Checked against primary sources 2026-08-24

The national GFCI date lands on September 1 and the proposal to move it is open until September 9

Texas left the expiration out of the exception when it adopted the 2026 edition. Everywhere else the exemption lapses on the first of the month while the amendment that would extend it is still collecting comment on the ninth.

Quiz yourself: did this section move?

Two dates, and they arrive in the wrong order

NEC 210.8(F) Exception No. 2 carries an expiration printed inside the exception itself, and the date printed there is September 1, 2026. That is the same day the 2026 edition takes effect in Texas under 16 TAC 73.100.

The date is corroborated. The wording of the sentence carrying it is not, so this page does not quote it. The versions in circulation read expire September 1, 2026, where the construction the code customarily uses in a clause of that kind is expire on a date. That is the difference you get when a line has been retyped rather than read, so take the date from here and the sentence from NEC 210.8(F) in your own book.

The edition does not simply let the exception lapse and leave nothing behind it. IAEI reports that the 2026 text puts four compliant options in its place: a Class A GFCI, a Class A device marked HF or HF+, a Class C special purpose ground-fault circuit interrupter, and a Class C SPGFCI marked HF or HF+. The national picture after September 1 is a changed set of acceptable devices rather than a hole, and the amendment below is not the only route out of it.

Tentative Interim Amendment 1924 is the proposal that would push that date out to September 1, 2028. It is pending at NFPA and its comment period closes September 9, 2026.

Put those in calendar order and the sequence is backwards. The printed date arrives on the first. The document that would change the printed date is still open for comment on the ninth.

Pending is not a status you can install to

An amendment of this kind carries the full weight of the code once NFPA issues it and none at all before. There is no halfway position, and there is nothing in between to work from.

That distinction is the first thing lost in secondary coverage. A proposal and an issued amendment read identically in a headline, and the only word separating them is one nobody puts in a headline.

As of the last week of August 2026, nothing about 1924 is settled. The comment period had not closed. No issuance date exists to quote. Anyone telling a contractor in September that the national exemption has been extended for two years is describing a document that has not been issued.

The reverse error is just as easy. Reading the expiration and stopping there gives you a firm answer that is firm only in the places where nobody amended it.

Texas took the shorter route

The state did not wait on the amendment and did not copy it. 16 TAC 73.100(b) picks up Exception No. 2 and leaves the expiration sentence out of the adoption.

That is not a two year extension. It is the absence of an end date, which behaves differently: an extension runs out and this does not.

So the outcome of 1924 is a matter of interest here rather than a matter of planning. If NFPA issues it, the rest of the country moves to 2028 and the Texas position is unchanged. If NFPA does not, the rest of the country stays expired and the Texas position is unchanged.

Worth noticing what that says about the two documents. From September 1 the code adopted in Texas and the code printed by NFPA are not the same code, and the difference is one sentence that only appears in one of them.

The exemption is narrower than the shorthand

The version going around is that Texas kept the GFCI exemption. What Texas kept is one exception, and its reach is fixed by its own wording: listed heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment. That phrase is the state rule's own and it is exact. It is heating, ventilation and air conditioning, not refrigeration.

What the state rule does not do is describe the occupancies. 16 TAC 73.100(b) names subsection (F), Outdoor Outlets, and stops there. The answer sits a line above the exception, in the sentence that opens the subsection, and that sentence begins "For dwellings" (NEC 210.8(F)). An exception reaches no further than the rule it hangs off, so what Texas kept alive is a dwelling exemption. Anything that is not a dwelling was outside subsection (F) to begin with and is outside the Texas amendment with it.

The same opening sentence puts two more limits on what the exception can reach, and one of them moved this cycle. The circuit has to be single-phase at 150 volts or less to ground, and its rating has to land at 60 amperes or less, which is up from 50 in the previous edition (NEC 210.8(F)). So a dwelling outdoor unit on a heavier circuit than that sits outside the subsection, and the Texas amendment does nothing for it either way.

The rest of NEC 210.8 sits where it always sat. Nothing about the Texas amendment reaches the bathroom, kitchen, garage or basement receptacle rules, and nothing about it reaches an outdoor outlet serving anything other than that listed equipment.

Local amendments still stack on top. A city can be stricter than 16 TAC 73.100(b), and several are, so the state position is the floor rather than the finish.

What to look at on September 9, and where to stop

A comment period closing is not a decision. It is the point after which a decision becomes possible, and the gap between those two things can be long.

The place to look is the NFPA document information page for NFPA 70, which is free to read and lists amendments alongside their status and their dates. It is linked in the citations below, and it distinguishes issued from pending in a way that reposted summaries do not.

What to look for is whether 1924 appears with an issue date attached. If it does, the national date moved. If it appears as pending, or does not appear at all, the national date did not move.

Then stop, because in Texas the answer is the same either way. That is the reason to spend eight minutes on this once rather than watching it every week.

Questions people ask

When does the GFCI exception for outdoor HVAC equipment expire?

The expiration printed inside NEC 210.8(F) Exception No. 2 is September 1, 2026. That is the same day the 2026 edition takes effect in Texas under 16 TAC 73.100. Take the date from here and the sentence carrying it from your own book.

What is TIA 1924 and when does its comment period close?

It is a proposed tentative interim amendment that would move that national expiration out to September 1, 2028, and it is written against the 2020, 2023 and 2026 editions at once. Its comment period closes September 9, 2026, eight days after the printed date arrives. A proposal carries no weight until NFPA issues it.

Does the September 1, 2026 expiration apply in Texas?

No. 16 TAC 73.100(b) adopts Exception No. 2 and leaves the expiration sentence out, so there is no end date here rather than a two year extension. The exemption reaches listed heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment at dwelling outdoor outlets, and no further. A local authority can still be stricter.

When does the 2026 NEC take effect in Texas?

September 1, 2026, under 16 TAC 73.100. The 2023 edition governs through August 31 and the rule sets out no phase-in. The cutover page has the vote date and what else the rule does.

What this page cites

• 16 TAC 73.100(b) The subsection that carries the Texas amendment. It adopts NEC 210.8(F) Exception No. 2 and does not carry the expiration sentence printed in the national text. source
• Texas Register, Title 16 Proposed Rules, March 2026 Secretary of State archive of the proposal that became the adopted amendment. Useful for seeing what the department was aiming at before the vote. source
• NEC 210.8(F) Ground-fault protection at outdoor outlets, and Exception No. 2 is the one carrying its own expiration date. The opening sentence fixes what the exception can reach: it begins "For dwellings", excludes the outlets covered by 210.8(A) Exception No. 1, and stops at single-phase branch circuits rated 150 volts or less to ground and 60 amperes or less. Read from NFPA code-making panel 2, second revisions 7584 and 7590 in the second draft for this cycle, with the rise from 50 amperes to 60 in first revision 7909 of the first draft. source
• IAEI Magazine Reports the September 1, 2026 sunset and the four compliant options the 2026 text supplies in place of the expiring exception: Class A GFCI, Class A marked HF or HF+, Class C SPGFCI, and Class C SPGFCI marked HF or HF+. Secondary reporting, so confirm the device classes against the printed section before you specify one. source
• NFPA 70 TIA 1924 Pending amendment that would move the national expiration to September 1, 2028, with a comment period closing September 9, 2026. Check the status here rather than in a summary. source