South Dakota · HVAC licensing · official-source guide
South Dakota has no statewide HVAC contractor license. The Department of Labor and Regulation licenses plumbers and electricians, not mechanical contractors. Gas appliance installation falls under the Plumbing Commission appliance license, and line voltage wiring falls under the Electrical Commission. Every HVAC company still needs a contractor excise tax license from the Department of Revenue.
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Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-09-14. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
South Dakota runs occupational licensing through the Department of Labor and Regulation in Pierre. Its board and commission list covers abstracters, appraisers, accountancy, barbers, cosmetology, real estate, technical professions, athletics, banking, insurance, securities, electricians and plumbers. There is no mechanical commission, no HVAC board and no refrigeration board anywhere on that list. You can install a furnace, a rooftop unit, ductwork or a ductless mini split in this state without holding a card that says HVAC on it. What South Dakota regulates instead are the two pieces of an HVAC job that overlap other trades. The State Plumbing Commission licenses appliance contractors and appliance installers, the category that covers gas fired equipment and the piping feeding it. The State Electrical Commission licenses electrical contractors, Class B electricians and journeymen, the category that covers the line voltage side of a condenser, a furnace or an air handler. A South Dakota HVAC company typically holds one, the other, or both, depending on what its own crews self perform and what it subcontracts out. The practical effect for a contractor bidding work here is that nobody will ask for an HVAC license number, because the state does not issue one. What they will ask is whether you are licensed for the gas appliance work, whether you are licensed for the wiring, whether you carry the contractor excise tax license from the Department of Revenue, and whether the city you are working in runs its own inspection program instead of the state one.
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The South Dakota Plumbing Commission describes its own work as administering state law on plumbing, sewer and water, appliance installation, manufactured and mobile home, underground irrigation and water conditioning. Appliance installation is a separately licensed occupation, not a subset of plumbing. The commission licenses appliance contractors, appliance installers and appliance apprentices, and it sets the education, training and examination requirements for all three. For an HVAC company this is the credential that matters most in South Dakota, because gas fired heating equipment and the fuel piping serving it fall inside the appliance category rather than inside a mechanical code the state does not administer. The commission also inspects installations, investigates complaints, distributes the state plumbing code and informs inspection departments and the public about code requirements and new methods of installation. It is self supporting and funds itself from fees charged to applicants, licensees, permits and inspections rather than from a general appropriation. The office is at 217 W. Missouri Ave. in Pierre and answers at 605.773.3429. Commission meetings are open to the public, with agendas and minutes posted on the department site and on the state boards and commissions portal. If your crews set gas furnaces, gas boilers, gas unit heaters or gas water heaters, the appliance license is the credential a South Dakota building official or homeowner will look for. If you work only on the refrigerant side and on electric heat, the appliance license may not apply, but the excise tax and electrical rules still do.
South Dakota splits the appliance category into three rungs, and the difference decides who may run the business. To apply for an appliance contractor license you must have one year of experience as an appliance installer, then file the specialty contractor license application with the application fee. To apply for an appliance installer license you must have two years of experience as an appliance apprentice, then file the specialty installer license application with the application fee. Apprentices in every category file the apprentice application. Approved apprentice applicants receive an email confirming approval and stating the license fee due, and the license issues once that fee is paid. For all other license types, an approved application triggers an email describing the next steps and the fees owed. The commission accepts one application per license, so a company seeking both an appliance credential and a sewer and water credential files twice. Applications also expire. The specialty contractor application expires 30 days after the date of receipt and the specialty installer application expires 45 days after receipt, and an expired application means reapplying and resubmitting fees. All fees are non-refundable. Experience verification cannot be self signed. It must be provided or signed off by a licensed plumbing or specialty contractor, or the out of state equivalent, whose supervision you actually worked under. The commission publishes an Appliance Installation Experience Verification Form for cases where a previous employer has not already supplied the documentation directly.
