Wisconsin · HVAC licensing · official-source guide
Yes. The Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services registers HVAC businesses under Wis. Stat. 101.178 and certifies individuals as HVAC Qualifiers under SPS 305.71. Every business installing or servicing heating, ventilating or air conditioning equipment must hold an HVAC Contractor registration. The voluntary qualifier certification requires four years of experience or schooling plus a passing exam, and blocks local licensing.
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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.
The Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services, shortened to DSPS, issues every HVAC credential in the state. The trades program sits inside the Division of Industry Services, and applications and renewals run through the LicensE portal at license.wi.gov. DSPS acts under Wis. Stat. 101.178 and under chapter SPS 305 of the Wisconsin Administrative Code, subchapter VII, which is titled Mechanical. There is no separate HVAC board, and no county board issues a competing credential. One state agency writes the rule, sets the exam, issues the number, and takes the complaint. Wis. Stat. 101.178(2) carries the operative sentence: no person may engage in the business of installing or servicing heating, ventilating or air conditioning equipment unless the person registers with the department. That duty falls on the business, not on each technician. Wis. Stat. 101.178(3) then authorizes a second and voluntary credential for individuals, the HVAC Qualifier certification, which SPS 305.71 spells out. SPS 305.01 lists the trades mailing address as P.O. Box 7082, Madison, WI 53707-7082, with program phone numbers (608) 261-8467 and (877) 617-1565. Complaints go somewhere else entirely, to the Division of Legal Services and Compliance at P.O. Box 7190, Madison, WI 53707-7190. Knowing which DSPS unit owns which piece of paper saves days when a renewal stalls or a homeowner escalates a job.
Sourcesdsps.wi.gov 1docs.legis.wisconsin.gov 2docs.legis.wisconsin.gov 3dsps.wi.gov 4
Wisconsin splits HVAC regulation into two credentials. The first is the HVAC Contractor registration under SPS 305.70. It attaches to the business rather than to a person, and SPS 305.70(3) says the applicant must be the owner of the contracting business, a partner applying on behalf of a partnership, or the chairman of the board or chief executive officer applying on behalf of the corporation. There is no examination for this registration. A business running several locations under one federal employer identification number does not need a separate registration for each location, under SPS 305.01(4)(d). The second credential is the HVAC Qualifier certification under SPS 305.71. It attaches to an individual, and it takes documented experience or schooling plus a passing exam score. SPS 305.71(1)(b) explains why the qualifier is worth money: a person or entity that uses someone holding an HVAC Qualifier certification is deemed a certified HVAC business, and under Wis. Stat. 101.178(3)(c) a city, village, town or county may not then require its own certification, license or other approval for that work. So the registration is the floor that lets the company operate at all, and the qualifier is the credential that clears the local layer. Plenty of Wisconsin shops carry both, with the registration in the company name and one or more certified qualifiers on the payroll. The two renew separately and each carries its own fee.
Sourcesdocs.legis.wisconsin.gov 1docs.legis.wisconsin.gov 2docs.legis.wisconsin.gov 3
SPS 305.70(1)(a) sets the rule plainly. No person, entity, or business may engage or offer to engage in installing or servicing heating, ventilating, or air conditioning equipment unless it holds an HVAC Contractor registration issued by DSPS. The phrase offer to engage matters to anyone marketing in Wisconsin, because advertising the service before the registration is issued is itself covered by the wording. SPS 305.70(1)(b) then carves out three exemptions. First, a person, entity, or business does not need the registration to service existing heating, ventilating, air conditioning, or refrigeration equipment inside facilities or properties it owns, which is how a Wisconsin manufacturer keeps in-house maintenance staff without a contractor registration. Second, no registration is needed to install or service that equipment inside a dwelling the person or entity owns and lives in or will live in, which covers the owner working on the owner's own house. Third, no registration is needed for the electrical or plumbing work associated with installing or servicing HVAC equipment, although that work has its own Wisconsin licensing under other subchapters of SPS 305. Note what is not exempt. Working on someone else's rental property, a leased commercial space you do not own, or a home you own but do not occupy all fall outside those three carve-outs. Contractors who service refrigeration in restaurants and grocery stores are inside the registration requirement whenever the equipment belongs to the customer.
