Continuous Loads Practice Questions

C. The lighting load only

The definition is a duration test and nothing else. Maximum current expected to continue for three hours or more is the whole of it, so a load that peaks and drops all day fails the test no matter how many hours the equipment is switched on. The lighting load holds its maximum for twelve hours and clears the bar four times over.

NEC 2026 Article 100

A. As a continuous load, because the article covering them says so

Several articles skip the three hour analysis and declare their equipment continuous outright, and fixed electric space heating is one of them. When that sentence exists you never have to argue about the duty cycle. Look for it before you start reasoning from the schedule, because a stem that hands you a thermostat setting may be trying to make you do arithmetic the code has already done.

NEC 2026 424.5

B. Electric vehicle supply equipment

That article states in one sentence that this equipment, including the bidirectional kind, is considered a continuous load. A motor gets a 125 percent from a different article on a different trigger, and a receptacle or a panelboard is not a load at all. Knowing which articles carry a declaration of their own saves you the duty cycle argument entirely.

NEC 2026 625.41

D. Each is declared a continuous load by its own article

Both articles open with a one line section saying the equipment is a continuous load, in the same place and the same form as the space heating article. The thermostat argument is exactly what those sentences were written to end. Once you have seen three of these declarations you start checking the front of any heating article before doing anything else.

NEC 2026 426.4, 427.4

C. 45 amperes

Thirty six times 1.25 is 45, and that figure is the minimum for the conductor. It is not itself a standard device rating and it is not a load, so writing it down and labeling it as a target keeps it from being compared against the wrong thing later in the same question. The first option is the load the circuit actually draws, which is the answer to a different question.

NEC 2026 210.19(A)(1)

C. 60 amperes

Forty four times 1.25 is 55, and the device rating has to be at or above that number. Fifty five is not on the standard rating list, so the next one up is 60. The second option is the calculated figure itself, which is the trap for a candidate who does the arithmetic and stops before opening the standard rating table.

NEC 2026 210.20(A), Table 240.6(A)

A. 80 amperes for the conductor and 80 amperes for the device

The exception attached to the conductor rule and the exception attached to the device rule say the same thing, so when it applies it lifts the multiplier off both at once. The plain load governs and 80 is the answer twice over. An option that removes the multiplier from one side and leaves it on the other is testing whether you read both sections or only one.

NEC 2026 210.19(A)(1), 210.20(A)

B. The larger of the two

The section says the conductor ampacity is not less than the larger of the two subdivisions, so one is a floor and the other is a floor and you clear both. The first gives the noncontinuous load plus 125 percent of the continuous load, and the second gives the maximum load to be served after adjustment and correction are applied. Answering as soon as one of them produces a number is how this gets missed.

NEC 2026 210.19(A)

C. 215.4 and 215.5

The arithmetic never changes across branch circuits, feeders and services, but the citation does, and items on this subject often put section numbers in the options. Minimum rating and size is where the feeder conductor rule lives and the section after it carries the overcurrent protection. The last pair ends on the feeder equipment grounding conductor, which is a different subject.

NEC 2026 215.4, 215.5

C. 350 amperes

Two hundred at 125 percent is 250, and the whole 100 amperes of noncontinuous load is added without a multiplier, giving 350. The first option is the plain sum of the two loads, which is what the exceptions produce and not what the general rule does. Applying the multiplier to the total rather than to the continuous portion gives the last option.

NEC 2026 230.42(A)

D. An exception permits it to be sized at 100 percent of the sum of the continuous and noncontinuous load

The multiplier buys headroom for heat at a terminal that sits inside an overcurrent device, so a conductor that does not land on one is released from it by an exception. The service-entrance section carries the same permission in the same words. The conductor still has to be sized, so leaving it out of the calculation is not an option the code offers.

NEC 2026 215.4(A), 230.42(A)

A. It may be sized at 100 percent of the sum of the loads, and no portion of it may extend into an enclosure holding the feeder supply or load terminations

The exception exists because a length of conductor between two separately installed connectors is not sitting in the heat of a device enclosure, so the reason for the multiplier is absent there. The limit is what keeps it honest, since the moment the conductor enters an enclosure with the supply or load terminations it is back under the general rule. It is not a permission that travels down the whole feeder.

NEC 2026 215.4(A), 110.14(C)

B. The lowest temperature rating among the connected termination, conductor and device

Article 110 states the termination limit as a temperature rather than as an ampere value, so it is a separate decision from the one the multiplier made. A conductor with a 90 degree insulation between a 75 degree breaker and a 60 degree lug is read in the 60 degree column. The higher insulation rating is still used, but only as the starting point for adjustment and correction.