The hour counts South Dakota attaches to each credential tell you how long each path takes. On the plumbing side the commission counts years and hours together. A plumber license takes four years as an apprentice with at least 1,900 hours worked in each of those years. A plumbing contractor license takes six years as a contractor, plumber or apprentice, with at least two of those years spent as a contractor or plumber, again at 1,900 hours per year. Military plumbing service earns one year of credit for every two years served, capped at five years of credit. An apprentice with two years and 3,800 hours may work unsupervised in the third and fourth year, only on single family dwellings, and only after passing a state administered examination. The specialty categories are far shorter. An appliance installer needs two years as an appliance apprentice. An appliance contractor needs one year as an appliance installer. Sewer and water, mobile home, underground irrigation and water conditioning follow the same one year and two year structure. On the electrical side the hours run longer. Four years as a licensed apprentice electrician, totaling 8,000 hours under the employment and supervision of an electrical contractor, qualifies you to write the journeyman exam. Another two years as a licensed journeyman, adding 4,000 hours including a minimum of 2,000 hours of commercial work, qualifies you for the electrical contractor exam. Hours only count if you held the license for that rung while working them.
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The State Plumbing Commission administers examinations for appliance contractors, installers and apprentices alongside its plumbing, sewer and water, septic, mobile home, underground irrigation and water conditioning exams. Published exam fees are $100.00 for contractor exams and re-exams, $100.00 for plumber and installer exams and re-exams, and $50.00 for third-year plumbing apprentice exams and re-exams. First time examinees must have submitted both the application fee and the exam fee and been approved before they can schedule anything. Where the exam happens is the part that catches people arriving from a larger state. Exams are held in Pierre at any time by advance appointment, so you call or email the office and book one. Sessions in Sioux Falls and Rapid City are not on a fixed calendar. The commission travels to those cities only when it has collected enough applicants to warrant the trip, and it states eight to ten applicants as the minimum. Re-exam candidates must submit the re-exam fee at least two weeks before a scheduled session in order to be added to it. Upcoming sessions are posted on the commission exams page once they are set. On the electrical side, all tests moved to the 2023 National Electrical Code as of December 2, 2024, and permits received on or after November 12, 2024 are inspected against the 2023 NEC. Plan around the travel rule, because waiting on a Sioux Falls session can cost weeks a Pierre appointment would not.
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South Dakota separates application fees from license fees, and the forms say so on their face. The Plumbing Commission specialty contractor license application, which is what an appliance installation contractor files, carries an application fee of $50. The specialty installer license application also carries an application fee of $50. Exam fees are separate again at $100.00 for a contractor exam or re-exam and $100.00 for an installer exam or re-exam. Fees are non-refundable in every case, and an application will not be processed until the office holds both the payment and the required documentation. Payment goes by check or money order payable to the South Dakota Plumbing Commission, or by credit card by phone at 605.773.3429. The commission states plainly that it will not take credit card details by email or fax and will securely dispose of anything sent that way. On the electrical side the fee table sits on the electrician license application itself. An electrical contractor pays a $60.00 application fee plus a $200.00 license fee. A Class B electrician pays $60.00 plus $100.00. A journeyman pays $60.00 plus $80.00. Inactive electrical contractor and inactive Class B status are $60.00 plus $80.00. A reciprocal electrical contractor pays the same $60.00 and $200.00 as a new applicant. Application and license fees are not pro-rated and are not refundable. Budget the application fee, the exam fee and the license fee as three separate line items rather than one number.
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HVAC work runs into the State Electrical Commission the moment a crew pulls line voltage. The commission licenses every electrician in the state, inspects wiring installations and investigates wiring complaints. It is a unit of state government and should not be confused with the South Dakota Electrical Council, which is a nonprofit trade organization. The tiers an HVAC company cares about are electrical contractor, Class B electrician and journeyman, plus the apprentice license that starts the hour clock. Wiring permits cost $20.00 each, or $400.00 for a book of twenty. The published inspection fee table prices a motor or special equipment connection at $8.00 each, which is where most condensers and rooftop units land. Circuit installation or alteration is priced at $65 per circuit, with one or two circuits drawing one final inspection and three or more drawing a rough-in plus a final. A minimum inspection fee of $150 applies where the calculated fee would come to less than that, effective July 1, 2025. Inspections beyond the allotted number are billed at $150 per hour for the first hour and $37.50 per fifteen minutes after that. The commission also publishes administrative fees that catch careless contractors: $250 for a late wiring permit, $250 for failure to make corrections, $250 for not posting permits, $250 for a permit entered without the white copy, $100 for failure to notify the commission, and $100 for requesting an inspection on less than 72 hours notice.