Scope decides whether you need paper at all, and Wisconsin defines it narrowly. SPS 305.02 definition (26) says HVAC means heating, ventilating and air conditioning. Definition (27) says HVAC equipment means materials, piping, fittings, devices, appliances, apparatus, controls and control wiring used as part of or in connection with permanent heating, ventilating, air conditioning or exhausting systems serving buildings. The word permanent is doing real work there, and so is the exclusion list that follows. The rule states that HVAC equipment does not include residential bathroom fans and kitchen hoods, water heaters, process heating equipment, and space heaters such as masonry fireplaces and chimneys, factory-built fireplaces and venting systems, decorative gas fireplaces, and wood-burning stoves. A Wisconsin company that only sets wood-burning stoves and decorative gas fireplaces is working outside the definition. A company that installs ducted furnaces, rooftop units, air handlers, ventilation systems and the controls that run them is squarely inside it. Refrigeration appears in the exemption language of SPS 305.70(1)(b) rather than in the core definition, so refrigeration service on equipment the customer owns is treated as regulated work. Read the exclusion list before assuming a niche is unregulated. Water heater work, for example, sits outside the HVAC definition but lands inside Wisconsin plumbing licensing instead, which is a separate DSPS credential with its own exam and its own fee schedule.
SPS 305.71(3) gives three routes to sit the HVAC Qualifier examination, and every route is measured in four years. The first route is experience: at least 1,000 hours per year for at least 4 years of experience supervising or performing the design, installation, servicing or maintenance of HVAC systems or equipment. The second route is education: at least 4 years of attendance in a school of mechanical engineering, or in an accredited college, university, or technical, vocational or apprenticeship school in an HVAC-related program. The third route is any combination of the two that adds up to four years. DSPS form 3122 is the application information sheet, and form 3122T is the experience form bound to it. On 3122T you list each block of experience by start month and year, end month and year, and hours, and each block needs the signature of a witness along with that witness phone number. Applicants using the education route upload transcripts instead. Additional documents requested by DSPS must be uploaded within three months of the request, and missing that window can force a fresh application and fresh fees. Wisconsin counts supervising as qualifying experience, not just wrench time, which matters for a service manager or a project lead who wants the certification in their own name. Everything is filed through the LicensE portal rather than on paper.
The HVAC Qualifier examination is open book, and SPS 305.09(6)(a) sets a passing grade of 70 percent or greater in each part. DSPS publishes exactly nine reference items that Pearson VUE and DSPS exam rooms will admit. One binder may hold Wis. Admin. Code SPS 320-325, SPS 341, SPS 345, and printed notes. The other eight items are the 2020 SMACNA HVAC Duct Construction Standards Manual for metal and flexible duct, the 2013 ASHRAE Fundamentals volume, the 2021 NFPA 54 gas piping provisions referenced by SPS 365.0400, and the 2021 International Building Code, International Energy Conservation Code, International Mechanical Code, International Fuel Gas Code and International Existing Buildings Code together with the Wisconsin amendments in SPS 361-366. Printed notes are allowed if they are three hole punched and placed in the binder. Printed code is allowed only if bound in a three ring binder. Practice exams and previous exams do not count as notes. Loose papers, removable tabs, sticky notes and paperclips are barred, though three ring paper dividers with tabs are permitted. DSPS posted that changes to the HVAC code took effect on October 1, 2025, so candidates should confirm which code edition their references match before test day. Under SPS 305.09(6)(b), a candidate failing one part of a multi-part exam retakes only that part, unless a full year passes from the initial exam date, in which case every part must be retaken.
