Maryland’s Journeyman Restricted license confines a worker-tier licensee to the specialty area or areas in which the holder is licensed, working under the direction and control of a licensed contractor. PSI examines five specialties separately — Heating – Forced Air, Heating – Hydronic, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration — with no combined examination for this tier, and the eligibility gate is § 9A-302(f): three years as an apprentice and 1,875 training hours in total. This guide works through the specialties, the gate, the sitting and the license that follows, specialty area by specialty area.
This program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog — join the notify list and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
The credential 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, separately set at 90 minutes |
| Passing standard | 70% — the bulletin prints a 70% minimum passing score; the statute states a grade of at least 70 percent (§ 9A-307(a)) |
| 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 |
How to read this guide: three layers, kept apart
Maryland HVACR facts live in three layers, and most candidate errors are layer errors. The statute layer — Title 9A — defines the license classes, the scope limits and the eligibility gates, including this license’s own gate at § 9A-302(f). The regulation layer — COMAR 09.15 — sets the Board’s fees and procedures. The bulletin layer — PSI’s Qualification Information Bulletin — carries the outlines, the reference lists, the fees PSI charges and the rules of the sitting. A figure is only safe when its layer is known: the license fee is a COMAR figure, the examination fee a PSI figure, the training-hours gate a statute figure. This guide keeps the layers labelled throughout; the companion Maryland Journeyman Restricted HVACR program page summarises the result.
The license in the Maryland structure
Title 9A creates exactly six license classes: master, master restricted, limited, journeyman, journeyman restricted and apprentice. An individual must be licensed before providing or assisting in providing HVACR services in the State, and Maryland licenses individuals only. “Provide HVACR services” means to install, maintain, alter, remodel or repair heating systems, cooling systems, refrigeration systems, ventilation systems or hydronic systems. The statute’s working definitions are quantitative where it matters: a refrigeration system cools a surface or area below 55 degrees Fahrenheit, and a ventilation system supplies or removes air at a rate of more than 250 cubic feet per minute.
The journeyman restricted holder sits in the worker tier, alongside the apprentice below and the unrestricted journeyman as the sibling tier. Above sit the contractor tiers — master, master restricted and limited — the only licensees who are “licensed contractors” able to contract with the public. The restricted licensee is expressly not a licensed contractor, works only under the direction and control of one, and is confined to the specialty area or areas of the license. The master restricted license, the tier above within the restricted family, is examined in the same specialty areas with one addition at that level — an addition that does not exist at the journeyman restricted level at all.
The route, step by step
Step one — hold the apprentice license and build the gate. The route begins with the apprentice license; there are no prerequisites for that license itself, but the restricted gate is counted from it. Step two — meet § 9A-302(f): at least three years holding the apprentice license, with at least 1,875 hours of training in total completed during that period in the specialty services, under a licensed contractor’s direction and control. Step three — apply to PSI, online, uploading qualification documentation and paying the examination fee with the application; an application without the fee is not processed, and processing takes up to about a week. Step four — sit the specialty examination for the area sought, computer-administered by appointment, open book. Step five — apply for licensure within one year of passing, paying the Board’s license fee; the result does not remain valid beyond that year. Step six — work and renew inside the licensed area or areas, on the two-year Title 9A cycle.
One alternative replaces step four for a defined group: the Board shall issue a journeyman restricted license without examination to a completer of an apprentice program approved by the Apprenticeship and Training Council who applies within two years of graduation. The Board may also waive examination requirements in the reciprocity setting described later in this guide; the agreements the Board actually publishes are with Delaware and Virginia only.
The gate in depth: § 9A-302(f) read exactly
The restricted gate is shorter than the unrestricted journeyman gate, and it is frequently misstated in both directions, so the statute’s own shape is worth holding precisely. Three elements: the time element — holding an apprentice license for at least three years; the training element — completing during that period at least 1,875 hours of training in total in providing forced air heating, hydronic heating, ventilation, air-conditioning or refrigeration services; and the supervision element — that training under the direction and control of a licensed contractor. Then the examination.
The hours figure is a total. The statute does not divide it by year, does not state an annual minimum, and does not attach the hours to a single specialty — the training services are listed across the five specialty fields. Any summary that renders the figure as an annual requirement has rewritten the gate. Equally, the figure belongs to this license: the unrestricted Journeyman license is governed by a different paragraph of the same section with its own, larger requirement, and material that carries the restricted figures into the journeyman gate — or the journeyman figures into this one — is wrong for both licenses. Candidates should also note the matching examination rule: a restricted applicant is examined only on subjects in which the applicant has the experience the statute requires, which is why the experience record and the specialty chosen must line up.
