Texas enforces the 2026 NEC

Record of adoption

In force since

Sep 1, 2026

Legal citation

16 Tex. Admin. Code §73.100; Tex. Occ. Code §1305.101(a)(2)

Adopted by

Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation; administered by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR)

Second reading

Agreed Oct 18, 2026

Applies

Statewide

State amendments

Minor

Also called

NEC, NFPA 70, 16 TAC §73.100, state electrical code

Applies in cities and in unincorporated areas; the single state modification adopts NEC 210.8(F) Exception No. 2 (listed HVAC equipment) without expiration. Local Gov’t Code §214.214(a) still adopts the NEC as it existed on May 1, 2001, as the municipal electrical construction code. TDLR says the 2026 NEC applies inside city limits too.

Exceptions

• Municipalities may adopt local amendments to the state NEC and administer and enforce it (Occ. Code §1305.201); TDLR says a city may amend the state code but not adopt its own.
• The rule covers non-exempt electrical work.

How Texas adopts the NEC

• Agency rule
• The legislature sets the update schedule

The TDLR Commission adopts each new NEC edition by amending 16 TAC §73.100; the proposal and the adoption are published in the Texas Register and the rule sets its own effective date (the 2026 NEC was voted on Jul 28, 2026, and takes effect Sep 1, 2026). Occupations Code §1305.101(a)(2) calls for adopting the revised NEC after each three-year NFPA publication; the statute text reviewed names no legislative approval step, and its history shows no amendment to §1305.101 since it was added in 2003.

Cycle. Triennial, following NFPA’s three-year NEC publication cycle.

Laws, rulings, and other actions

1. Jul 28, 2026Other action
   TDLR Commission vote adopting the 2026 NEC

   The Commission voted unanimously to adopt the 2026 NEC as the state electrical code, effective Sep 1, 2026 (rule filed with the Secretary of State Aug 12, 2026).

How it was checked

Verified

Two separate readings of the state’s own record agree, and the passage is on file word for word.

Read twice: a second, blind reading of the state’s record agreed with the first on Oct 18, 2026.

The state’s record was last read on Oct 18, 2026, from six source pages.

Evidence 11 sources

Sources for the record itself come first, the state’s own records ahead of others. A label marks a source about something else, such as an exception. A source marked secondary is not the state’s own record.

• “At its meeting on July 28, 2026, the Commission adopted the proposed rule as published in the Texas Register.”

• “Filed with the Office of the Secretary of State on August 12, 2026.”

  “Effective date: September 1, 2026”

• “§73.100. Technical Requirements.”

  “(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), effective September 1, 2026,”

  “the department adopts the 2026 National Electrical Code (NEC)”

• “after publication of the National Electrical Code by the National Fire Protection Association every three years,”

  “adopt the revised National Electrical Code as the electrical code for the state.”

• “Electrical work performed in an unincorporated area of the state must be installed in accordance with standards”

  “at least as stringent as the requirements of the state electrical code”

• “The adopted amendments adopt the 2026 National Electrical Code as the state electrical code, with a limited exception”

  “pertaining to ground-fault circuit interrupter requirements for certain outdoor outlets.”

• “Starting September 1, 2026, all non-exempt electrical work in Texas whether in a city’s limits”

  “or out in the county must be done to the State adopted 2026 NEC.”

• About an exception

  “A municipality may adopt procedures for the:”

  “adoption of local amendments to the National Electrical Code;”

• About an exception

  “does not state a municipality can”

  “What it does state is a municipality has the right to amend the state adopted code,”

• About the note

  “subsection (F), Outdoor Outlets:”

  “the department adopts Exception No. 2, relating to the exemption of listed heating,”

  “ventilation, and air conditioning equipment, without expiration.”

• About the note

  “(a) Except as provided by Subsection (c), the National Electrical Code, as it existed on May 1, 2001, is adopted as the municipal electrical construction code in this state”

Tracker cross-checks

Code adoption trackers are a cross-check. They are not Texas’s own record.

• Mike Holt’s NEC adoption listCross-checkAgrees with the record

  Texas: 2026 NEC, effective 9/1/26.

  Read Oct 16, 2026, in earlier research.

  mikeholt.com (opens in a new tab)Read Oct 17, 2026

• NFPA’s enforcement mapCross-checkDoes not agree with the record

  Texas 2023 (9/1/2023)

  Read Oct 18, 2026; NFPA page as of Aug 3, 2026, before the 2026 NEC’s 9/1/2026 effective date; the update map, not the table row, shows a 2026 update underway.

  nfpa.org (opens in a new tab)Read Oct 17, 2026

• IAEI’s code adoption pageCross-checkDoes not agree with the record

  Texas: 2023 NEC, effective 9/1/2023.

  Read Oct 16, 2026, in earlier research; the page looks stale for the 2026 adoption.

  iaei.org (opens in a new tab)Read Oct 17, 2026

Related pages

• See Texas’s NEC on the map
• NEC adoption in every state
• All six codes in Texas

Other codes in Texas

• IBC2012 IBCVerified
• IRC2012 IRCVerified
• IFCAnother model codeVerified
• IECC residential2015 IECCVerified
• IECC commercial2015 IECCVerified