DSPS moved trades testing to Pearson VUE computer-based centers, and the HVAC Qualifier exam is one of the credentials that is only available at Pearson locations. DSPS names those Wisconsin sites as Eau Claire, Madison, Brookfield, Kenosha, Ashwaubenon and Milwaukee. Trade exams cannot be taken at Pearson testing centers outside Wisconsin, so an out-of-state applicant travels here to test. The published Pearson fee schedule gives the HVAC Qualifier exam 4 hours of seat time at a total candidate fee of $95.00 payable to Pearson VUE. Once a candidate selects the Pearson option inside the LicensE application, that choice cannot be reverted to a DSPS exam location. SPS 305.09(1) requires the department to conduct at least 4 examinations annually for each category, and SPS 305.09(2) requires the application and fee to reach DSPS at least 30 calendar days before the exam date. SPS 305.09(4)(c) treats a no-show without at least 24 hours notice as a failure, forcing a re-examination application and another exam fee, with a weather waiver available if the candidate calls the day of the exam. Candidates who want a Spanish language exam check a box on the credential application. Accommodation requests at Pearson sites go to Pearson and can take up to ten days to approve, and they cannot be added to an exam already scheduled.
Table 305.02 in chapter SPS 305 sets the state charges, and the two HVAC lines are short. The HVAC Contractor registration carries a $15 application fee, no examination fee, and a $160 registration fee. The HVAC Qualifier certification carries a $15 application fee, a $25 examination fee, and a $60 certification fee. Candidates testing at Pearson VUE pay a separate $95.00 candidate fee to Pearson on top of the state charges. SPS 305.02(2) says fees under the chapter are not refundable, and SPS 305.02(3) requires DSPS to prorate a credential fee on a monthly basis when the first term runs shorter than the full period. Replacing a lost or destroyed credential costs $15.00 under SPS 305.02(5). A petition for variance to a rule in the chapter costs $200.00, or $400.00 if the petitioner asks for priority review. The DSPS renewal schedule lists a $200.00 reinstatement fee for both the HVAC Contractor and the HVAC Qualifier, and lists the late continuing education charge as not applicable to either credential. Budget the full stack before you start rather than the headline number. A single owner setting up a new Wisconsin HVAC company and getting certified personally is looking at the $15 and $160 on the registration side plus $15, $25, $60 and the $95 Pearson charge on the qualifier side.
Sourcesdocs.legis.wisconsin.gov 1dsps.wi.gov 2dsps.wi.gov 3docs.legis.wisconsin.gov 4
Table 305.06 gives both HVAC credentials a term of 4 years, and both expire on the date of issuance rather than on a shared statewide date. That is unusual in Wisconsin, where master electricians and journeyman electricians renew on June 30 and plumbers renew on March 31. Your HVAC expiration is personal to your own file, so calendar it. DSPS lists the HVAC Contractor renewal fee as $160.00 and the HVAC Qualifier renewal fee as $60.00. Reinstatement costs $200.00 for either credential. SPS 305.07(1)(a) requires DSPS to mail a renewal notice at least 30 calendar days before expiration, and SPS 305.07(1)(b) says failing to receive that notice is not an excuse for renewing late. Under SPS 305.07(2)(b) a holder may still renew up to one full term after expiration by paying the application fee with the renewal. Past one term, SPS 305.07(2)(c) sends you to reinstatement, which means a $200.00 administrative fee, a fresh application, the application fee and the credential fee, and possibly a demonstration of competence that DSPS may require by written or oral examination or by documented work experience. Neither SPS 305.70(5) nor SPS 305.71(7) makes renewal contingent on continuing education credit, unlike several other credentials in the same chapter, and the DSPS renewal schedule shows the late continuing education charge as not applicable to HVAC lines.