Around the gate sit the Board’s credit rules. The Board may credit not more than three years of comparable formal study or professional training; may credit not more than six years of work experience that falls short of the requirements where the work was comparable and the shortfall is not the applicant’s fault; and shall credit not more than three years to an applicant who has been teaching formal HVACR courses. Credits adjust how experience is counted; they do not change the gate’s stated totals.
The five specialty outlines in full
Four outlines are published as shared “Master Restricted and Journeyman Restricted” outlines, each totalling 50 items. Ventilation stands apart, printed separately for this license at 40 items. The distribution inside each outline is the preparation map: where the paper’s weight actually sits.
Air Conditioning — 50 items
Electrical Knowledge, Motors, and Controls carries 15 items. Piping carries 10. Refrigeration and Air Conditioning carries 20, the largest block: theory, refrigerants, equipment and components, installation, operation, troubleshooting and maintenance. Safety carries 5. Study time should mirror the outline: the refrigeration block at twice the weight of piping, the electrical block not neglected at second-largest.
Heating – Forced Air — 50 items
Heating Systems dominates at 25 items — half the paper: theory and types, combustion air, sizing and installation, operation and troubleshooting, vents and chimneys, fuel systems. Electrical carries 15, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning only 5, and Safety 5. The forced-air candidate is examined first as a heating mechanic and second as an electrician; refrigeration content is present but deliberately light.
Heating – Hydronic — 50 items
Piping carries 20 items — the largest piping block in the restricted set: materials and applications, joints and connections, hangers and supports, valves and fittings, testing and troubleshooting, insulation. Electrical carries 10, Heating Systems 8, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning 7, and Safety 5. Hydronics is where the water side outranks the heating plant itself: sizing, joining and supporting pipework is the examined craft.
Refrigeration — 50 items
The most evenly divided outline: Electrical 15, Piping 15, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning 15, Safety 5. No single block dominates, which changes the study problem — the refrigeration candidate cannot ride one strong area and must be serviceable across electrical work, pipework and the refrigeration cycle alike, with the industrial refrigeration reference pulling the paper beyond packaged residential equipment.
Ventilation — 40 items, 90 minutes
Air Distribution Systems carries 35 of the 40 items; Safety carries 5. Duct definitions, sizing and design, assembly and installation, materials, insulation, fire and smoke control, exhaust and testing and balancing make up effectively the whole paper. The Master Restricted Ventilation outline is a different mix and must not be substituted for this one: the journeyman restricted ventilation candidate faces the most concentrated paper in the set, and preparation is correspondingly deep rather than broad.
No pretest or unscored item count for any restricted examination is published in the sources behind this guide, and none is stated here.
References, specialty by specialty
The bulletin lists the only references allowed in the testing room, and they are not provided at the test centre — candidates bring their own. Four titles form the recurring core: the International Mechanical Code, 2018 (the bulletin lists 2012, 2015 and 2018 with the printed note that effective May 15, 2025 only the 2018 edition is used); Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, 21st or 22nd edition; Manual J — Residential Load Calculation, 2006, Eighth Edition; and 29 CFR Part 1926 (OSHA), or the PSI selections from it. The ACCA Ductulator appears on the Ventilation list.
The specialties then diverge, and the divergences are the Maryland delta in miniature. Forced Air and Hydronic add two titles: NFPA 31, Standard for the Installation of Oil-Burning Equipment (2006 or 2011), and NFPA 54, National Fuel Gas Code, 2002. That NFPA 54 listing is the only fuel-gas reference in the entire Maryland HVACR examination program: it is not the International Fuel Gas Code, no IFGC appears on any Maryland list, and its edition is 2002 — a candidate who prepares fuel-gas work from a current fuel-gas code is studying the wrong book in the wrong edition for these two specialties, and studying fuel gas at all for the other three. Hydronic adds one more: Modern Hydronic Heating for Residential and Light Commercial Buildings, Second Edition. Refrigeration instead adds the Industrial Refrigeration Handbook, 1998, and its list does not carry Manual J. Ventilation adds the Fibrous Glass Duct Construction Standards, Fifth Edition, 2002, and HVAC Duct Construction Standards, Metal and Flexible, 2005, 3rd edition (SMACNA), with the Ductulator.
The room rules for books are strict and mechanical. This is an open book examination, but no study guides are allowed. Reference books may be indexed and may contain highlighted or underlined text; all materials must be unmarked — not written in — and may not contain additional papers, loose or attached. Only two tab products are acceptable, the Avery Swift Tabs and Redi-Tag self-stick permanent index tabs; Post-It index flags and Post-It flags are unacceptable, and if the proctor can remove a tab without ripping the page, the candidate must remove it before the examination begins.