South Dakota calls its electrical contractor bond an undertaking, and the amounts sit in SDCL 36-16-20 as quoted by the Electrical Commission. An applicant executes and deposits with the commission an undertaking in the sum of ten thousand dollars. Alongside it goes a public liability insurance policy of not less than one hundred thousand dollars per occurrence and three hundred thousand dollars aggregate limit for bodily injury, plus property damage insurance with limits of not less than twenty-five thousand dollars per occurrence, or a combined single limit of three hundred thousand dollars. Security approved by the commission in an equal sum may stand in place of that. The undertaking and the liability insurance must be in force at all times, with certificates of insurance on file in the commission office. A fifty dollar deposit is made when the undertaking is executed and again biennially at each license renewal. Those deposits accumulate in a special fund used to correct or complete installations a contractor refuses or is unable to finish, to cover uncollectable inspection fees, and to fund enforcement, with disbursements capped at ten thousand dollars per occurrence. The commission waives the renewal deposit once the fund exceeds fifty thousand dollars. Two details matter for a company working several South Dakota cities. A licensed electrical contractor or Class B electrician does not have to furnish any additional undertaking for a municipal license. And in a partnership or corporation the licensed individual is exempt if the employer satisfies the requirement.
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The two commissions use opposite renewal calendars, which trips up companies holding both credentials. Plumbing and specialty licenses expire annually on December 31 under state law. Reinstating an expired plumbing or specialty license takes a reinstatement form and the appropriate fee, and the commission publishes separate reinstatement applications for plumbing and for specialty licenses, intended for a license expired more than a month but less than a year. Specialty apprentices have to contact the office directly for renewal and reinstatement. Electrical licenses run biennially and expire June 30 of even numbered years. Continuing education diverges as well. On the plumbing side the annual four hour requirement applies to plumbing contractors, restricted plumbing contractors, plumbers, restricted plumbers and third-year apprentice plumbers, and two of the four hours must cover code. Verification must reach the commission office before a renewal is processed. The commission may grant exceptions or extensions for health, military service or other reasonable cause with adequate proof. On the electrical side licensees need 16 hours of continuing education with a minimum of 8 code hours, due by the time the renewal is submitted or by June 30, whichever comes first. Under ARSD 20:44:17:02 only 8 of those hours may come from pre-approved online courses. Electrical renewals require copies of the continuing education completion certificates. Courses listed on StateReporting.com by approved providers already carry Plumbing Commission approval, which saves a separate approval request.
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South Dakota publishes a formal reciprocity list on the electrical side and handles the plumbing side case by case. The Electrical Commission names existing reciprocal agreements with Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming. Most of those cover both journeyman and the contractor or master equivalent. Alaska, Colorado and New Mexico reciprocate journeyman only, and a Colorado journeyman reaches the contractor level through a master electrician credential plus 2,000 additional hours. To use an agreement you must have earned the license in that state by examination and held it in active status for at least one year. Reciprocating states may require additional education, supervision or score levels that differ from South Dakota. Maine, Vermont and Wisconsin sit in the NERA group without an existing South Dakota agreement, and the commission publishes a further list of states with similar licensing requirements. The Plumbing Commission works differently. It may register nonresident applicants without examination, on payment of the required fee, where it determines the other state requirements are substantially equivalent. Under Administrative Rule 20:53:02:21 the applicant must have been licensed by examination in that state, the state must have similar licensure laws, and that state plumbing code must equal or exceed the South Dakota plumbing code. If you tested on the IPC or another code, you supply license verification and experience documentation in order to be approved to sit the South Dakota exam instead.
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This is the license every HVAC company operating in South Dakota actually needs, and it comes from the Department of Revenue rather than from a licensing board. Anyone engaging in services that include the construction, building, installation or repair of a fixture to real property must have a South Dakota contractor tax license. Installing a furnace, a rooftop unit or a ductwork system is exactly that. The excise tax is imposed on gross receipts for construction projects at a rate of 2 percent. Because the tax is owed on gross receipts, which include any tax collected from the customer, the department publishes a bid factor of 2.041 percent to use when preparing a bid or a bill so the full amount due gets collected. South Dakota splits work into qualified utility projects under SDCL 10-46B and non-qualified utility projects under SDCL 10-46A, and the rules differ. On a non-qualified project the prime contractor owes excise tax on gross receipts, includes the value of owner furnished material in those receipts, and must issue prime contractor exemption certificates to all subcontractors. A subcontractor holding that certificate for the project does not owe the excise tax. A subcontractor without one on file is treated as a prime contractor and owes it. Blanket certificates are not allowed. Each certificate must show the prime contractor excise tax license number, the project location and a description. Returns are due by the 20th of the month.
