1.1 Current Exam Facts & License Classes

Who licenses Florida HVAC contractors?

Quick Answer: The Construction Industry Licensing Board (CILB), inside the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), licenses Class A and Class B air-conditioning contractors under Chapter 489, Part I, Florida Statutes. HVAC is a Division II specialty. Division II contractors must pass two examinations: Business & Finance and General Trade Knowledge. That is not the Division I (General / Building / Residential) path, which adds Contract Administration and Project Management.

If you install, maintain, repair, fabricate, alter, extend, or design central air-conditioning, refrigeration, heating, or ventilating systems for compensation in Florida, you are in the CILB world. The board sits in Tallahassee; the exams are written under CILB rules in Chapter 61G4-16, Florida Administrative Code, and delivered as daily computer-based tests. This guide is written for Class A and Class B candidates. It is not a Class C service-only course, and it is not a mechanical-contractor course — mechanical contractors have a broader statutory scope (gas lines, lift stations, and more) and a separate 130-question trade exam.

Division I vs. Division II — do not study the wrong exams

DBPR's Examinations at a Glance chart (updated June 2024) splits construction exams by division:

• Division I (General, Building, Residential) must pass three exams: Business & Finance, Contract Administration, and Project Management.
• Division II (air conditioning, mechanical, roofing, plumbing, and the other specialties) must pass two exams: Business and Finance and General Trade Knowledge.

Air-conditioning Class A and Class B are Division II. You will sit Business & Finance and the HVAC trade exam. You will not sit Contract Administration or Project Management. A related trap on the same official chart is Business & Finance Service Pool: 60 scored questions, 3.5 hours, Daily CBT. That sitting is for pool/spa servicing contractors. It is not the 120-question HVAC Business & Finance exam. If a prep ad or a friend tells you the HVAC business paper is 60 questions, they have the wrong line on the chart.

Official scored-question counts and times

Use these figures from Examinations at a Glance. Do not substitute a school's marketing count or a local county business-and-law quiz.

Class A is therefore a 250-scored-question two-sitting path (130 + 120). Class B is a 200-scored-question two-sitting path (80 + 120). Both sittings are open book and computer-based. The minimum passing score on CILB construction exams is 70 percent. Scores are reported as percentages and are not rounded. On Business & Finance, 70% of 120 is exactly 84 correct. On Class A trade, 70% of 130 is 91 correct. On Class B trade, 70% of 80 is 56 correct. A candidate who answers 83 of 120 B&F items correctly has 69.17% and fails — the extra fraction is not rounded up.

Time per scored item is roughly 3.5 minutes on Class A (450 minutes / 130), 3.75 minutes on Class B (300 / 80), and 3.25 minutes on Business & Finance (390 / 120). That pace is why this exam rewards indexed, tabbed (permanently), highlighted books — not last-minute memorization of every SMACNA table.

Class A, Class B, and Class C under F.S. 489.105 (2026 compilation of current Chapter 489)

Class A air-conditioning contractor (F.S. 489.105(3)(f)) is unlimited in capacity. The Class A contractor may install, maintain, repair, fabricate, alter, extend, or design (if not prohibited by law) central air-conditioning, refrigeration, heating, and ventilating systems, including ductwork needed to complete an air-distribution system; boiler and unfired pressure vessel systems; piping, insulation of pipes, vessels and ducts, pressure and process piping, and pneumatic control piping; limited dedicated HVAC electrical work on single-phase systems (replace/disconnect/reconnect on the line or load side of a dedicated existing disconnect; repair or replace power wiring, disconnects, breakers, or fuses for dedicated HVAC circuits with a circuit-breaker lock); low-voltage HVAC control wiring; and a condensate drain to an existing safe waste (not a direct sanitary connection). Class A may test and evaluate those systems; the statute does not create a mandatory license just for testing/evaluation.

Class B air-conditioning contractor (F.S. 489.105(3)(g)) has the same core HVAC, duct, piping/insulation, limited electrical, low-voltage, and condensate skills, but services are limited to 25 tons of cooling and 500,000 Btu of heating in any one system. Class B statutory scope does not pick up Class A's boilers, unfired pressure vessels, or pneumatic control piping. The official Class B trade outline also drops installing systems in the 25–100 ton band, systems over 100 tons, and centrifugal compressor systems that appear on Class A. Class B candidates in this guide still need the theory of large equipment — the Class B exam simply does not treat those install items as scored trade tasks.

