Does outdoor HVAC need GFCI protection? NEC 210.8(F), by jurisdiction

We can answer for 11 of 51 jurisdictions. We researched all 51 and verified 27 against the state’s own documents. Those are deliberately separate numbers. Each of those 27 comes from the issuing agency’s own document, fetched between 2026-08-02 and 2026-10-24; the NEC text itself we read from the printed book. Reading a state’s rules does not always produce an honest answer, and for 16 of them it did not, so those refuse with a stated reason instead. The remaining 24 were researched too, and what that research produced was leads rather than readings, and we do not publish leads here. Those rows show the edition our NEC adoption table records, read from each state’s own rule or listing with its source, and nothing about 210.8(F). We are not adding a national default to raise any of these numbers, because a national default is precisely the error this page exists to avoid.

Alabama

We refuse because Alabama has two building codes and neither one puts NEC 210.8(F) over a house. The State Building Code, which is the instrument that adopts the 2020 NEC, applies only to four things, in its own words at Ala. Admin. Code r. 355-12-1-.04: buildings erected or acquired by or on behalf of the State or any of its agencies or instrumentalities; schoolhouses, meaning public school buildings plus any private building where 25 or more persons are congregated regularly for instruction; hotels of 15 or more bedrooms; and moving picture theaters. A one- or two-family dwelling is none of those. Dwellings instead fall to the Alabama Residential Building Code under Code of Ala. Section 34-14A-12, which is based on a published edition of the INTERNATIONAL RESIDENTIAL CODE, whose outdoor-outlet provision is in its own Section E3902, not in NEC 210.8(F), and which is enforced only by local jurisdictions that run permitting and inspection programs. We hold no IRC E3902 primary, and we could not confirm which IRC edition Alabama dwellings are on today, so we will not answer across code books. Ask the local jurisdiction that issues your permit which residential code edition it enforces. Source ›

Alaska

We refuse because Alaska's state electrical code does not bind a detached one- or two-family dwelling, so the September 2026 question does not reach your job through it. AS 18.60.640(b) says these standards "are the recommended minimum standards for all new structures in the state", and the mandatory inspection power is narrower still: AS 18.60.600(a)(2) reaches a "place of employment or public structure", and AS 18.60.660(4) defines public structures as hotels, "resident housing with more than one rental unit", restaurants, taverns, lodging houses, children's homes, auditoriums, town halls and structures used for public assembly. Alaska's own Department of Labor states the practice the same way: commercial structures and dwellings of three-plex and above are subject to inspection. Separately, we were unable to read an official Alaska source for the current text of 8 AAC 70.025, because no copy of it could be retrieved from the state or a mirror, and this tool will not publish a verdict off a text it could not check. Note that AS 18.60.590(b) preserves municipal authority to be MORE stringent, so a city like Anchorage may bind your dwelling under its own ordinance. Ask your municipality. Source ›

Arkansas

We refuse because Arkansas adopted the 2026 NEC as its state electrical code effective September 3, 2026 (17 CAR Section 210-601, Ark. R. 2026-108), and that adoption no longer excludes 210.8(F) the way its 2020 adoption did. For an outdoor outlet, what it says about GFCI protection is subsection (b)(2) (subsection (b)(3) lifts AFCI and GFCI only within a dwelling unit, for laundry areas other than convenience outlets within six feet of a sink, and for a refrigerator or microwave appliance): "The provisions of AFCI and GFCI shall not be required on dwelling units circuits over 130 volts, except for the requirements in Articles 680 and 682 of the 2026 National Electrical Code." That threshold is written about the circuit ("circuits over 130 volts") and says nothing about volts to ground, which is the only voltage this tool asks for, so it cannot tell you which side of 130 volts your circuit is on. A circuit at or under 130 volts falls to the 2026 edition's own 210.8(F), which 17 CAR 210-601 does not otherwise amend, and there the listed-HVAC exception expired on September 1, 2026. Work dated July 31, 2022 through September 2, 2026 fell under Arkansas's 2020 adoption, which excluded 210.8(F), and this tool answers those dates from it; work dated before July 31, 2022 fell under an earlier adoption we have not resolved. Ask the Arkansas Board of Electrical Examiners or your inspector which applies to your job. Source ›

Connecticut

We hold Connecticut’s primaries and still refuse, because an exception survives but it is NARROWER than the NEC's: mini-split-type heating/ventilating/air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment and other HVAC units employing power conversion equipment as a means to control compressor speed. A conventional single-speed condenser is NOT covered and never was. Source ›

