as that combined figure of 18, because that is the form in which the accounting is sourced for this examination. No individual count for either subject inside the residual is stated anywhere in this program — and candidates should treat any source that splits the 18 into two tidy numbers as inventing precision the bulletin accounting does not supply for this form.
The shape of the paper follows. Air distribution and refrigeration and air conditioning dominate together, holding 32 of 70 between them — the air side and the refrigeration side of large-plant work, exactly where an uncapped category lives. The combined electrical-and-safety block holds more than a quarter of the sitting, so controls literacy and safe method are a pillar of this paper, not a tail. A study plan allocates time by stated count where counts are stated, and by combined weight where they are not.
All mechanical examinations in the bulletin are open book, with the candidate’s own references: highlighting, underlining, and indexing beforehand are permitted; writing in references is not; tabs must be permanent only.
References and the tested-edition transition
The tested reference list for this examination 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; 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. Assemble exactly the set the bulletin allows for this examination and resist completing it from another Oklahoma form’s list: reference lists differ across forms in this bulletin, and a title on a sibling list is not thereby part of this one.
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 — a different instrument, governing the work rather than the sitting.
Who may sit: the gate, and the threshold inside it
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. For this Unlimited category, that experience is the experience the Board’s application requires to be certified above 25 tons and 500,000 Btu/h — the threshold in its proper place, as a condition on qualifying experience, while the category the license confers stays uncapped. 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. No early-sitting apprentice route reaches this examination.
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
Uncapped scope, read precisely. The program teaches the Unlimited category as written — any cooling and heating including process piping, with natural gas piping, process piping, refrigeration, and sheet metal, and no size cap — while drilling its two misreadings: the experience threshold read as a scope line, and uncapped plant read as contracting authority.
The outline as accounted, at this sitting’s pace. Practice follows the four stated counts — air distribution 16, refrigeration and air conditioning 16, natural gas 10, heating 10 — treats electrical knowledge and controls together with safety as the one combined block of 18, rehearsed at full combined weight without an invented split, and trains the lookup triage that 70 questions in 180 minutes rewards.
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-unlimited-exam-guide/ carries the full route and study plan.
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Frequently asked questions
How many questions are on the Unlimited journeyman examination, and how long is it?
70 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 49 of 70.
Is there a size limit on the work this category covers?
No tonnage or Btu cap is stated in the Unlimited category. It covers any cooling and heating including process piping, natural gas piping, process piping, refrigeration, and sheet metal.
What does “certified above 25 tons and 500,000 Btu/h” mean, then?
It is an experience threshold on the Board’s application: the qualifying experience for this category must be certified above those figures. It is not a scope cap on the license, and the category remains uncapped. Electrical Knowledge and Controls and Safety are likewise accounted together, as one combined residual of 18 questions alongside the four individually stated areas; this program states no individual count for either subject inside that combined figure.
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.
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.