Sourcesdocs.legis.wisconsin.gov 1dsps.wi.gov 2docs.legis.wisconsin.gov 3
SPS 305.70 lists what an HVAC Contractor registration applicant must submit, and the list is an application and the fees. The rule sets no surety bond amount and no general liability minimum for the HVAC registration, which is a real difference from Wisconsin credentials in the same chapter that do carry those conditions. A liquefied gas supplier license, for one, requires commercial general liability insurance and the statute behind it sets $1,000,000 per occurrence with a $2,000,000 annual aggregate, dropping to $500,000 and $1,000,000 for restricted suppliers. HVAC contractors who also fill propane containers should read that requirement carefully, because the two activities are licensed separately. Worker's compensation is where most Wisconsin HVAC employers do face a hard rule. The Department of Workforce Development states that a business must carry worker's compensation if it employs three or more full-time or part-time employees, with coverage required on the day the third person is employed. Coverage is also required if the business employs one or more full-time or part-time employees paid combined gross wages of $500 or more in any calendar quarter for work done at one or more Wisconsin locations, with the policy in place by the 10th day of the first month of the next quarter. Out-of-state employers with employees working in Wisconsin must carry a policy written by a carrier licensed here and endorsed to name Wisconsin in Section 3a.
Sourcesdocs.legis.wisconsin.gov 1docs.legis.wisconsin.gov 2dwd.wisconsin.gov 3
This is the part of Wisconsin law that decides how far one credential travels. Wis. Stat. 101.178(1) defines a political subdivision as a city, village, town or county. Wis. Stat. 101.178(3)(c) then says a political subdivision may not require a person certified under the state qualifier program to obtain certification, licensure or other approval from that political subdivision in order to engage in the business of installing or servicing heating, ventilating or air conditioning equipment there. Wis. Stat. 101.178(3)(d) goes further and bars a political subdivision from requiring its own approval at all unless it required that approval before November 1, 1993. Wis. Stat. 101.178(3)(b) adds that a political subdivision may not force the state certification on a contractor unless it already required certification, licensure or other approval on April 23, 1994, and unless it lets anyone who held that local approval on that date keep working without the state certification. The practical read for a Wisconsin HVAC company is simple. Local HVAC licensing in this state is frozen to whatever a municipality already had in place in late 1993, and holding an HVAC Qualifier certification defeats it in any event. That is why the DSPS application sheet leads with the deemed certified HVAC business language. It is a selling point when you expand from one county into the next and want to bid without a new local card.
Sourcesdocs.legis.wisconsin.gov 1dsps.wi.gov 2docs.legis.wisconsin.gov 3
Preemption of local licensing does not preempt local permits, and Wisconsin rules are explicit about the order of operations. SPS 305.70(4) says that for any HVAC equipment installation requiring a uniform building permit under SPS 320.08, a registered HVAC contractor may not commence installation until the permit is issued. SPS 305.71(6) repeats the same bar for an individual holding the HVAC Qualifier certification. The department's note explains that chapters SPS 320 to 325 apply to one and two family dwellings and manufactured dwellings, and that the uniform building permit comes either from the municipality where the dwelling sits or from a UDC inspection agency where the municipality does not administer the Uniform Dwelling Code. That second path catches a lot of rural Wisconsin work, where the town does not run its own inspection program and a private agency issues the permit instead. Wisconsin also attaches a paperwork duty to fuel gas work. The note to SPS 305.70 quotes Wis. Stat. 101.16(4)(a), which requires the person performing the work of installing equipment that uses liquefied petroleum gas for fuel to furnish the user of the equipment a statement, on a form the department prescribes, showing that the design, construction, location and installation conform to the department's rules. Skipping that statement on a propane furnace changeout leaves a documented gap on a job you already finished.
