Short answer
Check the licence first — heating & cooling must be licensed in every state. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 1,585 Australian heating & cooling in this directory, only 14.8% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 6.3% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
Heating & Cooling handle split systems, ducted heating and cooling, evaporative coolers, servicing and repairs. This is what to check before you let one into your house, and what the evidence says about the trade as a whole.
Heating & Cooling must be licensed
Anyone handling refrigerant needs an ARC licence from the Australian Refrigeration Council — a national scheme you can check yourself, which is unusually straightforward for an Australian trade. Installing a system also involves electrical work, which requires a separate electrical licence.
There is no national licence register in Australia — each state and territory runs its own. The regulator for your state is listed at the bottom of this guide, and checking a number takes about a minute.
What 1,585 Australian heating & cooling actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For heating & cooling:
| What we checked | Heating & Cooling | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 14.8% | 12.9% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 43.6% | 44.3% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 6.3% | 5.5% |
| Website responded when we checked | 71.7% | 70.8% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 91.6% | 95% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 33 | 18 |
What goes wrong with heating & cooling
- Refrigerant handled by someone without an ARC licence
- The electrical side done by whoever was on site rather than a licensed electrician
- Undersized units sold because the room was never measured
What to ask before the work starts
- What is your ARC licence number?
- Who is doing the electrical connection, and are they licensed?
- How did you size this unit for the room?
A air conditioning installer who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median air conditioning installer in this directory has 33 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where the heating & cooling are
Melbourne (151), Sydney (122), Brisbane (110), Perth (76), Newcastle (51), Adelaide (44). A shortlist for your own area is more useful than a national ranking — the best air conditioning installer in the country is no help if they are four states away.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICVictorian Building Authority, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do heating & cooling need a licence in Australia?
- Yes. Anyone handling refrigerant needs an ARC licence from the Australian Refrigeration Council — a national scheme you can check yourself, which is unusually straightforward for an Australian trade. Installing a system also involves electrical work, which requires a separate electrical licence.
- How do I check an air conditioning installer's licence?
- There is no national register. Each state and territory has its own regulator — NSW Fair Trading, the Victorian Building Authority and Energy Safe Victoria, QBCC in Queensland, Building and Energy in WA, Consumer and Business Services in SA, CBOS in Tasmania, Access Canberra in the ACT, and the NT Government. Search the licence number the business gives you on the regulator for the state the work is happening in.
- What percentage of Australian heating & cooling have a verifiable ABN?
- 14.8% of the 1,585 heating & cooling in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 12.9% across all trades.
- How many reviews should an air conditioning installer have?
- The median air conditioning installer here has 33. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
Compare heating & cooling near you
1,585 heating & cooling, ranked on the evidence described above rather than on advertising.
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