Class C air-conditioning contractor (F.S. 489.105(3)(h)) is service-only and closed. Only a person who was registered or certified as Class C on October 1, 1988 remains Class C. CILB still regulates those remaining Class C holders; it does not open a new Class C exam. This study guide is for A/B.

What no air-conditioning class may do inside a building: liquefied petroleum or natural gas fuel lines (except disconnect/reconnect on LP/natural gas appliance changeouts), potable water lines, sanitary sewer lines, swimming pool piping and filters, or electrical power wiring beyond the dedicated HVAC exceptions. If the job is a gas pipe run or a new branch circuit from a panel for a kitchen, that is another license.

Certified vs. registered

A certified contractor (F.S. 489.105(8)) holds a DBPR certificate of competency and may contract in any jurisdiction in the state without repeating that jurisdiction's competency exam. Certified occupation codes begin with C. A registered contractor (F.S. 489.105(10)) has registered after meeting local competency and may contract only in that jurisdiction. Registered codes begin with R. Both still pull local permits and follow local amendments. The exam you are studying is the state certification exam. Passing it does not, by itself, issue the certificate — you still apply to CILB with experience, fingerprints, insurance, and financial responsibility.

The people around the license matter as much as the class. A primary qualifying agent (F.S. 489.105(4)) supervises the company's contracting and the jobs for which that person pulled the permit. A secondary qualifying agent (F.S. 489.105(5)) supervises jobs he or she permitted. A financially responsible officer (FRO) (F.S. 489.105(14)) is someone other than the primary qualifier who, with Board approval, takes personal responsibility for the organization's finances. You will see these titles again in contractor-law chapters; for now, know that the exam is taken by a person, and the certificate later qualifies a business organization.

What the two exams actually weight

Class A trade (61G4-16.001) is nine content areas. Class B uses the same map with slightly different percentages and without the large-tonnage install clusters. Official weights may vary about ±3%.

Business & Finance (same exam for every Division II trade, 120 questions) weights Establishing the Contracting Business 11%, Managing Administrative Duties 26%, Managing Trade Operations 10%, Conducting Accounting Functions 32%, Managing Human Resources 6%, and Complying with Government Regulations 15%. Accounting plus government rules is nearly half the business paper — experienced technicians fail B&F when they study only refrigerant tables.

The 2026 trade reference list (valid January–December 2026) still uses Florida Building Code – Mechanical, 2023 and Florida Building Code – Energy Conservation, 2023 (8th Edition FBC). It does not list a 9th Edition / 2026 FBC as the exam edition. Other listed trade books include OSHA 29 CFR 1926 (July 1, 2025), Contractors Manual 2025, SMACNA fibrous-glass (8th, 2021) and metal/flex duct (4th, 2020), NFPA 90A (2015), 90B (2024), and 96 (2021), Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Technology (9th, 2021), Energy Efficient Building Construction in Florida (2024), the Pipefitters Handbook (3rd, 1967), and the Trane Ductulator (1976 or later). Bring an architect's scale including 1/4" and 1/8" to Trade Knowledge.

Florida scenario: the 40-ton rooftop that a Class B certificate cannot take

Maria leads a four-person crew in Hillsborough County and holds a certified Class B air-conditioning license. A Tampa property manager asks her to replace a 40-ton chilled-water rooftop that also has a 600,000 Btu heating section. Maria's certificate is statewide, so geography is not the problem. F.S. 489.105(3)(g) is: Class B is limited to 25 tons of cooling and 500,000 Btu of heating in any one system. Forty tons and 600,000 Btu both break the cap. She cannot contract that replacement as Class B, even if she has done 20-ton splits for years. She must either hold Class A (unlimited), work under a Class A or mechanical qualifying agent, or leave the job. The same week, a 20-ton split at a Brandon strip center is inside Class B. That contrast — per-system capacity, not “commercial vs. residential” — is the exam's favorite Class A/B discriminator.

Traps: (1) Treating Class C as an open service license. (2) Confusing certified (statewide) with registered (local only). (3) Studying the 60-question Service Pool B&F. (4) Using 2026 FBC books when the 2026 exam list still cites 2023 Mechanical and Energy Conservation. (5) Assuming Class B may “just get a permit” for a 30-ton unit because the building is small.