Wis. Stat. 101.178(5) sets the penalty for working without the registration required by Wis. Stat. 101.178(2). Any person who violates that subsection shall be required to forfeit not less than $50 nor more than $1,000. The sentence that follows is the expensive one: each installation or servicing in violation constitutes a separate violation. A Wisconsin company that ran a season of unregistered changeouts is not looking at one forfeiture, it is looking at one per job. Losing the credential is the other exposure. SPS 305.10 lets DSPS deny, suspend, or revoke a license, certification, or registration when the holder fails to meet the qualifications, obtained the credential through fraud or deceit, demonstrated negligence or incompetence in fulfilling the obligations of the credential, has a conflict of interest, demonstrated misconduct, was arrested or convicted for a crime substantially related to the credential, has a physical or mental impairment preventing performance, or violated state, federal, or local laws relating to the regulated activity. Two Wisconsin grounds catch business owners by surprise. SPS 305.10 also allows action where the holder has been certified by the Department of Revenue under Wis. Stat. 73.0301 as liable for taxes, or has fallen delinquent on court-ordered child or spousal support payments under Wis. Stat. 101.022. A state tax problem in Wisconsin can therefore reach your HVAC registration, not just your bank account.
DSPS runs two public lookups and tells consumers which one to use. The LicensE License Lookup at license.wi.gov/s/license-lookup covers Health, Business, Trades, Manufactured Homes and Unarmed Combat Sports credentials and permits, which is the lookup that returns an HVAC Contractor registration or an HVAC Qualifier certification. The separate eSLA public lookup at esla.wi.gov/verifylicense covers plan status for categories including commercial buildings, electrical, gas systems, mechanical refrigeration, plumbing, pressure vessels and public safety. A homeowner comparing bids in Wisconsin can check your credential in one place and your permit or plan status in the other, so assume both get checked on a large job. Complaints run through a third channel. DSPS takes complaints online or on a printed form mailed to the Division of Legal Services and Compliance at P.O. Box 7190, Madison, WI 53707-7190. DSPS states it receives roughly 3,000 complaints each year, and that a case opened for investigation may take in excess of a year to conclude. The department also points consumers toward talking to the credential holder first and toward small claims court as alternatives. That timeline is worth knowing from the contractor side. A complaint filed in spring can sit open through two Wisconsin heating seasons, so document the scope, the permit and the equipment on every job while the details are fresh.
State registration is not the whole compliance picture for a Wisconsin HVAC business. The note under SPS 305.70 says that pursuant to federal regulations, individuals who install or service HVAC equipment involving ozone-depleting refrigerants are required to hold a Type I, II, III, or Universal technician certification issued under section 608 of the federal Clean Air Act and 40 CFR part 82, subpart F. EPA describes the same rule on its own site: regulations under 40 CFR Part 82, Subpart F require that technicians who maintain, service, repair, or dispose of equipment that could release ozone depleting refrigerants must be certified. EPA lists Type 1 for small appliances, Type 2 for high-pressure equipment, Type 3 for low-pressure equipment, and a Core section that every candidate takes. EPA does not issue certification cards itself. Approved certifying organizations administer the tests and issue the cards, and EPA publishes a route for replacing a lost card through those organizations. The split matters on a Wisconsin job site. The company holds the DSPS HVAC Contractor registration. The individual technician holds the Section 608 card. A qualifier certification from DSPS does not substitute for the federal card, and a federal card does not substitute for the state registration. Wisconsin shops running residential split systems and low-pressure chillers usually need more than one Type represented on staff.
Sourcesdocs.legis.wisconsin.gov 1epa.gov 2docs.legis.wisconsin.gov 3
These are common details other guides publish about Wisconsin, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
The HVAC Contractor registration is the mandatory one under Wis. Stat. 101.178(2), and a sole owner applies for it as the owner of the contracting business under SPS 305.70(3). The HVAC Qualifier certification is voluntary under Wis. Stat. 101.178(3), but it is what makes the business a certified HVAC business and blocks a city, village, town or county from demanding its own approval.
