Air conditioning and refrigeration work
You must have a licence or certificate before you can do air conditioning and refrigeration work in NSW. This includes any associated electrical wiring that would otherwise be done by an electrician.
Key information
- In NSW, you need a licence or certificate to do air conditioning and refrigeration work. There are different types of licences available depending on the work you need to do.
- You need an additional licence to do any mechanical services work that doesn’t fall under air-conditioning and refrigeration.
- You must have the right qualifications and experience before you can apply for a licence or certificate.
- You can apply for a 1, 3 or 5 year licence or certificate.
When you will need an air conditioning and refrigeration licence or certificate
You must have a licence or certificate before you can do air conditioning and refrigeration work in NSW. This includes any associated electrical wiring work that would otherwise be done by an electrician. See the categories of work below.
A licence is not required to do duct work outside of a dwelling.
Overlap with mechanical services and medical gas work
There are some overlaps in the work authorised by an air-conditioning and refrigeration licence and a medical gas and mechanical services licence.
If you hold an air-conditioning and refrigeration licence, you can do work authorised under the medical gas and mechanical services licence to the extent of the overlap.
To do any mechanical services work that does not fall under air-conditioning and refrigeration work, an additional licence is required. The same applies for air conditioning and refrigeration work that falls outside the scope of mechanical services work.
See more information about medical gas and mechanical services work.
Licence types you can apply for
Air conditioning and refrigeration is specialist work.
There are several types of licences available in NSW depending on whether you want to:
- contract to do the work,
- supervise work,
- do the work, or
- do a combination of these roles.
The licence types that apply to air conditioning and refrigeration work are:
- Individual contractor licence
- Company or partnership contractor licence
- Qualified supervisor certificate
- Provisional tradesperson certificate.
You can apply for these licence types for 1, 3 or 5 years. However, provisional tradesperson certificates are issued for 3 years and cannot be renewed.
Find out more about licence types and how to apply.
You can also get started with applying for your licence or certificate at Service NSW
Time frames for licensing and registration applications
Find out about the current application processing times for different licence and registration categories.
Categories of work
Air conditioning and refrigeration work is defined in Schedule 4 of the Home Building Regulation 2014 as outlined below. Please also note further information relating to what is considered as associated electrical wiring work.
Air conditioning work is:
- any work needed to install, maintain and service an air-conditioning system (other than a self-contained single-phase plug-in home air-conditioning system, such as portable air conditioners people use at home) in a structure, building, vessel, container or railway vehicle
- work required to comply with the requirements of Australian/New Zealand Standard:
- AS 1668.2:2012, The use of ventilation and airconditioning in buildings, Part 2: Mechanical ventilation in buildings
- AS/NZS 3666:2011, Air handling and water systems of buildings—Microbial control, relating to the maintenance of cooling towers
- associated electrical wiring work.
Air conditioning work is not:
- the installation of an air-conditioning system in a railway vehicle by the manufacturer of the vehicle
- the installation, maintenance or repair of ducting or insulation in places other than homes.
Refrigeration work is:
- any work needed to install, maintain and service a refrigeration system (other than a self-contained single-phase plug-in domestic refrigeration system, such as fridges people use at home) in a structure, building, vessel, container or vehicle
- work required to comply with the requirements of Australian/New Zealand Standards:
- AS/NZS ISO 817:2016, Refrigerants—Designation and safety classification
- AS/NZS 5149:2016, Refrigerating systems and heat pumps—Safety and environmental requirements
- associated electrical wiring work.
The air conditioning and refrigeration licences also allow associated electrical wiring work that relates to the general servicing and maintenance of air conditioning and refrigeration systems:
- test and diagnose problems in control and power circuits and electrical equipment and electrical motors
- disconnect and reconnect electrical components designed to be permanently connected
- replace electrical components on the load-side of the mains supply
- repair and adjust (in line with normal trade practice) electrical components
- repair, replace or make good cable terminations or defective electrical wiring
- minor changes to electrical wiring.
