2026 NEC Code

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RonBrown$

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Location
Bonita Springs, Florida 34135
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electrical contractor
In the State of Florida, if the building department is still in the 2020 NEC code cycle and the NEC 2026 has new rules and regulations. Does the building department have to accept the new rules and regulations, or can they demand you continue with the old 2020 NEC requirements????
 
I see this on larger scale project in Florida often. The design firm is out of state and will use the most current NEC, 2026 in this case. In almost all instances, they will accept the current code. Logic tells them that problems must have happened the way it was and the newer rules help fix that issue. While they don't technically have to accept the newer rules, they usually do especially if the engineering firm has a PE stamp on it. Most state, county, city folks do have a bit of common sense regarding newer code cycles. But it is Florida and I've seen some really weird things done there before. NYC was on the 2008 NEC up until this past December, but they always allowed/approved newer rules. Now they're on the 2020 edition at least.
 
Boingo1972 said:
I see this on larger scale project in Florida often. The design firm is out of state and will use the most current NEC, 2026 in this case.
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Since the code tends to pile on regulations rather than take them away, its usually not a issue to design to the latest code, however the 2026 in particular in a rare move actually lowered the standard in a few places, like residential load calcs, so you'd need to stick to the legally adopted (2020) or ask for special permission in writing to use the newer code. There are also sections where the wording was unclear and the 2023 and 2026 improved clarity, so even if your on the 2020 you can look to the newer versions for clarifications.
Some AHJ will yield to the newer code but you'd want that in writing.
 
We had one AHJ that once let us use "permissions" from a newer version of the NEC, but they also made it clear that if we were going that route, everything had to comply with the newer version.

We couldn't cherry pick some sections from the older code and some from the newer code. And that seemed to make sense.
 
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