Four years. Table 305.06 in chapter SPS 305 gives both the HVAC Contractor registration and the HVAC Qualifier certification a 4 year term expiring on the date of issuance, not on a fixed statewide date. DSPS lists the HVAC Contractor renewal at $160.00 and the HVAC Qualifier renewal at $60.00, with a $200.00 reinstatement fee once you are past the late renewal window.
SPS 305.09(6)(a) sets a passing grade at 70 percent or greater in each part of the examination. DSPS also confirms on its HVAC Qualifier exam page that the exam is open book with a 70 percent passing score. Fail one part of a multi-part exam and you retake only that part, unless a year passes from the initial exam date, after which you retake everything.
No. DSPS states that trade exams cannot be taken at Pearson testing centers outside Wisconsin. The HVAC Qualifier exam is offered only at the Pearson centers in Eau Claire, Madison, Brookfield, Kenosha, Ashwaubenon and Milwaukee. The published fee schedule gives that exam 4 hours of seat time and a $95.00 candidate fee payable to Pearson VUE, separate from the DSPS fees.
The renewal provisions at SPS 305.70(5) and SPS 305.71(7) send you to SPS 305.07 without making renewal contingent on continuing education credit, which is how several other credentials in the same chapter are written. The DSPS trades renewal schedule reinforces this by showing the late continuing education charge as not applicable to both the HVAC Contractor and HVAC Qualifier lines.
Wis. Stat. 101.178(3)(d) bars a city, village, town or county from requiring its own certification, licensure or other approval for HVAC work unless it already required that approval before November 1, 1993. Wis. Stat. 101.178(3)(c) separately says a political subdivision may not require local approval from anyone who holds the state HVAC Qualifier certification. Permits are a different matter and still apply.
SPS 305.71(3) requires at least 1,000 hours per year for at least 4 years supervising or performing the design, installation, servicing or maintenance of HVAC systems or equipment. Four years of attendance in mechanical engineering school or an accredited HVAC-related program substitutes, and any combination totaling four years works. DSPS form 3122T collects each block by start date, end date and hours with a witness signature.
No. SPS 305.70(1)(b)1 exempts a person, entity, or business from the registration for servicing existing heating, ventilating, air conditioning, or refrigeration equipment within facilities or properties it owns. SPS 305.70(1)(b)2 exempts work inside a dwelling the person owns and resides in or will reside in. Doing that same work on a customer property puts you back inside the registration requirement.
Wis. Stat. 101.178(5) requires a violator to forfeit not less than $50 nor more than $1,000, and states that each installation or servicing in violation constitutes a separate violation. A run of unregistered jobs therefore stacks. DSPS can also deny, suspend, or revoke a credential under SPS 305.10 for violating state, federal, or local laws relating to the regulated activity.
No. The definition at SPS 305.02(27) says HVAC equipment does not include residential bathroom fans and kitchen hoods, water heaters, process heating equipment, or space heaters such as masonry fireplaces and chimneys, factory-built fireplaces and venting systems, decorative gas fireplaces, and wood-burning stoves. The definition covers permanent heating, ventilating, air conditioning or exhausting systems serving buildings along with their controls and control wiring.
No, and the state registration does not replace the federal card either. The note under SPS 305.70 requires individuals installing or servicing HVAC equipment involving ozone-depleting refrigerants to hold a Type I, II, III, or Universal technician certification under section 608 of the Clean Air Act and 40 CFR part 82, subpart F. EPA confirms it does not issue the cards itself; approved certifying organizations do.
DSPS directs the public to the LicensE License Lookup at license.wi.gov/s/license-lookup for Trades credentials, which includes both the HVAC Contractor registration and the HVAC Qualifier certification. Plan status for categories such as commercial buildings, gas systems and mechanical refrigeration sits in the separate eSLA public lookup at esla.wi.gov/verifylicense. Complaints go to the DSPS Division of Legal Services and Compliance.
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