How to Start a HVAC Business in Texas: DFW Guide (2026)

You are the one crawling the attic in a Texas August, and the name on the invoice still is not yours. The capacitor you swapped this morning billed the customer $150 to $300, and your cut of that hour was closer to the $28.75 median wage BLS reports for HVAC techs. The license that changes the math costs $115 to apply for, and this guide walks you through every step, fee, and form between here and your first booked job.

Get licensed first: the TDLR ACR contractor license

Texas licenses HVAC contractors through the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) under the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (ACR) program. Everything else in this guide waits on this license. You cannot bid work, sign contracts, or pull a mechanical permit in any DFW city without it, and Fort Worth checks your ACR license before it will even register you as a contractor.

The license itself is cheap. The application fee is $115, the license is valid for one year, and renewal costs $65 per year plus 8 hours of approved continuing education. Let it lapse and the penalty stings: renewing within 90 days of expiration costs 1.5 times the fee, and between 90 days and 18 months costs double.

One warning before you budget: some exam-prep sites list $300 and $200 application fees for Class A and Class B. That conflicts with TDLR's own published fee. The application fee is $115 for either class, straight from TDLR's contractor application page.

Class A vs Class B: pick your class before you apply

A Class A license lets you work on units of any size, while a Class B license is limited to cooling systems of 25 tons and under and heating systems of 1.5 million BTU per hour and under.

That one sentence decides your exam, your insurance bill, and your ceiling. Here is how the two classes compare on the numbers:

Requirement	Class A	Class B
Equipment size	Any size	Cooling 25 tons and under; heating 1.5M BTU/hr and under
Exam length	120 questions	100 questions
Exam fee (PSI)	~$75-$78	~$60-$63
Passing score	70%	70%
Insurance minimum, per occurrence	$300,000	$100,000
Insurance minimum, aggregate	$600,000	$200,000
Insurance minimum, products-completed operations	$300,000	$100,000

The practical read for a DFW startup: residential systems sit far under 25 tons, so a residential-focused shop fits inside Class B with a shorter exam and insurance minimums at a third of Class A's. If you want large commercial and industrial work, or you do not want to explain tonnage limits to a general contractor, file for Class A.

You also pick at least one endorsement when you apply. TDLR offers three: Environmental Air Conditioning, Commercial Refrigeration, and Process Cooling or Heating. Environmental Air Conditioning covers the comfort heating and cooling work most residential and light commercial shops live on.

The experience requirement: 48-month route vs the 2,000-hour route

TDLR gives you two ways to qualify for the contractor exam, and the trade-off is time versus tuition.

Route 1: the 48-month route. Show 48 months of practical experience under a licensed ACR contractor within the past 72 months. Four of the last six years, on the tools, under someone else's license. It costs nothing beyond the years you probably already have. If you have been doing installs and service calls full time since 2022, you may already qualify today.

Route 2: the Certified Technician route. Hold TDLR ACR Certified Technician status for 12 months, plus 36 months of supervised practical experience within the past 48 months. You reach Certified Technician status one of two ways: complete a certification training program totaling 2,000 hours of combined instruction and practical experience, or put in 24 months of ACR work under a licensed contractor. Program graduates must apply for Certified Technician status within 48 months of finishing. The Certified Technician application costs $50, with a $35 renewal.

The trade-off in plain terms: the school route can shave roughly a year of required field time, 36 months versus 48, but you pay tuition for the 2,000-hour program (Dallas College's credit certificates run $1,782 to $5,049, and Lincoln Tech's Grand Prairie program totals $32,826 with tools and fees) (source) and you still cannot skip years in the field. If you already have four years under a licensed contractor, the 48-month route is faster and free. The 2,000-hour route mostly pays off for someone earlier in their career who wants the Certified Technician credential working for them along the way.

For completeness: TDLR also offers a Registered Technician registration at $20 to apply and $20 to renew, open to anyone 16 or older with no experience or exam required. That is how you legally put a helper on your truck once you are the contractor. It is not a path to contracting by itself.

The exam: PSI, open book, 70% to pass

Once TDLR approves your application, you test with PSI at centers throughout Texas. The facts that matter:

• Class A: 120 questions. Class B: 100 questions. Both require 70% to pass.
• The exam is open book. Tabbed and highlighted reference books are permitted. Techs who organize their code books before test day pass; techs who try to memorize the mechanical code do it the hard way.
• The exam fee runs roughly $75-$78 for Class A and $60-$63 for Class B. Two current sources disagree by $3, and PSI's own candidate bulletin sits behind their scheduling system, so confirm the exact fee when you schedule or call PSI at 800-733-9267.
• Fail it and you can schedule a retake within 24-48 hours. No long lockout.
• The clock matters: your exam eligibility expires one year after your application date. Everything, exam included, must be done within one year of filing, or your $115 starts over.

