The 06A license behind our furnace and heat pump work

Washington licenses electrical contractors either in general (01), which reaches every type of electrical installation, or in one of the narrower specialties listed in WAC 296-46B-920. Specialty 06A is HVAC/refrigeration. The state's definitions call the central unit of the system the equipment, naming heat pumps, furnaces and compressor packages among others, and treat the motors, compressors, heating coils, controls, switches and thermostats within it as its components.

The license comes with obligations. A Washington electrical contractor must have an assigned electrical administrator or master electrician who answers for compliance with state electrical law, and an administrator who holds a specialty can only be assigned to a contractor in that same specialty. The rule also bars an unsupervised electrical trainee from working on any part of an HVAC/refrigeration system with a circuit rated over 600 volts.

Unlike most specialties, 06A is not capped by voltage, phase or amperage, so the same license applies to a 120-volt ductless head and a three-phase condensing unit behind a restaurant. Within the HVAC/refrigeration system, the rule allows:

• Line-voltage components inside the equipment: blower and inducer motors, compressors, contactors, capacitors, heat strips, control boards, plus product lighting the unit powers, like the lights in a reach-in beverage cooler.
• Low-voltage control wiring in every residential occupancy, such as thermostat cable and the control run to an outdoor unit.
• Short pieces of raceway that protect low-voltage cable, provided they do not join two boxes or devices.
• Flexible line-voltage supply whips up to six feet, with no change to the branch circuit.
• The internal parts of the equipment's disconnect or controller, unless it sits in a panelboard or motor control center.

That lines up with most of our calls: furnace repair and replacement, AC and heat pump work, ductless mini-splits, tune-ups and commercial refrigeration.

Under state rules, electrical work needs a permit unless a specific exemption applies, and the permit must be in hand before the work begins. For a like-in-kind replacement on the existing branch circuit, a licensed electrical contractor can use L&I's Class B label instead: it covers a furnace up to 240 volts and 100 amps, or a heat pump or air conditioner up to 240 volts and 40 minimum circuit amps, and those jobs are inspected at random. A new installation goes through a regular electrical work permit, with the inspection request due within three working days of finishing or one working day after any part is energized, whichever comes first.

Your address decides which office handles it. Seattle, Everett, Lynnwood, Kirkland and Mountlake Terrace run their own electrical permits and inspections, and L&I does not issue permits inside those cities. Seattle adds a furnace permit for any furnace replacement or alteration, and a refrigeration permit for any split-system heat pump or air conditioner; only a licensed refrigeration contractor can obtain that one.

The specialty ends at the equipment and its controls. It excludes line-voltage controllers and disconnect switches mounted outside the unit, with one narrow exception: when the equipment itself is replaced, a surface-mounted disconnect enclosure rated no higher than 20-amp, 120-volt may be swapped like for like on the existing wiring method. Also outside 06A, with narrow exceptions: stand-alone line-voltage equipment such as baseboard or wall heaters and heat cable, conduit systems, service, feeder and branch-circuit conductors, panelboards, building lighting, and wiring in classified hazardous locations outside the equipment.

In practice, a first-time mini-split or heat pump that needs a dedicated 240-volt circuit and a new outdoor disconnect, or a panel with no room for another breaker, is a job for a general (01) electrical contractor, priced on its own line apart from our install. We look at the circuit, breaker and disconnect during the site visit so that surfaces early rather than on install day.

On L&I Verify, choose the WA UBI No. search and enter 605283205. Open the electrical contractor record and look for HVAC/refrigeration (06A) under License specialties, with its effective and expiration dates; that record is filed as LARCH HVAC & APPLIANCE, while records from before our 2026 name change carry the former name, ADAM&SAM BROTHERS REPAIR. Below that, License Violations lists any citations. Verify also lets you look up an individual electrician's certificate if you want to check the technician at your door.

Two details explain what you will and will not see. State law sets the electrical contractor bond at $4,000, and L&I does not keep liability insurance records for electrical contractors, so our insurance appears under the construction contractor registration described on the general contractor page. All three credentials are summarized on our licenses page.