Hawaii

We refuse because Hawaii sets the electrical code county by county. The county ordinances we read in August 2026 name editions older than the 2020 edition, the oldest this site reads: Honolulu's Revised Ordinances Section 17-1.1 and Hawaii County name the 2017 NEC, and Maui's Ordinance 3726, effective 2010-06-06, the 2008 NEC. But the State Building Code Council's own adoption of the 2020 NEC says: "If by March 14, 2024, a county does not adopt the 2020 NFPA, NEC with any amendments, it shall become applicable as an interim county electrical code, in accordance with HRS 107-28(b)." So a county still on an older ordinance may be under the 2020 edition, and its 210.8(F), by that rule, and we have not established which counties that reaches. We could not read Kauai's electrical adoption (403 twice), so we do not characterise it. At the state layer the position is genuinely undecidable rather than merely unread: the State Building Code Council's own listing says the 2020 NEC adopted 2022-03-15, while HRS 107-24(c) automatically adopts a code the Council fails to act on within two years, and the Governor's Twentieth Proclamation of July 2026 recites that automatic adoption has in fact occurred while suspending the Council's power to adopt. Those cannot all be resolved from the documents. One thing worth knowing about the state's own page: it labels its electrical link "2018 NFPA 70", an edition that has never existed, and the document behind it is the 2020 code. Ask your county building department which NEC edition it enforces. Source ›

Maryland

We refuse because Maryland has no binding statewide electrical code for dwellings, so there is no single Maryland answer to give you. Md. Public Safety Section 12-603 says each electrical installation shall conform to either the National Electrical Code or the electrical code and amendments adopted by the COUNTY where the work is done, and it names no edition at all. The statewide building code is mandatory but deliberately hands electrical off: COMAR 09.12.51.04 writes it out of scope twice, once for IBC Chapter 27 and once for IRC chapters 34 through 43, each time pointing at the local electrical code. The state instrument that DOES amend 210.8(F), the Model Performance Code at COMAR 09.12.50, says at .02B(1) that it may not be binding upon any subdivision unless that subdivision adopts it. Here is the part worth carrying to your county: where the model code HAS been adopted, Maryland incorporates the 2020 NEC with its own words added to the 210.8(F) exception, "and heating, air-conditioning, and refrigeration equipment that serve the dwelling", and that carve-out carries NO expiry, so a county on the model code likely has no September 2026 cliff at all. Ask your county which electrical code and which edition it has adopted, and whether it took the Maryland Model Performance Code with it. Source ›

Missouri

We refuse because Missouri has no statewide electrical code reaching a site-built one- or two-family dwelling, so there is no statewide answer to give you. RSMo 64.170 EMPOWERS first- and second-class counties to adopt building regulations rather than requiring it, and counties without a code predating August 28, 2001 need voter approval. RSMo 324.920 is statewide electrical contractor LICENSING, and the only place the National Electrical Code appears in it is as the basis for a written examination, which is exam content and not a construction standard. A full-text search of Missouri's own revisor site does return the National Electrical Code in several statutes, so the absence here is evidence rather than a failed search, and not one of those provisions adopts it as a building code for dwellings. The one statewide instrument that DOES adopt the NEC, 20 CSR 4240-123.080, covers modular units only: it applies to "modular units which entered the first stage of production after July 1, 1976", a modular unit being a TRANSPORTABLE factory-built building unit under RSMo 700.010. For those units Missouri adopts NFPA 70-2020 and states that "the referenced codes do not include any later amendments or additions", in a rule amended April 2024 and effective November 30 2024, which is well after the amendment that created the HVAC exception, so those units never received it. None of that reaches a house framed on site. Ask your city or county which electrical code it has adopted. Source ›

Montana

We refuse because Montana adopted the 2023 NEC as its state electrical code effective September 26, 2026 (ARM 24.301.401, read on the Secretary of State's rules site), and it rewrote the exception that matters here. In the rule's own words, 210.8(F) Exception No. 2 "is amended to state the following: "GFCI protection shall not be required for listed HVAC equipment. The department shall determine the expiration date of this exception."" So in Montana the September 1, 2026 expiry printed in the 2023 NEC is replaced by a date the Department of Labor and Industry sets, and we have not found a date it has set. We will not tell you the exception has expired or that it still applies until we have read that date. The same rule also excludes outdoor outlets for septic alarm and well circuits from 210.8(F). Work dated from September 21, 2024 through September 25, 2026 fell under the rule's earlier version, which adopted the 2020 NEC and did not amend 210.8(F); work before that fell under a version we have not read. Ask the Montana Building Codes Program whether it has set an expiration date for the listed-HVAC exception. Source ›

North Carolina

We refuse because we have read North Carolina's rules and they do not produce a clean answer. The 2023 State Electrical Code, which appends only a submersible-well-pump exception and leaves the NEC sunset intact, is on INDEFINITE DELAY under Session Law 2025-2 (House Bill 47). What is actually in force is the 2020 State Electrical Code, effective November 1, 2021, and it amends 210.8(F) to read "Deleted" while also stating that it does not apply to one- and two-family dwellings. For those, the same package says in its own words: "The 2017 State Electrical Code shall apply to one- and two-family dwellings." We have not read that code's text with North Carolina's amendments, so we will not tell you what it requires outdoors. Ask the NC Office of State Fire Marshal which document governs your job before relying on any national article about the September 2026 sunset. Source ›

