A comment was made at the IAEI Florida Chapter - Board of Director’s Meeting regarding the Florida Building Commission possibly not adopting the 2011 NEC & skipping to the 2014 NEC at the next code cycle. I don’t believe that will be the case.

The primary reason (not only) the 2011 NEC was not adopted with the 2010 FBC is due to the fact the 2009 IBC does not reference the 2011 NEC & due to the fact the 2011 NEC was not published and available at the time the 2010 FBC code development cycle first opened back in 2010.

So fast forward to the next FBC code cycle which has effectively already begun. The 2013 FBC will be based on the 2012 IBC which references the 2011 NEC. The 2013 FBC will be well underway prior to the publishing of the 2014, so there really is no way the 2014 will be incorporated into the 2013 FBC, but instead can and will be referencing the 2011 NEC at that time.

In short, I don’t expect Florida will be skipping any future editions of the NEC, but rather delaying the adoption of the most current edition until that edition is referenced by the IBC edition being used as the base document for the FBC. The 2014 NEC will not be referenced by the ICC codes until the 2015 IBC edition.

As Doug Harvey indicated during the meeting, it is the goal of the Building Officials Association of Florida & Florida Building Commission to adopt future editions of the FBC one year after the most current ICC edition which will always end up being two (2) years after the most current edition of the NEC. (The NFPA & ICC are on a different 3-year cycle)

For instances, this is how I see this playing out:

2010 FBC – Based on the 2009 IBC / 2008 NEC. (Effective March 15, 2012)
2013 FBC – Based on the 2012 IBC / 2011 NEC.
2016 FBC – Based on the 2015 IBC / 2014 NEC.
2019 FBC – Based on the 2018 IBC / 2017 NEC.

Unless things change, and they usually do, I believe this is the most likely scenario.

In the meanwhile, I encourage Florida electrical professions to remain engaged with the NEC code development process. The 2014 NEC – Record of Proposals will be published later this summer. This document will be indicating the likely changes to the 2011 NEC and will eventually affect electrical installations here in the state of Florida.

Who's on first? Whats 'is name?