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South Dakota runs state level plumbing inspections through regional inspectors, and HVAC work touching gas or fuel piping lands in that system. You must have a plumbing inspection certificate for all plumbing installations, the only exception being cities that run their own inspection requirements. Published state fees are an installation certificate at $20, an inspection fee of $110 for a single family dwelling, $100 for a small structure with five or fewer fixtures, $275 for a large structure with six or more fixtures, and $75 for each additional inspection from the fourth onward. The state divides the work into six regions with a named inspector for each. Southeast covers Clay, Lincoln, Minnehaha, eastern Turner and Union. Northwest covers Butte, Haakon, Harding, Lawrence, Meade, northern Pennington and Perkins. Southwest covers Bennett, Custer, Fall River, Jackson, Oglala Lakota and southern Pennington. Northeast, North Central and South Central split the remaining counties. Inspection requests need at least 72 hours advance notice excluding Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, and the commission recommends five business days because of how much ground each inspector covers. Emergency inspections can generally be handled within 24 hours, in extreme situations only. A typical residential or commercial job is inspected in three phases, beginning with an underground inspection of the sewer and water services running from the city mains to the property. Schedule around that notice window instead of expecting same day coverage in Pennington or Minnehaha County.
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The Plumbing Commission names the South Dakota cities that perform their own inspections rather than relying on a state regional inspector: Aberdeen, Brandon, Rapid City, Sioux Falls and Spearfish. Those five are where an HVAC contractor has to stop assuming the state process applies. In each of them the commission guidance is to contact the finance or inspection office of the city where the home or commercial structure is located and find out whether a local ordinance requires an inspection. That call is the step most out of state HVAC companies skip when they take a first job in Sioux Falls or Rapid City, and it is the cheapest fifteen minutes in the whole mobilization. Everywhere else in South Dakota falls back to the state inspector for that region. Sioux Falls and Rapid City are also the two cities the Plumbing Commission travels to for exam sessions, which tells you where the bulk of the licensed trade population sits. One useful protection exists on the electrical side. A contractor or Class B electrician licensed by the State Electrical Commission does not have to furnish any additional undertaking to obtain a municipal license, so the ten thousand dollar state undertaking carries into city hall. Work a new South Dakota market in this order: confirm whether the city inspects its own work, confirm what the city requires for local registration, then confirm whether your state credentials already satisfy the bonding piece.
Because South Dakota issues no HVAC contractor license, there is no state HVAC license number to print on a truck door, a yard sign or a website footer. That cuts both ways. No state rule forces a display requirement on you, and no state rule stops a competitor holding nothing at all from advertising the same services. What you can claim is tied to what you actually hold. If you hold an appliance contractor license from the State Plumbing Commission, that is the title you earned, and the commission publishes your name on its specialty licensee list where anyone can look. If you hold an electrical contractor license or a Class B electrician license, the same applies through the Electrical Commission. Describing yourself as a licensed plumbing contractor when you hold only an appliance license misstates a credential South Dakota defines precisely, and the Plumbing Commission accepts consumer complaints about plumbers through its own complaint form. The stronger move for a South Dakota HVAC company is to advertise the specific credentials by name and number: appliance contractor license, electrical contractor license, contractor excise tax license, and EPA Section 608 certification type. All four are verifiable, and in a state with no HVAC license they are the only things a homeowner can actually check. Municipal registration in Aberdeen, Brandon, Rapid City, Sioux Falls or Spearfish may carry its own display rules, so confirm with the city inspection office before ordering vehicle graphics.
South Dakota does not run a live searchable license database for the trades an HVAC company holds. It publishes rosters instead. The Plumbing Commission consumer information page carries three lists: South Dakota Licensed Plumbers, South Dakota Specialty Licensees and South Dakota Small Onsite Waste Water Installers. Each is a published document with an as of date printed on it, so a customer checking your appliance contractor license is reading a snapshot rather than a live record. That has a real consequence on a sales call. A contractor licensed after the last publication date will not appear on the list the homeowner downloads, which is worth explaining before it becomes a credibility problem. The commission also offers a License Verification Form so a licensee can request written verification of a license the commission issued, and a Licensee Roster or Permit Information Request Form for anyone who needs the underlying data. Consumers with concerns about the work of a plumber can file a complaint with the commission directly. The Electrical Commission handles consumer complaints through its own page. On the tax side, a prime contractor exemption certificate has to show the prime contractor excise tax license number, so general contractors in South Dakota routinely see and record that number during a project. If you want a customer to verify you quickly, hand over the license numbers and the page rather than waiting for them to go hunting.