You must hold either an air conditioning, refrigeration, or electrical licence to be able to carry out this work.
Qualifications and experience needed
Individuals applying for a contractor licence, supervisor or tradesperson certificate must have
- one of the current qualifications listed below, and
- completed one set of the mandatory associated electrical qualification modules listed below.
To find organisations that deliver nationally recognised training, go to https://www.yourcareer.gov.au/learn-and-train/courses and search via the course code or name.
If you are currently an apprentice or trainee, you cannot apply for a licence or certificate. You must apply as soon as you finish your apprenticeship or traineeship to be able to keep doing air conditioning and refrigeration work.
If you hold a licence from interstate or New Zealand, and want to work in NSW, see Working interstate and mutual recognition.
Air conditioning and refrigeration is included under the NSW Automatic Mutual Recognition (AMR) scheme.
If you trained overseas, see Overseas trained applicants.
You must have completed of one of the following:
- UEE32220 Certificate III in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration
- UEE32211 Certificate III in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration
- UEE31307 Certificate III in Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
- UEE31306 Certificate III in Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
- UTE30999 Certificate III in Electrotechnology (Refrigeration and Air Conditioning)
- The Refrigeration/Air Conditioning Trade course 7795 through NSW TAFE
OR
You have completed an apprenticeship as a refrigeration mechanic and/or air conditioning mechanic before 10 December 2010, with a Certificate of Proficiency as proof.
In addition to one of the courses listed above, you must also do one set of the mandatory associated electrical qualification modules listed below:
- UEERL0004 – Disconnect-reconnect electrical equipment connected to low voltage (LV) installation wiring, conditioned for “Air Conditioning”, or “Refrigeration”, or “Air Conditioning and Refrigeration”, and
- UEERL0005 – Locate and rectify faults in low voltage (LV) electrical equipment using set procedures
- UEENEEP012A – Disconnect/reconnect composite appliances connected to low voltage installation wiring, and
- UEENEEP017A - Locate and rectify faults in low voltage composite appliances using set procedures
- UEENEEP001B – Disconnect/reconnect fixed wired electrical equipment to a Low Voltage Supply, and
- UEENEEP007B - Locate and rectify faults in electrical low voltage equipment following prescribed procedures
- UEENEEP001A – Disconnect/reconnect fixed wired electrical equipment to a Low Voltage Supply, and
- UEENEEP007A - Locate and rectify faults in electrical low voltage equipment following prescribed procedures
- UTENES208 - Disconnect/reconnect fixed wired Equipment up to 1000 volts ac/1500 volts dc, and
- UTENES505 – Locate & rectify fault(s) in Electrical equipment 1kVac/1.5dc by procedures
If you hold a current licence or certificate which includes the condition for associated electrical work restrictions, and you want to apply to remove this condition, you will need to provide the following with your application form:
- Your current licence or certificate number
- Evidence of completion of the mandatory associated electrical qualification modules (listed above).
If you previously held a licence and want to re-apply, you must do one of the following depending on when your licence expired.
You will be issued the same licence or qualified supervisor number you had before if your application is approved.
| Time since your licence or certificate expired | What type of licence or certificate did you hold? | What are you eligible for? |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 5 years | Air conditioning and refrigeration with no conditions. | Air conditioning and refrigeration with no conditions, if you provide us with your previous licence or certificate number |
| Less than 5 years | Air conditioning and refrigeration with conditions. | Air conditioning and refrigeration with conditions, if you provide us with your previous licence or certificate number NOTE: If you want the condition “excluding the associated electrical work” to be removed then you need to:
and
|
| More than 5 years | Air conditioning and refrigeration with or without conditions. | Air conditioning and refrigeration, if you
and
|
What would you like to do now?
Get in touch with Building Commission NSW
Need help with an application or want to know more about training and accreditation? Get in touch with Building Commission NSW.