HVAC Contractors in California: market size and renewals
The CSLB register lists 12,182 HVAC contractors in California. The densest county is Los Angeles County with 2,978 of them, 24% of the state total. 983 come up for renewal within 90 days.
Where the competition is
Licence counts by county, densest first. Use it to see how contested a patch already is before you spend money marketing into it, or to find the countys where the register is thin.
| County | On record | Valid today | Not valid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles County | 2,978 | 2,816 | 162 |
| Riverside County | 1,175 | 1,102 | 73 |
| Orange County | 1,054 | 986 | 68 |
| San Diego County | 913 | 863 | 50 |
| San Bernardino County | 708 | 670 | 38 |
| Sacramento County | 637 | 604 | 33 |
| Santa Clara County | 510 | 478 | 32 |
| Contra Costa County | 343 | 323 | 20 |
| Alameda County | 297 | 278 | 19 |
| Fresno County | 281 | 264 | 17 |
| Ventura County | 248 | 231 | 17 |
| Kern County | 245 | 215 | 30 |
| Stanislaus County | 211 | 200 | 11 |
| Placer County | 201 | 189 | 12 |
| San Joaquin County | 196 | 184 | 12 |
| Sonoma County | 189 | 181 | 8 |
| San Mateo County | 142 | 135 | 7 |
| Solano County | 119 | 108 | 11 |
| El Dorado County | 114 | 111 | 3 |
| Tulare County | 111 | 105 | 6 |
| Santa Barbara County | 99 | 97 | 2 |
| San Francisco County | 99 | 96 | 3 |
| San Luis Obispo County | 94 | 86 | 8 |
| Merced County | 83 | 76 | 7 |
| Monterey County | 77 | 74 | 3 |
Renewal pipeline
Licences with an expiry date inside each window, counted from the board file. A licence that has already lapsed or been suspended is excluded, so these are people who currently hold a valid licence and have a renewal coming.
New HVAC contractors per year
How many HVAC contractors currently on the register were first issued in each year. Older years thin out as licences lapse and drop off the file, so read this as the surviving cohort, not as the number issued at the time.
| Year | HVAC Contractors issued | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 347 | |
| 2021 | 551 | |
| 2022 | 562 | |
| 2023 | 604 | |
| 2024 | 722 | |
| 2025 | 830 | |
| 2026 | 542 |
Counted from the California Contractors State License Board public licence file, reloaded August 18, 2026. Figures describe licences on record, not businesses: one company can hold several. Confirm anything that matters at CSLB.