Virginia HVAC Journeyman Exam Prep

About the Virginia HVAC Journeyman license

Virginia licenses mechanical (HVAC/R) tradespeople through the Virginia Board for Contractors (DPOR). The HVAC Journeyman authorizes you to perform heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration work, generally under a licensed mechanical contractor. You earn it by meeting the experience-and-education requirement — documented field hours plus approved instruction or an approved apprenticeship — and passing the trade exam.

Your exam is built on the codes Virginia has adopted through the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (USBC), which is based on the International family of codes: the International Mechanical Code (IMC) — PSI bulletin 481 lists the 2021 IMC, Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, 22nd edition, and NFPA 31 for oil-burning equipment, plus the DPOR Individual License and Certification Regulations. Federal EPA Section 608 still governs refrigerant handling. Manual J is the residential HVAC reference only. It is not the listed book for this journeyman paper.

Know these scope facts cold: the license is held by the individual; most work requires a permit and inspection (rough-in and final); you must work within the classification you hold; and unlicensed or out-of-scope work is a violation that can cost the license and carry penalties. The mechanical code exists to deliver safe combustion and venting, adequate ventilation, and safe refrigeration — the exam keeps returning to those safety purposes.

How Virginia licensing works

• Experience and training: 18VAC50-30-39 B is the journeyman table for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical. The combinations are a related engineering bachelor's degree plus one year of practical experience; an associate degree or a certificate from at least a two-year tradesman program plus two years; 240 hours of formal vocational training plus four years; 160 hours plus five years; 80 hours plus six years; 40 hours plus seven years; or eight years of practical experience with no formal training. That table is not the residential-only table in subsection A. An approved apprenticeship certificate under 18VAC50-30-50 B exempts the journeyman exam. Eight years with no formal training does not.
• License levels: Virginia issues the HVAC tradesman license at journeyman and master levels. The license is held by the individual. Under 18VAC50-30-39 D the Board may approve a master exam for an applicant who has held a journeyman license in that trade for a minimum of one year, or who has nine years of practical experience. A residential HVAC license held for three years is a residential path, not a residential-electrician path. Ten years is not the printed figure.
• EPA certification: handling refrigerant requires federal EPA Section 608 certification (Type I, II, III, or Universal). That card is separate from the state license.
• Application: submit the individual tradesman application to the Virginia Board for Contractors (DPOR), 9960 Mayland Drive, Suite 400, Richmond, VA 23233, with proof of experience and training. The Board approves the application before PSI schedules the exam. This guide does not print a dollar fee. The bulletin fee column is not labeled to a single exam name.
• Exam vendor: PSI, bulletin 481. The journeyman HVAC exam is open book, 85 questions in 210 minutes, passing score 60. The master HVAC exam uses the same 85-item outline, passing score 64, same 210 minutes. Residential HVAC is 55 questions, 120 minutes, passing score 39. The practice exams in this course use a 70 percent LearnDash bar so that 60 correct passes and 59 fails. Alongside the trade topics the paper covers Virginia tradesman law and regulations.
• Renewal: an HVAC tradesman license expires three years from the last day of the month in which it was issued (18VAC50-30-120 A). Renewal or reinstatement takes three hours of continuing education on applicable building-code changes from a board-approved provider. The two-year clock in that chapter is not this card. The eight-hour block is elevator and accessibility work, not HVAC.