NEC 2026 110.14(C)

A. No, the section permits fuses and inverse time circuit breakers with nonstandard ratings, and the table defines what the word standard means in the rules that use it

The list is what gives meaning to every rule that says next higher standard rating or first standard rating at or above a figure, and the same section names three low ratings and one high one as additional standard ratings for fuses. Devices outside the list are permitted to be used, they just do not count as standard for those rules. So the table constrains the rounding language rather than the catalog.

NEC 2026 240.6(A)

B. 4 AWG

The continuous portion at 125 percent is 60 amperes, and adding the whole 22 gives a target of 82 amperes. With no correction or adjustment to apply, the conductor has to reach 82 in the 75 degree column, where 6 AWG carries 65 and 4 AWG carries 85. So 4 AWG is the first size that clears the target.

NEC 2026 210.19(A)(1), 110.14(C), Table 310.16

B. 3 AWG

Correction at 40 degrees in the 90 degree column is 0.91 and adjustment for six current carrying conductors is 80 percent. Four AWG gives 95 times 0.91 times 0.80, which is 69.2 and falls short. Three AWG gives 115 times 0.91 times 0.80, which is 83.7, and that clears 82 while staying under the 100 ampere figure the 75 degree termination allows for that size.

NEC 2026 210.19(A), 310.15(B)(1), 310.15(C)(1), 110.14(C), Table 310.16

D. The continuous limit is 80 percent of the device rating

Five point six is 80 percent of 7 and 8 is 80 percent of 10, which is the same relationship the 125 percent describes from the other direction. Loading a device to 125 percent of the continuous load and loading it to 80 percent of its rating are one arrangement stated two ways. Seeing that once makes both of these entries obvious rather than arbitrary.

NEC 2026 240.4(D)

B. 16 amperes

Twenty divided by 1.25 is 16, which is the largest continuous load a 20 ampere device may sit above. Working it the other way, 16 times 1.25 is 20 and the device rating is met exactly. The third option is the circuit rating, which is what the circuit may carry only when none of the load is continuous.

NEC 2026 210.20(A), 240.4(D)

C. Calculated service load

Sorting by which question is being asked takes a second and it settles where the multiplier lives. Calculated load, service load and feeder load put you in the article that says calculations are not required to figure continuous loads at 125 percent. The other three phrases are all sizing language, and the multiplier is live in every sizing rule that uses them.

NEC 2026 120.5(E), 210.19, 215.4

A. To the largest motor load where a circuit supplies motor-operated equipment fastened in place together with other loads

Reading the percent multiplier subsection on its own leaves people thinking the figure has been withdrawn from the article. It has not. The maximum load section still puts 125 percent on the largest motor in a combination load, which is a motor rule that happens to live inside the calculation article. Reading those two subsections back to back once stops the line between them moving around.

NEC 2026 120.11(A), 120.5(E)

D. Yes, because the trigger in Article 430 is a continuous duty application rather than three hours at maximum current

Two different tests wear the same number. The branch circuit rule for a single motor turns on whether the application is continuous duty, which a machine that can be run continuously under load satisfies no matter how short each cycle is. Short-time, intermittent, periodic and varying duty applications leave that section for a duty-cycle table instead. Answering a motor question with the Article 100 definition arrives at a plausible size and the wrong one.

NEC 2026 430.22, Article 100

B. 90 amperes

The device rating starts at the target and goes up, never down, so the first standard rating at or above 82 is 90. Eighty is below the target and is not available here even though it is a standard rating and looks close. The conductor still has to be sized separately and may well land on a different figure.

NEC 2026 210.20(A), Table 240.6(A)

A. No, that permission is about protecting a conductor whose ampacity falls between two standard ratings, not about rounding a calculated load down

That permission lets a device sit at the next standard rating above a conductor ampacity, and it carries three conditions that all have to hold. It never moves a number downward and it is not a rounding rule for a load calculation. The receptacle option is a real condition from that section attached to the wrong rule, which is how the strongest distractors get built.

NEC 2026 240.4(B), 210.20(A)

D. Because the test lands on how the load is operated rather than on what the equipment is

Article 100 says nothing about what the equipment is or how important it is. A fixture in a warehouse aisle that burns all shift is continuous, and the identical fixture in a supply closet that gets switched on for two minutes is not. Some stems say continuous outright, some hand you an operating schedule, and some just describe an occupancy and leave the inference to you.

NEC 2026 Article 100

D. The multiplier lands on the conductor and on the device, so an option that moves only one of them is a distractor

Both sit in the same heat. A conductor carrying its rated current for three hours has reached its steady temperature, and so have the lugs it lands on and the device those lugs are part of. Wrong answer sets on this subject are built from half the work, because a half answer looks like work has been done and lands near the right number.

NEC 2026 210.19(A)(1), 210.20(A)