The sitting itself
Examinations are administered by computer, by appointment, one question at a time; answers may be revisited and changed until time expires or the candidate ends the examination. Candidates apply online through PSI and should arrive at least 30 minutes before the appointment, registering under the legal first and last name exactly as on the identification: one valid, unexpired, signature- and photo-bearing ID. Only non-programmable calculators that are silent, battery-operated, without paper-tape printing and without an alphabetic keyboard are permitted; a hardcover bound word-to-word translation dictionary is allowed. A tutorial of up to 15 minutes does not count against examination time.
Scoring is immediate: the passing or failing indication appears on the computer screen at the end of the test, and results are confidential, revealed only to the candidate and the Board and Department. A failing candidate is given 30 minutes at the end of the examination to review the items missed, at no charge — a diagnostic window worth using deliberately rather than emotionally. Passing candidates receive no further notice from PSI; licensing instructions come directly from the Department. The pass standard throughout is the bulletin’s 70% minimum passing score, matching the statute’s “grade of at least 70 percent.”
Money and scheduling rules are unforgiving in specific, knowable ways. A candidate may cancel or reschedule without forfeiting the fee if notice is received two days before the scheduled date — a Monday appointment requires notice by the previous Saturday — and voicemail is not an acceptable form of cancellation. Missing the appointment, cancelling late, arriving too late or failing to present proper identification forfeits the fee. The examination fee is valid for one examination only; fees are not refundable or transferable, and are valid for 90 days.
Fees in full: two instruments, never one figure
The PSI examination fee is $50 for each specialty examination, paid directly to PSI with the application. The regulation layer confirms the split in terms: an applicant shall pay the examination fee directly to the testing service chosen by the Board, at the fee the testing service establishes. Each specialty is sat and paid for separately; there is no combined-specialty price, and no honest total can be printed without knowing how many specialty examinations a given candidate sits — so this guide prints none.
The Board license fee is $25 for each area licensed, original and renewal at the same fee, all fees nonrefundable, under COMAR 09.15.01.03B in the schedule as of January 1, 2025. Board fees are set by regulation; the current statute’s fee section contains no dollar amounts, and older schedules that still circulate are not the current figures and are not used in this guide. After passing, the Board issues the license on receipt of the license fee; unlike the contractor tiers, the journeyman restricted applicant files no insurance proof of their own, because a restricted licensee employed by a contractor-tier licensee works under that licensee’s insurance position.
Tested 2018, field 2021: the edition split
The tested layer is unambiguous: every restricted reference list keys the mechanical code to the IMC 2018 only, effective May 15, 2025. The field layer is different. The Board’s code chapter, COMAR 09.15.05, adopts the most recent version of the IMC as incorporated in the Model Performance Code — currently the IMC 2021 — but that incorporation is not self-executing in every subdivision: the Model Performance Code binds a subdivision that adopts it, Board enforcement runs through county cooperative agreements, and a county code adopted before January 1, 1988 continues to apply within that county. The working conclusion is twofold: prepare and sit on 2018, and never assume the job site in front of you is governed by the same edition — or enforced by the same route — as the examination room.
Working life under the license
The direction-and-control condition is not ceremonial. The restricted licensee provides services under a licensed contractor, carries no independent contracting authority, and steps outside the license by working beyond the licensed specialty area or areas — performing services outside the scope of the license is an enumerated disciplinary ground. The license is not transferable. On renewal, a licensee may elect inactive status — no services may be provided while inactive — and restoration after expiration runs on a four-year horizon: within four years, restoration follows the renewal and reinstatement route; beyond it, the Board may require the applicant to proceed as if never licensed. Reciprocity is narrow and conditional: the Board may waive examination for an equivalently licensed journeyman restricted applicant from a state whose requirements are at least equivalent and which waives Maryland licensees in return, and the agreements the Board actually publishes are with Delaware and Virginia only.
Retakes follow three consistent layers: PSI’s rule that the examination may not be taken more often than every 30 days; the regulation’s matching 30-day reapplication rule with a fresh examination fee; and the statute’s requirement of a new application and a new, nonrefundable fee after a failure or a failure to appear. Cheating carries its own bar: unauthorised material or other misbehaviour causes immediate rejection of the application and bars reexamination for at least one year. No continuing-education hours attach to this license at renewal — the inspectors’ annual course elsewhere in Title 9A is the statute’s only continuing-education duty and it does not bind a journeyman restricted licensee.