Oklahoma

We refuse because Oklahoma's 2023 NEC adoption, in effect from September 14, 2024, is its statewide code for commercial electrical construction, and it says of 210.8(F): "This section has been modified to delete an expiration date for exception no 2." One- and two-family dwellings and townhouses follow the 2024 International Residential Code from September 14, 2026, whose outdoor-outlet rule Oklahoma amends to read: "(C) Exception 3. GFCI protection shall not be required for listed HVAC equipment." That is a different code book from the one this tool reads, and we have not read which code governed dwellings before that date, so we give no verdict. Ask your AHJ which code applies to your job. Source ›

Oregon

We refuse because Oregon rewrote 210.8(F) rather than deleting it, and the rewrite cuts both ways at once. The important part first: Oregon STRUCK the listed-HVAC exception, and the sentence "This exception shall expire September 1, 2026" along with it, in its 2023 Oregon Electrical Specialty Code (in force from October 1, 2023) and again in its 2026 code, which is based on the 2026 NEC and in force from October 1, 2026. So there is no blanket HVAC exemption in Oregon, and NOTHING happens there on September 1, 2026. If you have read a national article about the exception expiring, it is about a provision Oregon does not have. What we will not do is tell you whether your particular outlet is covered, because Oregon also rewrote the scope: it struck "For dwellings" so the section reaches every occupancy, and it limits the section to "outdoor general-purpose receptacles" so it does not reach hardwired equipment. In the 2026 code an outdoor general-purpose receptacle on a single-phase circuit within the section's limits needs GFCI protection; Oregon's table keeps the words of the 2026 NEC's Exception No. 3, now its only exception: listed Class C SPGFCI protection is permitted for listed HVAC equipment, with the disconnect marked "Warning: Class C SPGFCI Protection Provided for HVAC Unit." A hardwired condenser feed is outside the rewritten section, which is a narrowing and not a clearance. Oregon's amendment table does not define "general-purpose receptacle": the phrase occurs once in it, in this amendment. Read OAR 918-305-0105 Table 1-E (the 210.8(F) entry) and ask the Building Codes Division which side your installation is on. Source ›

South Carolina

We hold South Carolina’s primaries and still refuse, because the state deletes 210.8(F) entirely, so the section imposes nothing there. Source ›

Utah

We hold Utah’s primaries and still refuse, because the state deletes 210.8(F) entirely, so the section imposes nothing there. Source ›

Virginia

We hold Virginia’s primaries and still refuse, because the state deletes 210.8(F) entirely, so the section imposes nothing there. Source ›

West Virginia

We refuse because West Virginia's State Building Code binds only where a local jurisdiction has adopted it. W. Va. Code Section 7-1-3n says the state building code "shall not apply to or affect any territory within the boundaries of any municipal corporation which has not adopted the state building code", and 87CSR4 Section 87-4-7.1 requires each adopting jurisdiction to notify the Fire Commission in writing. So there is no statewide answer to give you. What we can tell you about the state rule, if your jurisdiction has adopted it: West Virginia is on the 2020 NEC, effective 2022-08-01, and its adoption contains no tentative-interim-amendment language of any kind, so the NEC's own listed-HVAC exception never reached it. West Virginia did write an HVAC exception of its own, and it has already expired: 87-4-4.1.m.1 excepted mini-split and power-conversion HVAC "until January 1, 2023". GFCI protection has been required on outdoor HVAC there since that date, and nothing further happens on September 1, 2026. A 2023 NEC package was AGENCY-APPROVED on 2026-07-31 and filed with the Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee, which cannot put it in force and which carries no effective date. Ask whether your city or county has adopted the state building code, and which version. Source ›

Wisconsin

We refuse because Wisconsin's electrical code, SPS 316, incorporates the 2023 NEC from September 1, 2026, and of the section this tool answers it says: "The requirements in NEC 210.8 (F) are not included as part of this chapter." We still give no verdict, because this tool answers only where it holds a state's amendment and its own current-code listing as two separate records, and for Wisconsin both rest on the one rule. Wisconsin keeps 210.8(A), rewritten to cover 125-volt, single-phase, 15- and 20-ampere receptacles, so read that section for an outdoor receptacle. Ask your inspector which rule governs your job. Source ›

Why the last column is not our answer

The edition shown for a jurisdiction whose own 210.8(F) amendment this tool does not hold comes from our NEC adoption table, where each row is read from that state’s own rule, statute or adopted-codes listing, with the source and its date on the row. It is still a different fact from the state’s amendment to 210.8(F), and some states have no single statewide edition to show: Hawaii sets its code county by county, and Maryland’s statewide adoption does not reach houses. Where we hold a state’s own current-code listing as well, the tool refuses whenever the two disagree, rather than picking a winner.