Checked against primary sources 2026-08-24
Some rules in the book you are holding start on their own date
A rule can be printed, adopted and enforceable, and still not apply to you until a date years away. The book says so in the sentence, and it is easy to read past.
Quiz yourself: did this section move?
On this page
Why this exists at all
Some requirements depend on a product being listed, and on the listing standard and the manufacturers being ready. Writing the requirement now and starting it later gives the supply chain time to catch up.
The consequence for you is that the same paragraph can be both current code and not yet applicable, and only the last sentence tells you which.
What we have found so far
Already running
Four of the dates we found have already arrived. Texas adopts the 2026 edition on September 1, 2026 under 16 TAC 73.100, which is after all four, so these reach a Texas job already in force with no waiting period at all.
| Started | Where | What started |
|---|---|---|
| January 1, 2026 | 424.48 | Heating cables and cable sets installed in walls: a 4 foot height limit, with both GFCI and AFCI protection. |
| January 1, 2026 | 424.93(C) | The same height limit and the same two kinds of protection, for heating panels in walls. |
| January 1, 2026 | 551.40(D) | The listed grounding monitor interrupter on a recreational vehicle 30 or 50 ampere feeder assembly. |
| January 1, 2026 | 555.35(D) | The listing requirement for the leakage current measurement device used at marinas. |
Still ahead
The rest sit in the over-1000-volt articles, the electric vehicle article and the pool article, and they run to 2032.
| Starts | Where | What starts |
|---|---|---|
| January 1, 2029 | 245.2(A) | Listing of overcurrent protection for systems not over 15,000 volts. |
| January 1, 2029 | 495.2(A) | Listing of switchgear and industrial control assemblies not over 15,000 volts. |
| January 1, 2029 | 625.54(B)(2) | Special purpose ground-fault protection on certain permanently wired electric vehicle outlets over 150 volts to ground. |
| January 1, 2029 | 680.26(B)(2)(a) | Listing, for corrosion resistance and mechanical performance, of the copper grid or welded wire used in pool equipotential bonding where it is not fully embedded in concrete. |
| January 1, 2032 | 245.2(B) | The same listing duty for overcurrent protection over 15,000 volts and not over 52,000 volts. |
| January 1, 2032 | 495.2(B) | The same listing duty for assemblies over 15,000 volts and not over 52,000 volts. |
The two over-1000-volt articles are built the same way. Each has a Listing Requirements section at .2, each splits it into (A) for equipment up to 15,000 volts and (B) for equipment above that and up to 52,000 volts, and each gives the upper band three more years than the lower one.
245.2 carries an exception worth knowing before you price anything: overcurrent protection that is integral to a listed assembly shall not be required to be listed on its own (NEC 245.2). The assembly's listing covers it.
How to read one of these when you meet it
The sentence pattern is consistent, and the useful part is where it sits: in every one we read, the effective-date clause comes at the end of the requirement, after the rule it delays.
That is why it gets read past. By the time you reach it you have already decided what the paragraph says.
If you are checking whether something applies today, read the whole subsection to the end before deciding. The delayed date is not going to be in the first line.
What the 2029 and 2032 dates mean for a Texas job
They are not a distant horizon. They are inside a normal working career, and the first of them is closer than the gap between the last two code editions.
They will probably not reach you through this book, though. The NEC has come out every three years, and Texas took the 2023 edition on September 1, 2023 and the 2026 edition on September 1, 2026. On that pattern, whatever Texas has adopted in January 2029 is unlikely to be the book on your bench today.
That does not make the dates useless to know. It makes them a purchasing question rather than an inspection question. Equipment bought now sits in service well past 2029, and the listing that is optional today is the one the next edition will expect.
The limits of this list
This is what a read of the code-making panel drafts turned up, not a guarantee of completeness. Delayed dates can be worded in more than one way and a differently worded one would not appear here, so read this as at least these, not as all of them.
The section numbers here come from NFPA's second draft reports for the cycle that produced the 2026 edition. They are the numbers the published book uses, and they are the right place to look, but check the subsection in your own copy before you cite it to anyone.
It is also worth saying plainly that a delayed date in the national code says nothing about what a local authority requires. An authority having jurisdiction can be stricter, and several are.
Questions people ask
Which rules in the 2026 NEC have delayed effective dates?
At least ten that we have found, and the two tables above list them with their section numbers. Four had already started before Texas adopted the edition, and six are still ahead, running to 2032. The list is what we could verify rather than a certified complete set.
What starts on January 1, 2029?
Four of them. Listing of overcurrent protection for systems not over 15,000 volts at 245.2(A), listing of switchgear and industrial control assemblies not over 15,000 volts at 495.2(A), special purpose ground-fault protection on certain permanently wired electric vehicle outlets at 625.54(B)(2), and listing of the copper grid or welded wire used in pool equipotential bonding where it is not fully embedded in concrete at 680.26(B)(2)(a).
What starts on January 1, 2032?
Two, and they are the upper voltage tier of the two 2029 listing duties. 245.2(B) takes overcurrent protection over 15,000 volts and not over 52,000 volts, and 495.2(B) takes assemblies in the same band. Each of the two articles gives the higher tier three more years than the lower one.
Which delayed dates have already arrived?
Four, all dated January 1, 2026, which is before Texas took the edition on September 1, 2026. They are the wall height limit with ground-fault and arc-fault protection for heating cables at 424.48 and for heating panels at 424.93(C), the listed grounding monitor interrupter on a recreational vehicle 30 or 50 ampere feeder assembly at 551.40(D), and the listing of the leakage current measurement device used at marinas at 555.35(D). Those reach a Texas job in force with no waiting period.
Find where any 2023 section went, in seconds
Every moved, reused and vacated number, with the document each one was read in. $29 once, no account. Ten of them free in the quiz first.
Fifty numbers, each checked against the 2026 text, with a public corrections log.
What this page cites
- NEC 245.2 Listing Requirements for overcurrent protection over 1000 volts. (A) not over 15,000 volts, effective January 1, 2029. (B) over 15,000 and not over 52,000 volts, effective January 1, 2032. Both carry the integral-assembly exception. Read in NFPA's code-making panel 9 second draft, 24 August 2026. source
- NEC 495.2 Listing Requirements for switchgear and industrial control assemblies over 1000 volts, with the same two dates. The same draft prints 495.3 as Reconditioned Equipment with no effective date, which is what settles where the 2032 date lives. source
- NEC 424.48 Installation of cables in walls, with the height limit and the protection requirements, effective January 1, 2026. Companion rule for heating panels at 424.93(C). source
- NEC 555.35 Leakage current measurement device for marinas. The listing requirement became effective January 1, 2026. source
- NEC 625.54 Special purpose ground-fault protection for electric vehicle supply, effective January 1, 2029. Article 626, electrified truck parking, carries no delayed date in the same panel's draft. source
- 16 TAC 73.100 Texas adoption of the 2026 National Electrical Code, effective September 1, 2026. source