How do I renew my HVAC license in Texas?
Air conditioning and refrigeration contractor licenses in Texas are issued by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation and renew every year. TDLR's wording is that you must complete 8 hours of approved continuing education coursework each year, so this is an annual requirement rather than something that comes round every two years.
What Texas asks for
- Hours required
- 8 hours of approved continuing education
- How often
- Every year
- Reporting
- We file your completion electronically with TDLR within 7 days of the date you finish, and your completion certificate is issued within 15 days.
Made up of
- Texas laws and rules 1 hour Governing A/C and refrigeration contractors.
- Codes and statute 7 hours Occupations Code Chapter 1302, 16 TAC Chapter 75, or the International, Uniform or other applicable mechanical codes.
CE must be completed before your license expires, and only department-approved courses count.
Checked against the board's own pages on 2026-08-09.
The 8 hours are not a free choice
One of the eight has to be Texas laws and rules. The remaining seven come from Occupations Code chapter 1302, the department's rules in 16 TAC chapter 75, or the mechanical codes that apply to your work, which in practice means the International or Uniform Mechanical Code and the other applicable codes. A course that covers only code and no Texas law does not satisfy the requirement on its own.
Registered technicians
The requirement above is the contractor requirement, and this site's TDLR registration is as an A/C contractor CE provider. TDLR's contractor pages do not impose continuing education on registered technicians, but they do not state an exemption for them either, so we do not tell you either way. If you are a registered technician rather than a licensed contractor, ask TDLR before you buy.
The renewal itself
- Complete 8 approved hours before your license expires. Ours is the Texas A/C and refrigeration CE course, under TDLR provider number 2268, and it includes the Texas laws and rules hour.
- We report your completion to TDLR electronically within 7 days, with your certificate inside 15 days.
- Renew in TDLR's online portal and pay the current fee for your license type, which TDLR publishes on that license's renewal page.
- Check the new expiry date in TDLR's license search once it has processed.
Only department-approved courses count, and the hours have to be finished before the expiry date rather than before the renewal is processed. Leaving it to the last few days gives the reporting no room.
