Maine to Florida: master HVAC technician license reciprocity

Florida has no license called 'master HVAC'. The highest person-held HVAC credential is the certificate of competency as a Certified Class A Air-Conditioning Contractor (license prefix CAC), issued by the Construction Industry Licensing Board within DBPR to an individual who meets the experience requirement of s. 489.111 (typically four years as a worker or foreman with at least one year as a foreman, or a degree plus one year) and passes the two-part Florida exam (Business and Finance, and Class A Air Conditioning Trade Knowledge) through Professional Testing and Pearson VUE; a Class B certificate is limited to 25 tons of cooling and 500,000 Btu of heating per system, and the Certified Mechanical Contractor (CMC) covers the same systems plus piping. The certificate belongs to the person, who may then qualify a business, and is valid statewide. Alongside it, counties and municipalities examine and certify their own air-conditioning and mechanical contractors (Miami-Dade's Air Conditioning Contractor Unlimited/Limited, Broward's Class A and Class B Air Conditioning and Mechanical Contractor), whose holders register with DBPR as Registered Air-Conditioning Contractors (RA) and may work only in the jurisdictions that issued the local card, which is why this level is marked Hybrid. Florida's only contractor reciprocity agreements (Louisiana, North Carolina and Mississippi, since June 1, 2021) cover General, Building and Residential licenses and not air conditioning, and the Board publishes no list of out-of-state air-conditioning exams found equivalent. Out-of-state HVAC contractors are handled by endorsement under s. 489.115(3): the Board may waive the Florida exam if the origin exam or licensing criteria are found substantially equivalent through an Examination Evaluation Questionnaire (a route the Board's own form calls 'very stringent and rarely approved'), or waives it for a contractor who has held the same or similar license for at least 10 years; everyone else takes the Florida exams. Endorsement costs $350; examination candidates pay $135 to register plus $80 per exam part, the certification application after passing is $245, and biennial renewal is $205. EPA Section 608 certification is a separate federal requirement.

Maine has no master HVAC, HVAC contractor, mechanical contractor or refrigeration license at the state or municipal level, and no general contractor license, so a business may install and service air conditioning, ductwork, ventilation and refrigeration without any state credential. The highest person-held credential in the heating trades is the Maine Fuel Board's Master Oil Burner and/or Solid Fuel Technician license ($200 plus a $21 background check, exam required, after four years licensed with at least two as a journeyman), which is the license that lets a technician work unsupervised on oil and solid-fuel burning equipment and supervise apprentices; propane and natural gas work needs the separate Propane and Natural Gas Technician license, which has no master tier. Under a 2013 memorandum of understanding between the Fuel Board and the Electricians' Examining Board, master and journeyman oil burner technicians may also wire mini-split heat pumps of 36,000 BTU or less in one- and two-family dwellings and existing multi-family dwellings with electric heat; larger units and other occupancies require a licensed electrician, and refrigerant handling requires federal EPA Section 608 certification. A master HVAC licensee arriving from another state gains nothing from that license in Maine: no Maine agency recognizes it, no reciprocity exists for any Fuel Board license, and the Fuel Board's rules only credit documented out-of-state employment toward the master oil burner qualifications before the applicant sits the Maine exam. A statutory licensure-by-endorsement route (32 M.R.S. s. 18142-A and 10 M.R.S. s. 8003-H) applies to Fuel Board licenses in principle, but the board has not published an endorsement procedure or a list of equivalent states.