Insights

Texas Adopted the Technical Rules. Now Who Is Licensed to Do the Work?

Texas adopted the 2026 National Electrical Code on September 1, 2026.

Technically, the state is ready.

The licensing side may be another story.

This is the problem I have been watching as states begin adopting the new Code. The NEC has reorganized limited-energy systems and brought Class 4 fault-managed power into that conversation. But many state licensing laws were written around the systems we already knew: Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, communications, fire alarm and what everyone in the field casually calls “low voltage.”

Texas gives us a particularly good example because it has separate agencies regulating electrical work, security systems and fire alarm.

Each licensing structure makes sense on its own.

The problem appears where they meet.

(more…) “Texas Adopted the Technical Rules. Now Who Is Licensed to Do the Work?”

You’ve Got a Low-Voltage License. But There’s No “Low Voltage” Anymore. Were You Grandfathered?

For years, “low voltage” has been the field’s catch-all.

Controls. Data. Security. Fire alarm. Access control. Audio. Communications. Small wire going into equipment that doesn’t look like traditional power distribution.

Everybody on a jobsite knows what someone means when they say:

“That’s low voltage.”

Then along comes the 2026 NEC.

The Code reorganizes limited-energy and communications work, pulls most of it into a new Chapter 7 structure, and gives us a broader limited-energy framework that includes Class 2, Class 3, communications, fire alarm, and Class 4 fault-managed power.

That creates a pretty basic field question:

If your state license still says “low voltage,” does it cover everything the NEC now calls “limited energy”?

The short answer is no—not automatically.

The NEC tells us how a system must be installed. State licensing laws tell us who is allowed to install it.

Those two sets of rules do not always use the same language, and adopting the 2026 NEC does not automatically update a state’s licensing law.

That is where this gets interesting.

(more…) “You’ve Got a Low-Voltage License. But There’s No “Low Voltage” Anymore. Were You Grandfathered?”

NEC 2026 Limited Energy: What Our Industry Should Be Watching

NEC 2026: Limited Energy in Practice — Series Introduction

The most important 2026 NEC story for our industry may not be a single new rule. It may be the Code’s continuing effort to give Limited Energy systems a more coherent framework—and the responsibility that places on designers, contractors, integrators, manufacturers, inspectors, and owners to understand how the pieces fit together.

This is not a general summary of the 2026 National Electrical Code. Logicmaker Intelligence will focus this series on the changes and interpretations that affect the systems we work with every day: building automation, fire alarm, security, audiovisual, nurse call, communications, energy management, power control, vertical-transportation interfaces, and other Limited Energy and smart-building systems.

The goal is practical: identify what changed, separate national code language from local adoption, and discuss what project teams should be watching in design, estimating, installation, inspection, commissioning, and operation.

(more…) “NEC 2026 Limited Energy: What Our Industry Should Be Watching”