Insurance: what TDLR requires before you contract

TDLR sets minimum general liability coverage by license class, listed in the table above: $300,000 per occurrence, $600,000 aggregate, and $300,000 products-completed operations for Class A, and $100,000 / $200,000 / $100,000 for Class B.

One nuance that saves paperwork: TDLR only requires the insurance certificate on file if you do public contracting work. Otherwise you may submit a waiver. The minimums still apply whenever insurance is required, and no serious shop runs bare regardless. Here is what coverage actually costs a typical HVAC contractor, using Insureon's customer medians:

Policy	Median monthly	Median yearly
General liability ($1M/$2M limits)	$78	$941
Commercial auto	$191	$2,292
Workers' compensation	$223	$2,672

Solo with no employees, general liability plus commercial auto is the realistic floor: about $3,233 per year. Hire your first tech and workers' comp enters the budget.

EPA 608: the certification that opens the supply house

Federal law, not Texas law, controls refrigerant. Under EPA's Section 608 sales restriction, wholesalers can only sell refrigerant for stationary AC and refrigeration equipment to certified technicians, or to an employer that provides written evidence it employs at least one certified tech. Wholesalers must keep invoices showing the purchaser's name, the date of sale, and the quantity sold. No 608 card, no refrigerant, no HVAC business.

The costs, per Interplay Learning's June 2026 figures:

EPA 608 item	Cost
Proctored exam fee	$50-$120
Bundled prep course plus exam	$50-$300
Study materials alone	$40-$200

The certification never expires. Take it once, early, before you file with TDLR, because the wait at the supply house counter is not where you want to learn about the sales restriction.

City registration: Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano

Your TDLR license makes you a contractor in Texas. It does not let you pull a permit in any specific city until you register there. Each of the four big DFW cities runs its own desk:

City	Office	What you file	Fee
Dallas	Development Services Department, 320 E Jefferson Blvd	Contractor registration form, current TDLR pocket license, photo ID	$0. Chapter 52, section 505.1 of the Dallas City Code charges no registration fee for a contractor licensed under the Texas ACR law; each later revision to the certificate costs $30 (source)
Fort Worth	Development Services Department	Contractor Registration application, valid Texas ACR license with proper endorsements	$168.75 per year
Arlington	Building Official	Business registration	$100 for 1 year, $175 for 2 years
Plano	Building Inspections Department, 972-941-7140	Contractor registration form	$100 per year, prorated at $0.27 per day to your state license expiration on first registration (source)

Details worth knowing before you drive over:

• Dallas ties your registration to your state license: it expires when the TDLR license expires, and you can renew online through the DallasNow portal.
• Fort Worth will not register you without a valid ACR license carrying the right endorsements, and the registration renews annually.
• Arlington has no separate mechanical-contractor registration line; the $100-per-year business registration recorded with the Building Official is the requirement. Permit costs there are concrete: a standalone mechanical permit runs a $100 base fee plus $40 per HVAC split or package system up to 10 tons, $50 per system over 10 tons.
• Plano prices permits by size: residential mechanical permits cost $0.01 per square foot with a $45 minimum, and commercial mechanical permits run $70-$130 by square footage.

Register where you plan to work in month one. Add cities as jobs demand; every registration is a recurring line item.

What it costs to start: the full 2026 number

Here is the itemized startup budget, every figure from a current published source:

Item	Cost	Frequency
TDLR ACR contractor application	$115	One time (all requirements due within 1 year of filing)
PSI exam, Class B	$60-$63	One time per attempt
PSI exam, Class A	$75-$78	One time per attempt
EPA 608 proctored exam	$50-$120	One time, never expires
EPA 608 bundled course + exam (optional)	$50-$300	One time
Certified Technician application (Route 2 only)	$50	$35/yr renewal
Texas LLC, Form 205 filing with the Secretary of State	$300	One time
Fort Worth contractor registration	$168.75	Yearly
Arlington business registration	$100	Yearly ($175 for 2 years)
Dallas contractor registration	$0 per Dallas City Code section 505.1 (source)	Expires with state license
Plano contractor registration	$100 (source)	Yearly (source)
General liability insurance	$941/yr median	Yearly
Commercial auto insurance	$2,292/yr median	Yearly
Workers' comp (first hire)	$2,672/yr median	Yearly
TDLR license renewal	$65 + 8 hr CE	Yearly, from year 2

Run the common case: Class B license, LLC, one city registration (Fort Worth), exam-only 608, general liability plus commercial auto. That totals $3,926.75 to $3,999.75 in year one. Skip commercial auto because your truck is already covered only after your carrier confirms it, since the Insurance Information Institute warns a vehicle used primarily for business likely has no coverage under a personal auto policy, (source) and the floor drops near $1,635. The number that is NOT in this table is the vehicle and tool load-out, covered in the equipment section below, because no honest single figure exists for it.

