Checked against primary sources 2026-08-24
The articles that did not exist last cycle
Thirteen article numbers are new. Twelve of them are new addresses for material that was already in the book, and one covers subject matter the Code has never carried.
On this page
The count, and what it is a count of
Thirteen article numbers appear in the 2026 edition that a 2023 book does not have. Twelve are relocations or consolidations of material that already existed. One, Article 624, covers a subject the Code has never covered.
Those are two different questions and change lists mix them up constantly. A number can be new while the rule under it is word for word what you read last cycle, which is what happened to load calculations.
There is a second way these lists go wrong. Anything that puts Article 245, 305, 315 or 495 among the 2026 additions is comparing the new book against one two cycles old. All four arrived in the 2023 edition.
Structural: the front of the book
Chapter 1 was not renumbered. It gained articles. Through the 2023 edition it held Article 100 Definitions and Article 110 Requirements for Electrical Installations, and in 2026 it holds four.
| Article | Covers |
|---|---|
| 120 | Branch-circuit, feeder and service load calculations. This was Article 220, in Chapter 2, and the 220 number is no longer used. |
| 130 | Energy management systems. This was Article 750, in Chapter 7, and 750 now holds a different subject. |
Neither of those is new material. Both are relocations. The rules read the way they did in 2023 and the numbers do not.
Article 206 is the third number in this group and it is not in Chapter 1. It sits in Chapter 2 and covers non-power-limited remote-control and signaling circuits, the 120-volt motor control wiring that was never limited energy in the first place. Its material came out of Section 300.26, in Chapter 3.
The over-1000-volt set
Five articles, created by lifting medium-voltage requirements out of the general articles. The threshold throughout is over 1000 volts ac or 1500 volts dc, nominal. There is a page here on the pattern behind them.
| Article | Covers |
|---|---|
| 265 | Branch circuits over 1000 V |
| 266 | Feeders over 1000 V |
| 267 | Outside branch circuits and feeders over 1000 V |
| 268 | Services over 1000 V |
| 270 | Grounding and bonding of systems over 1000 V |
Four numbers from the same project get listed with these and arrived one cycle earlier. Articles 245, 305, 315 and 495 were all new in the 2023 edition, so a 2023 book already has them.
The limited-energy set
Six numbers carry the rebuilt low-voltage and signaling material. It came out of Chapter 8 and out of the optical fiber article, which the 2026 edition deletes.
| Article | Covers |
|---|---|
| 720 | General requirements for limited-energy systems wiring methods and materials |
| 721 | Power sources for limited-energy systems |
| 722 | Cables for limited-energy circuits |
| 723 | Raceways, cable routing assemblies and cable trays for limited-energy systems |
| 742 | Overvoltage protection of limited-energy systems |
| 750 | Grounding and bonding of limited-energy systems |
Three of those six are not new numbers. Articles 720, 722 and 750 all existed in 2023. Two of them, 720 and 750, now carry a subject they did not carry then, which makes them the expensive kind to miss rather than the kind you notice. Article 722 kept its subject and widened it to take in communications cables.
Chapter 8 did not disappear with them. Article 800 survives and its scope narrowed to communications systems outside and entering buildings. Articles 805 and 840 are gone.
Articles 724 and 726 sit in the same range and are not additions this cycle. Both were added in the 2023 edition, when Class 1 was split out of Article 725 and Class 4 fault-managed power got an article of its own.
Article 770, optical fiber cables, does not exist in the 2026 edition.
Article 624, and the one number that is only a new address
| Article | Covers |
|---|---|
| 624 | Electric self-propelled vehicle power transfer systems. Charging and power transfer for self-propelled vehicles that Article 625 does not cover, including forklifts, golf carts, boats and aircraft. |
| 772 | Fire-resistive cable systems. This was Article 728, which the 2026 edition deletes. |
Article 624 is the only number in this edition covering subject matter that has never been in the Code before. Everything else on this page already existed somewhere and was given a new address.
It nearly shipped as Article 627. NFPA's panel 12 created it at that number in the first draft and moved it to 624 in the second, so that it would sit next to Article 625 rather than four numbers away.
Article 742 has a claim to being a second piece of new subject matter. It has no counterpart article in 2023, so by number it is new, but its substance is the primary-protector requirements that sat in Chapter 8. Panel 16's second draft moves the old 805.90(A) into 742.10(A). We are calling that a judgment call rather than settling it, and any list that prints two new subjects instead of one is settling it for you.
Six more articles were listed on this page as 2026 additions until they were checked against the 2023 structure: 369, 371, 393, 425, 512 and 646. All six are in the 2023 edition. They are new to anyone coming from an older book and they are not additions this cycle.
How this list was built, and its limits
By taking the difference between the 2026 article numbering and the 2023 article numbering, then confirming each number against at least two independent published change lists and, where one covers the article, against NFPA's own code-making panel draft.
The comparison has to be against the 2023 edition specifically, and that is where the first version of this page went wrong. Eleven numbers on it were additions from an earlier cycle rather than this one.
Thirteen is what we can stand behind, not a proof that there is no fourteenth. It is also a list of articles, not of sections. A great deal of new material this cycle sits as new sections inside articles that already existed, and that does not appear here. The change markers page explains how to find those yourself.
What this page cites
- NEC 130.1 Energy management systems, 2026 edition. Relocated from Article 750. source
- NEC 206.1 Non-power-limited remote-control and signaling circuits, 2026 edition. Built from 300.26. source
- NEC 624.1 Electric self-propelled vehicle power transfer systems. Created in the A2025 cycle as Article 627 and renumbered to 624 by second revision 7898. source
- NEC 772.1 Fire-resistive cable systems, 2026 edition. Relocated from Article 728. source
- NEC 742.10 Overvoltage protection of limited-energy systems. Panel 16's second draft moves 805.90(A) here. source