Maine to North Carolina: master HVAC technician license reciprocity

North Carolina has no 'master HVAC' license; its highest HVAC credential is the Heating Contractor license issued to an individual by the State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Fire Sprinkler Contractors under G.S. 87-21, in Heating Group 1 (steam, vapor and hot-water comfort heating), Group 2 (forced-air heating/cooling with more than 15 tons of cooling) and Group 3 (forced-air heating/cooling of 15 tons or less), each with Class I (any building) and Class II (single-family detached dwellings) except Group 2, which is Class I only. The license is earned personally by passing the 4-hour technical exam and the 1.5-hour Business and Law exam and belongs to the individual, who may list it in a firm name and add sub-licensees; that is why this site maps it to the master level. A new applicant needs 4,000 hours of hands-on experience (up to half from technical education), pays $150 per examination, submits a nationwide criminal background report and Social Security verification, and after licensure pays an annual license fee of $150. The Board states that it has no license reciprocity with any state; the only technical-exam waiver is with South Carolina, and North Carolina residents licensed in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia or West Virginia may ask for licensure without examination under the Neighbor State License Recognition Act. Commercial, industrial, transport and service refrigeration (not comfort cooling) requires a separate Class I-IV Refrigeration Contractor license from the State Board of Refrigeration Contractors ($100 exam, 4,000 hours, EPA 608 Type II or Universal required), which has no reciprocity but offers the same neighbor-state route to new NC residents. EPA Section 608 certification is required federally to handle refrigerants.

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.