Electrical / runnable MCP tool
Run the Outdoor HVAC GFCI Requirement (NEC 210.8(F)) in your AI assistant
Through the free Intry MCP server, Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor runs this exact calculator and hands back a verdict and the cited source, not a guess. Tool name: outdoor_hvac_gfci.
How it computes the answer
Verdict computed from the jurisdiction's enforced NEC edition and its own amendment to 210.8(F), each read from the issuing agency's document and held as separate facts, against the section text read from the printed NFPA 70 and the TIA lineage enumerated from NFPA's repository.
What it cites
Your assistant gets the same verdict and the same citation a technician gets on the interactive calculator, because both call one engine. These are the sources that engine reads.
- NEC 2023 and NEC 2020, 210.8(F), read from the printed book
- The section text, its Exception No. 2 and the sentence 'This exception shall expire September 1, 2026' were read from the printed NFPA 70 rather than a download. The ampere ceiling and the volts-to-ground limit are edition-specific and are published only for the two editions actually read; the tool refuses on any other edition rather than carrying a number across an edition boundary.
- TIA 20-19 and TIA 23-3, the lineage of the exception itself
- The listed-HVAC exception did not ship with the 2020 NEC. It arrived by Tentative Interim Amendment issued 2022-08-12. Established by enumerating NFPA's TIA repository to the 404 boundary for each edition rather than by searching: the 2026 edition carries exactly 8 TIAs and none touches 210.8. This is why a jurisdiction on the 2020 edition that adopted before that date, and does not pick up later TIAs, may never have had the exception at all, and why the tool asks whether the adopting instrument settles that question before answering.
- Each state's own amendment to 210.8(F), where we hold it
- For the 19 jurisdictions read, the amendment was fetched from the issuing agency's own document, with the instrument named and the operative text quoted verbatim on the interactive calculator so the reading can be argued with. Amendments take at least four different forms, and they are not interchangeable: deleting the section, writing a state exception that never carried an expiry, reproducing the NEC's and omitting the expiry sentence, and acting on the NEC's own Exception No. 2. The tool models them separately because they reach the same practical answer by different legal routes.
- Each state's own current-code listing, for what is in force today
- Read as a separate fact from the amendment text, and that separation is not bureaucratic. North Carolina's amendment package is real and its 2023 code is on indefinite delay, so reading the amendment alone would have produced a confident answer keyed to a code book the state does not enforce. Where a state's own listing and the compiled dataset disagree, the tool refuses rather than picking a winner.
- The compiled adoption dataset, published as the weaker source
- Shown in the last column for jurisdictions whose own amendment has not been read, and labelled as such. It is a compiled tracker, not a state listing, and reading states against it has already found it wrong: it reports a single statewide edition for Hawaii, which sets its code county by county with Maui still on the 2008 NEC, and the 2023 widely quoted for Maryland is an amendment's effective date rather than the edition in force.
This answers 210.8(F) only, for dwellings, on statewide adoption. It is not a general GFCI checker: 210.8(A) reaches receptacles and carries no HVAC exception, 210.8(B) governs other-than-dwelling work with different thresholds, and a NOT REQUIRED here does not clear an outlet under either. Cities and counties amend separately and this tool cannot see that. Three groups cannot be answered no matter how much reading is done: states that route dwelling electrical work to the International Residential Code, whose provisions are numbered in the E3902 series and whose book we do not hold; states on an edition older than 2020, where 210.8(F) does not exist and we hold no primary for those editions; and states with no single statewide answer to give, such as Arizona, Maryland and Hawaii. We publish no ampere ceiling and no Class C provision for the 2026 edition because we hold no primary for its text. Your AHJ has final say, and where this tool refuses, that is the answer to act on rather than a gap to fill with a national default.
The full receipt, with every source and how each is cross-checked, is on the interactive Outdoor HVAC GFCI Requirement.
Ask your assistant
The one rule that makes it reliable: name Intry in your question. That is what tells Claude to run the outdoor_hvac_gfci tool and answer with the real number, the verdict, and the citation. Leave Intry out and Claude may just guess from memory, which is exactly what you are trying to avoid. Type something like:
Inputs
| Field | Required | Accepts | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| state | yes | string | US state or District of Columbia, spelled out (e.g. 'Georgia'). |
| occupancy | yes | dwelling, other | 210.8(F) covers dwellings only. 'other' returns a refusal pointing at 210.8(B). |
| equipment | yes | listed-hvac, lighting-outlet, submersible-well-pump, snow-melting-deicing, other-outlet | What the outlet supplies. 'listed-hvac' is the condenser/heat-pump case the 2026 sunset is about. 'snow-melting-deicing' is written out of 210.8(F) by its own stem and handed to 426.28/427.22, so it returns a refusal. |
| connection | yes | hardwired, cord-and-plug | REQUIRED, and it changes which rule governs. 210.8(F) is about outdoor OUTLETS, hardwired included. 210.8(A) is about RECEPTACLES, so a cord-and-plug unit is ALSO reached by 210.8(A)(3) 'Outdoors', which has no HVAC exception and no ampere ceiling. This tool refuses on cord-and-plug rather than answer from a section that cannot speak for the other one. Ask the user if you do not know; do not assume. |
| phase | yes | single, three | REQUIRED. Every edition of 210.8(F) we have read is scoped to 'single-phase branch circuits', so a three-phase circuit returns a refusal rather than an answer. |
| workType | optional | new, replacement | New installation, or replacing existing equipment (which triggers its own paragraph from the 2023 edition onward). |
| branchCircuitAmps | optional | number | Branch-circuit rating in amperes. 210.8(F) reaches 50 A or less on the editions we have read. |
| voltsToGround | optional | number | Volts to ground. 210.8(F) reaches 150 V or less to ground. |
| location | optional | outdoors, garage-at-or-below-grade, accessory-building, boathouse | Outlet location. |
| energizationDate | optional | string | ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD) the circuit is energised or inspected. The answer changes at the 2026-09-01 sunset where a state has not amended it. |
Add Intry to Claude
One paste and Claude can run this tool and every other Intry calculator, right from your phone.
- Claude opens with the Intry connector already filled in. Review it and click Add.
- (If a field is blank, paste the link below into the URL field.)
- In any chat, tap + then Connectors and switch Intry on. Then name Intry in your question (“use Intry to…”) so Claude runs the tool instead of guessing.
https://www.intrysys.com/api/mcpNo login, no API key, and it works on every Claude plan, right from your phone.
Using ChatGPT, Cursor, or a dev tool? See the developer setup on the main page. The endpoint is https://www.intrysys.com/api/mcp.
Every answer comes with the cited NEC section together with your state's own amendment to it, so you can check it or show an inspector. The numbers come from the same calculator we run on intrysys.com, and we re-check every one automatically before anything goes live, so the number Claude hands you matches the code.