No more PDF verison of the NEC for sale from NFPA

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pv_n00b said:
Starting with the 2020 NEC the NFPA will no longer be offering a PDF version. If you want an electronic version you will need to by an annual license for $200 and have an internet connection wherever you need to access the NEC. If you are an NFPA member and like the PDF version feel free to contact them and complain.
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Source?
 
MrJLH said:
Source?
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I don't think what the op said is quite true. As far as I can tell there is a $65 charge for the electronic access. You can buy the book and pay $14 for a one year access to the electronic version. So every year you would have to pay another $14 but this deal includes the book.

I don't see anything that states o join for $200
 
We are on NEC 2014. When I bought the 2014 PDF, it came with the 2017 PDF. So I'm good for a few more years. :)

Hopefully NFPA will change their mind by the time Florida starts using NEC 2020.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
I don't think what the op said is quite true. As far as I can tell there is a $65 charge for the electronic access. You can buy the book and pay $14 for a one year access to the electronic version. So every year you would have to pay another $14 but this deal includes the book.

I don't see anything that states o join for $200
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Here's the link to the NFPA site. https://catalog.nfpa.org/NFPA-70-National-Electrical-Code-NEC-Softbound-P1194.aspx?icid=W027

As long as you can use the digital version like you would a pdf (i.e. high-light, cut and paste sections) I guess that would be OK.. The down side is that you HAVE to have internet access to do this whereas, if you had the PDF version it's resident on your computer.
 
Well, we in California are still on the 2014, maybe next year we will go to 2017, so by the time we adopt the 2020 code it will be 2025 and I will be retired...
 
Just to give an update since I first posted. The NFPA dropped the price of the online access to the NEC to $65/yr. If you buy the print edition you can get your first year of online access for an additional $14. This is all on the NFPA website in their catalog.

I always loaded the PDF versions on an iPad that only has wifi and I rarely have internet access in the field so the online version is not usable to me.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
I don't think what the op said is quite true. As far as I can tell there is a $65 charge for the electronic access. You can buy the book and pay $14 for a one year access to the electronic version. So every year you would have to pay another $14 but this deal includes the book.

I don't see anything that states o join for $200
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The $14 deal is just for the first year, after that it will be $65/yr or whatever they are charging then. When I first posted the NFPA catalog listed the online access at $199/yr, they have since lowered it to $65/yr.
 
It maybe 1 percent of sales but comprises much more of their subscription customer usage.

When your company has one book and subscription, the younger employees get stuck using the pdf. By getting rid of the pdf version they are alienating future customers

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pv_n00b said:
Just to give an update since I first posted. The NFPA dropped the price of the online access to the NEC to $65/yr. If you buy the print edition you can get your first year of online access for an additional $14. This is all on the NFPA website in their catalog.

I always loaded the PDF versions on an iPad that only has wifi and I rarely have internet access in the field so the online version is not usable to me.
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My last electronic version I purchased was the 2014 E book. Don't remember the price but was close to same price as printed copy. Was a one time fee and the book was hosted by a third party site and AFAIK I will have access to it until that third party would happen to dissolve, just need a username and password for that third party site - Inkling is the name of that site. 2014 NEC is only book I have there but I think they host all sorts of E books. They did have better book navigation in that 2014 NEC than many PDF files typically have.
 
Engineers and contractors need an NEC document that searchable and portable (hence, the .pdf version). The new NEC no longer meets these requirements. Users are just going to continue with the 2017 edition. Dumb.
 
Kirk Avery said:
Engineers and contractors need an NEC document that searchable and portable (hence, the .pdf version). The new NEC no longer meets these requirements. Users are just going to continue with the 2017 edition. Dumb.
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While "NFPA Link" is more expensive, it can now work offline and you can do pretty much anything you can do with a pdf.
 
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