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Federal law applies on top of every state rule, and in South Dakota, where there is no state HVAC license, Section 608 is the one certification a refrigeration technician cannot skip. Under 40 CFR Part 82, Subpart F, implementing Section 608 of the Clean Air Act, technicians who maintain, service, repair or dispose of equipment that could release refrigerants into the atmosphere must be certified. EPA defines a technician as someone who attaches or detaches hoses and gauges to or from an appliance to measure pressure within it, adds refrigerant to or removes refrigerant from an appliance, or performs any other activity that violates the integrity of a motor vehicle air conditioner like appliance or a small appliance other than disposal. Certification comes in four types. Type I covers small appliances. Type II covers high and very high pressure appliances except small appliances and motor vehicle air conditioners. Type III covers low pressure appliances. Universal covers all types. Technicians must pass an EPA approved test administered by an EPA approved certifying organization, and the tests are specific to the equipment type. Section 608 technician certification credentials do not expire. A core test taken as an open book exam cannot be used toward Universal certification, which requires the core test to be proctored. Apprentices are exempt while closely and continually supervised by a certified technician. EPA does not issue the cards itself, so a lost card is replaced through the certifying organization.
These are common details other guides publish about South Dakota, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. The South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation lists no mechanical, HVAC or refrigeration board among its commissions. What it does license are plumbers and electricians. The gas appliance side of your work falls under the State Plumbing Commission appliance license, and line voltage wiring falls under the State Electrical Commission.
The appliance license issued by the South Dakota Plumbing Commission. The commission administers state law on appliance installation as its own licensed occupation, alongside plumbing, sewer and water, mobile home, underground irrigation and water conditioning, and it writes the exams for appliance contractors, installers and apprentices.
One year of experience as an appliance installer, submitted on the specialty contractor license application with the application fee. The installer license below it takes two years of experience as an appliance apprentice. Experience verification must be signed by the licensed plumbing or specialty contractor you worked under, not by yourself.
The specialty contractor license application fee is $50 and the specialty installer license application fee is $50. Exam fees are separate: $100.00 for contractor exams and re-exams and $100.00 for installer exams and re-exams. All fees are non-refundable, and the license fee is billed separately after approval.
In Pierre at any time by advance appointment. Sessions also run in Sioux Falls and Rapid City, but not on preset dates. The commission travels to those cities only once enough applicants have applied, and it states eight to ten applicants as the minimum to warrant the trip.
If your own crews pull line voltage for condensers, furnaces or air handlers, yes. The State Electrical Commission licenses every electrician in the state and inspects wiring installations. Its tiers are apprentice, journeyman, Class B electrician and electrical contractor. Many HVAC firms subcontract the wiring instead of carrying the license.
Under SDCL 36-16-20 an applicant deposits an undertaking of ten thousand dollars plus public liability insurance of at least one hundred thousand dollars per occurrence and three hundred thousand dollars aggregate for bodily injury, with property damage limits of at least twenty-five thousand dollars per occurrence or a three hundred thousand dollar combined single limit.
They run on different clocks. Plumbing and specialty licenses expire annually on December 31. Electrical licenses expire June 30 of even numbered years. Plumbing licensees who need continuing education owe four hours a year with two in code. Electrical licensees owe 16 hours per cycle with at least 8 code hours.
Possibly. The Electrical Commission lists existing agreements with Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming. You must have earned that license by examination and held it in active status for at least one year to use an agreement.
Anyone providing construction, building, installation or repair of a fixture to real property needs a South Dakota contractor tax license. The tax is 2 percent of gross receipts. The Department of Revenue publishes a 2.041 percent bid factor for pricing, since the tax applies to receipts that include the tax you collected.
Aberdeen, Brandon, Rapid City, Sioux Falls and Spearfish perform their own inspections rather than using a state regional inspector. Everywhere else the state inspector handles it, with at least 72 hours advance notice required and five business days recommended. Call the city finance or inspection office before you mobilize in those five.
Section 608 technician certification credentials do not expire. The requirement is federal, not state, so it applies in South Dakota regardless of the lack of an HVAC license. Any technician who maintains, services, repairs or disposes of equipment that could release refrigerant must hold Type I, Type II, Type III or Universal certification.
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