Your launch sequence, in order

The order below exists because each step gates the next. File out of order and you wait twice.

1. Count your months. Pull your work history and confirm you clear one route: 48 months under a licensed ACR contractor within the past 72 months, or Certified Technician status held 12 months plus 36 months of supervised experience within the past 48. If you are short, the fastest fix is staying put under a licensed contractor until the months clear, and using that time to finish steps 2 and 6.

2. Take the EPA 608 exam. $50-$120, proctored, never expires. Do it now because the refrigerant account in step 8 requires it and nothing else depends on waiting.

3. File the TDLR application. $115, pick Class A or B, pick your endorsement. Your one-year completion clock starts here, so file when you are ready to study, not before.

4. Schedule and pass the PSI exam. Book at a Texas PSI center. Tab your reference books; the exam is open book and organized references beat memory. 70% passes. If you miss, PSI lets you rebook within 24-48 hours, and you retake as many times as your one-year eligibility window allows, paying the $60-$78 fee each attempt.

5. Line up insurance. Meet your class minimums: $300k/$600k/$300k for Class A, $100k/$200k/$100k for Class B. Budget from the medians: $941 per year general liability, $2,292 commercial auto. Remember the certificate only gets filed with TDLR if you do public contracting work; a waiver covers you otherwise.

6. Form the LLC. Form 205 with the Texas Secretary of State, $300. Then the EIN from the IRS and a business bank account. Sole proprietorship saves the $300 and costs you liability separation on a trade where a bad brazing joint can burn a house down. Take the LLC.

7. Register in your cities. Start with the city holding your first jobs. Fort Worth $168.75, Arlington $100, Dallas and Plano per the table above. Bring your TDLR pocket license everywhere; Dallas explicitly requires it and the others will ask.

8. Open your refrigerant account. Bring your EPA 608 card to the supply house. Federal rules require them to verify certification and keep invoices with your name, the sale date, and quantities. Most counters also ask for a tax ID or resale certificate for a wholesale account and Johnstone Supply's open credit application puts it in writing: fields for a federal tax ID, a contractor license number, a sales tax exemption certificate, and employee refrigerant certificate numbers (source).

9. Outfit the truck. Details in the equipment section below.

10. Get found. Details in the first-customers section below. The shops beating you to page one started this step years ago, which is exactly why it cannot be step 11.

What DFW companies charge: 2026 install and service rates

Price from what the market already pays, not from your old employer's rate card. These are published 2026 rates from DFW operators: LEX Air in Carrollton, Jupitair in Frisco, and Cold Factor in Lewisville.

Job	Low	High
Service call / diagnostic	$75	$150
Diagnostic, flat-fee model (Jupitair, credited toward repair)	$89	$89
After-hours / emergency fee	$125	$250
Typical repair ticket	$150	$650
Capacitor replacement	$150	$300
R-410A refrigerant recharge	$200	$400
Blower motor replacement	$400	$900
Compressor replacement	$1,200	$2,500
Full AC replacement, installed	$7,000	$16,000
3-ton system installed (1,500-2,000 sq ft home)	$8,500	$16,500
5-ton system installed (2,500+ sq ft home)	$11,500	$20,000
Ductwork repair/replacement during install	$1,500	$5,500

How to read this table as a new owner:

• The average repair ticket in DFW runs $300-$400 per LEX Air, with Jupitair's average at $350-$650. A capacitor swap is an hour of work billing $150-$300. Compare that against the $28.75 median hourly wage you earn doing the identical job on someone else's truck.
• Replacements carry the year. Most DFW homeowners pay $9,000-$13,000 for a mid-tier replacement on existing ductwork. Land one replacement a month and installs out-earn a full calendar of service calls.
• The diagnostic fee is a marketing decision. Jupitair's flat $89, waived when the customer proceeds with repair, converts price shoppers. LEX's $75-$150 range prices by distance and complexity. Pick one model and publish it; unpublished fees lose the phone call.
• After-hours is real money. $125-$250 before the repair itself, with Jupitair charging $199 for weekday evenings up to $250 after midnight and on holidays. A solo owner willing to answer at 9 p.m. in July has a pricing edge no marketing budget buys.
• Refrigerant pricing depends on what is in the unit. R-410A recharges bill $200-$400 with the refrigerant itself at $50-$100 per pound, while legacy R-22 runs $150-$300+ per pound. Old R-22 systems often turn a recharge conversation into a replacement quote.