A study plan built on the specialty structure
Sequence by specialty, not by book. First, fix the specialty and read its outline as a budget: heating systems first for Forced Air, piping first for Hydronic, air distribution almost exclusively for Ventilation, an even three-way split for Refrigeration, the refrigeration block first for Air Conditioning. Second, work the shared core at examination depth: IMC 2018 navigation until provisions are found by structure rather than by page memory, Modern Refrigeration for the cycle and its components, and the OSHA selections for the safety items every outline carries. Third, the specialty-only layer: NFPA 54 (2002) and NFPA 31 for the two heating specialties; the Siegenthaler text for Hydronic; the Industrial Refrigeration Handbook for Refrigeration; the duct construction standards and Ductulator for Ventilation. Fourth, the Maryland structure: the § 9A-302(f) gate in its exact form, the scope limits, the two fee layers, the 30-day retake rule. Fifth, rehearse the room: timed, open-book practice with the actual references, tabbed only with permitted tabs, because in an open-book sitting the scarce resource is retrieval speed, not recall alone.
The errors this examination is built to catch
Studying the wrong fuel-gas book. NFPA 54 in its 2002 edition, in two specialties only, is the fuel-gas position; the IFGC in any edition, and NFPA 54 in a newer edition, are both wrong answers to the reference question. Reading the training hours as an annual figure rewrites the § 9A-302(f) gate and misstates eligibility. Merging the fees — adding the PSI charge and the Board charge into one cost — misstates both instruments. Preparing Ventilation from the master restricted outline swaps a different topic mix for the separately printed journeyman restricted one. Treating the field code as the tested code keys preparation to IMC 2021 when the bulletin examines on 2018. Assuming breadth the license does not grant — contracting independently, or drifting into unlicensed specialty areas — is the error the license structure itself exists to catch, in the examination room and afterwards.
After the sitting: the license and its clock
Passing starts a one-year clock: apply for licensure within one year, with the license fee, or the result ceases to remain valid. The license then runs to the first October 1 in an odd-numbered year after its effective date, renewing for two-year terms on the Board’s form and the per-area renewal fee. The working duties — direction and control, confinement to the licensed area or areas, no independent contracting — run continuously beneath that cycle.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly does § 9A-302(f) require?
At least three years holding an apprentice license; at least 1,875 hours of training in total completed during that period in forced air heating, hydronic heating, ventilation, air-conditioning or refrigeration services, under the direction and control of a licensed contractor; and passing the specialty examination. The hours are a statutory total, not an annual figure, and the gate is this license’s own — it is not the unrestricted Journeyman gate.
Why is Ventilation different from the other four specialties?
Because PSI prints it differently for this license: a separate Journeyman Restricted Ventilation outline of 40 questions in 90 minutes — Air Distribution Systems 35, Safety 5 — rather than the shared 50-item outline format the other four specialties use. The Master Restricted Ventilation outline has a different mix again and must not be substituted.
Is there a combined Forced Air and Hydronic examination at this level?
No. No combined category exists among the Journeyman Restricted specialties as PSI lists them. A combined category appears only in the Master Restricted list, and this guide states nothing about how it is earned there.
Which references may I bring into the room?
Only the bulletin’s listed references for your specialty. They are not provided at the test centre. Books may be indexed and highlighted or underlined, must not be written in, must contain no additional papers, and may carry only the bulletin’s permitted permanent tab types — Post-It flags are expressly unacceptable.
What happens if I fail?
The result appears on screen at the end of the sitting, and you are given 30 minutes at the end of the examination to review the items you missed, at no charge. You may not retake the examination more often than every 30 days, and a retake requires a new application and a new examination fee.
How long is my passing result valid?
One year. Under COMAR, an applicant who has passed must apply for licensure, including payment of the applicable fees, within one year of successfully completing the examination for the result to remain valid.
Can I be licensed without the examination?
In one defined case: the Board shall issue a journeyman restricted license without examination to a completer of an Apprenticeship and Training Council–approved apprentice program who applies within two years of graduation. A conditional reciprocity waiver also exists; the Board’s published agreements are with Delaware and Virginia only.
Does this license require continuing education or its own insurance?
No continuing-education hours attach to this license — Title 9A’s only continuing-education duty binds HVACR inspectors. And a journeyman restricted licensee employed by a contractor-tier licensee needs no separate insurance policy of their own; the insurance duty sits with the contracting licensee.
Which mechanical code edition should I study?
The IMC 2018 — the only edition used for these examinations since May 15, 2025. Maryland’s field layer currently points to the IMC 2021 through the Model Performance Code, with local adoption and enforcement; the two layers are different and are kept different in this guide.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Board or PSI?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the State Board of HVACR Contractors, PSI or the Maryland Department of Labor. The Board alone licenses; PSI administers the examinations.
When does enrollment open for the PassProfessor program?
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.