Equipment, refrigerant, and your supplier account

Two cost realities shape your 2026 equipment budget, and only one of them has published numbers.

The R-454B transition is priced in. The industry moved to A2L refrigerants, and DFW installer Cold Factor reports the R-454B transition added $500-$1,000 per unit to equipment costs in 2026. Build that into every replacement quote from day one. Bidding off 2024 equipment pricing loses money on every install.

Your load-out has no honest single price. A service-ready truck needs gauges or a digital manifold, a recovery machine, a vacuum pump, refrigerant cylinders, a torch set, meters, and hand tools, on top of the vehicle itself. Published, current figures for a DFW startup load-out do not exist in one place, so this guide will not invent a number. Price it item by item instead: at TruTech Tools, a Fieldpiece SM382V digital manifold is $623.05, the MR45 recovery machine is $1,174.70, and the VP67 vacuum pump is $538.05, putting the three core specialty tools at $2,335.80 before hoses, cylinders, torch, meters, and hand tools. A new 2026 Ford Transit cargo van starts at $50,795 MSRP, and TrueCar reports buyers averaging $47,083. (source) The practical sequencing advice stands regardless: start with service and repair, which needs the truck and hand tools, and rent or subcontract specialty equipment until install volume justifies buying.

The supply house is a relationship, not just a counter. Your EPA 608 card legally opens the account, per the sales restriction covered above. What the card does not buy is contractor pricing, credit terms, and the counter guy who finds you a motor at 4:45 on a Friday. Open accounts at two houses, pay on time for six months, then ask about terms. Refrigerant access is federal law; refrigerant pricing is earned.

Your first customers

The license makes you legal. None of it rings the phone. Here is the order of operations for a shop with more skill than marketing budget:

Claim the Google Business Profile before the LLC paperwork is framed. When a Plano homeowner's AC dies in August, she searches "ac repair near me" and calls one of the three businesses in the map results. She does not scroll to page two. The profile is free, and the reviews on it compound: every completed job should end with a review request while you are still in the driveway.

Publish your prices. You now know the market rates from the table above. A page that says "$89 diagnostic, credited toward your repair" beats "call for pricing" for a customer comparing three tabs at 10 p.m. The DFW shops ranking today publish exactly this, which is part of why they rank.

Put a real website behind the profile. Google cross-checks the profile against a site. A one-page placeholder with no service pages, no city pages, and no reviews reads as a shop that might not exist next year, to Google and to the homeowner. This is the piece most new contractors skip, and it is the piece that decides who gets the August call volume.

Work the demand that already exists. BLS projects 8% growth for HVAC mechanics and installers from 2024 to 2034, much faster than average, with roughly 40,100 openings per year nationally. In DFW that demand shows up as builders needing mechanical subs, property managers needing a service contractor who answers, and homeowners with 15-year-old R-22 systems facing $150-$300-per-pound recharges. Subcontract and property-management work smooths revenue while the Google profile matures.

Answer the phone. The after-hours table row is the cheapest customer acquisition in this guide. Every DFW shop charges $125-$250 for emergency calls; not every DFW shop picks up. The ones that answer convert a stranger at midnight into the family that calls them for the next decade.

Three reasons DFW HVAC owners work with On The Map

1. We get you into the Google Maps results that take the call. The three map listings under a DFW "ac repair" search absorb the customers everyone else pays for. We build the profile, the reviews engine, and the local pages that put a new shop in that box.

2. We build a website that turns searches into booked jobs. Published pricing, service pages for the cities you registered in, and a booking path that works at 10 p.m. from a phone. Not a brochure. A machine that converts the $89-diagnostic shopper into a scheduled appointment.

3. Done for you, while you stay on the tools. You did not get a Class B license to write city pages. We run the search work; you run the calls it books.

What every month off page one costs

Use the published DFW rates, not projections. The shops holding page one book the searches you are invisible for. If just ten repair calls a month go to them instead of you, at the LEX Air average ticket of $300-$400, that is $3,000 to $4,000 in monthly revenue billed under someone else's name. Add one replacement job, the kind most DFW homeowners pay $9,000-$13,000 for, and a single unranked month costs more than your entire licensing, LLC, insurance, and registration budget combined.

No countdown timer, no fake urgency. Just the arithmetic: rankings take months to build, so the month you start is the month the meter starts running in your favor instead of theirs.

The month your site goes live is the month the meter flips. Multi-page site, service pages, city pages, built to put you in the DFW map box. Launch my site: https://getonthemap.sbs/start