Continuous loads on the Texas exam, and the three places 125 percent comes from

What the exam asks here

Thirty-five of the 500 questions in our bank carry a continuous load, a continuous duty motor or a 125 percent multiplier. The spread is the useful part. Seventeen sit in motor circuits, nine in conductor sizing, four in load calculations, four in wiring methods and one in code administration. So a topic most study material files under branch circuit sizing is tested hardest in the motor article, which is where candidates arrive with the wrong 125 percent in hand.

The forms repeat. Some stems say continuous outright. Some hand you an operating schedule and wait to see whether you do the arithmetic on it. Some describe an occupancy, a store open from nine until nine, and leave the inference to you. Some name a motor and offer the branch circuit rule as an answer, which is the single most productive distractor in the set.

The trap lines show the two standard half answers. One option raises the conductor and leaves the device sitting at the load. Another raises the device and leaves the conductor. Both look like work has been done, which is exactly why they are on the list, and an option that moves only one of the two is a distractor by construction.

Three hours, and nothing else

Article 100 defines a continuous load as one where the maximum current is expected to continue for three hours or more. Duration settles it. The definition says nothing about what the equipment is or how important it is, so parking lot lighting on a photocell qualifies while a large motor that runs twenty minutes at a time falls outside it.

The same fixture can be continuous in a warehouse aisle and ordinary in a supply closet, because the test lands on the installation. That is worth saying out loud before test day, since a candidate who has learned a list of continuous equipment will read an occupancy stem as a hint about the catalog page it came from.

The multiplier lands in two places

The conductor and the overcurrent device both take it. A branch circuit conductor supplying a continuous load needs an allowable ampacity of at least the noncontinuous load plus 125 percent of the continuous load, under 210.19, and the next section along says the same about the rating of the device ahead of it in almost the same words with the same exception attached.

Both move because both sit in the heat. A conductor carrying its rated current for three hours has reached its steady temperature and stays there, and so have the lugs it lands on and the device those lugs are part of. Loading a device to 125 percent of the load is the same relationship as loading it to 80 percent of its rating, and the margin buys headroom for the temperature inside an enclosure.

The bank works this from both ends. A branch circuit with 68 amperes of continuous load needs 85 amperes of ampacity before any correction. A feeder with 44 amperes noncontinuous and 52 amperes continuous needs 109 amperes, because only the continuous portion takes the multiplier and the popular miss applies it to the whole 96. A conductor corrected and adjusted to 46 amperes fails a 38 ampere continuous load, since 210.19 puts a floor of 47.5 amperes under the conductor itself, and the rounding permission in 240.4(B) settles the device without excusing the conductor. Our page on small conductors and 240.4 takes that protection side.

Where the other 125 percent lives

Seventeen of the thirty-five sit in the motor article, so the citation matters as much as the arithmetic.

Three bank items sit on the last two rows. A feeder serving motors at 28, 40 and 52 amperes plus a 15 ampere continuous non motor load needs 151.75 amperes, taking the largest motor at 125 percent, the others at full load and the non motor load at 125 percent. Three continuous duty motors at 34, 34 and 12 amperes need 88.5 amperes, because a tie for highest rated grants one allowance and never two. The 125 percent is a diversity margin granted once on the worst case machine, and inrush running six to eight times full load current shows why it was never a starting allowance, which our motor circuits hub takes further.

The exception that takes the multiplier off

Where the assembly, the overcurrent device included, is listed for operation at 100 percent of its rating, the increase comes off and the plain load governs.

Read that permission for what it attaches to, because it attaches to the assembly and a device marked for continuous duty in a panel carrying no such listing falls outside it. The listing names the enclosure the device was evaluated in, which is the practical reason you cannot create one by dropping a breaker into a panel you already own.

On an exam it behaves as a switch. Where the stem tells you the assembly is listed for continuous operation at its full rating, use the plain load. Where the stem stays silent, use the multiplier. Candidates who have never met this equipment on a job sometimes read the sentence as scenery and skip past it, and it is the answer key.

What changed for the 2026 edition

Two changes reach this topic and one of them moves a citation that half the study material still prints.

The load calculation material left Article 220 and became Article 120, so every tab and citation pointing at the old number now fails. Inside it, 120.5(E) is titled Percent Multiplier and says a load calculation is under no requirement to carry a continuous load at 125 percent. The informational note adds that a 125 percent multiplier can still be required for other reasons, and that calling a load continuous drives the size of the conductor and the overcurrent device.

That answers a different question from the one the sizing rules answer. A load calculation asks how much load a building has. Conductor sizing asks what the copper and the breaker have to live through. Candidates who meet 120.5(E) first come away thinking the increase has been withdrawn, and it survives in every sizing rule. The figure also survives inside the calculation article itself at 120.11(A), which applies 125 percent to the largest motor load where motors share a circuit with other loads, so reading those two subsections back to back once stops the line between them moving around.

Texas adopted the 2026 edition effective 1 September 2026 under 16 TAC 73.100, and the PSI candidate information bulletin updated 9 July 2026 says the examinations are referenced to that edition from the same date, so those are the section numbers a Texas paper is written against.

Where the arithmetic runs backward

The hardest items in the bank put the multiplier and an adjustment factor in the same question, and the two work on opposite sides of the problem. One is a multiplication and the other is a division.

A branch circuit with a 78 ampere continuous load and six current carrying conductors at 0.80 needs a base ampacity of 122 amperes. The continuous load is taken at 125 percent, which raises what the circuit demands, so 78 becomes 97.5. The adjustment factor lowers what a given conductor delivers, so finding the conductor that still delivers 97.5 after the cut is 97.5 divided by 0.80, which is 121.875. Multiplying the load by 0.80 asks the conductor to carry less than the load.

A feeder with 40 amperes noncontinuous and 96 amperes continuous, four current carrying conductors at 0.80 and an ambient correction of 0.91 needs 220 amperes. Work the load side first: 40 plus 96 times 1.25 is 160 amperes. Then the conductor side: the factors combine to 0.728, and 160 divided by 0.728 is 219.8. Applying the 125 percent to the whole 136 gives 234, and multiplying by the factors gives 116, and both of those appear on the answer list. Our page on ampacity derating works the factor arithmetic in full.

What to do about it before test day

The Texas examination is open book, the passing percentage is seventy, and you carry your own current copy of the code into the room.

• Sort every item twice. Calculated load, service load or feeder load in the stem puts you in Article 120. Minimum conductor size, minimum ampacity or the rating of a device puts you in a sizing rule, and the multiplier is live in all of them.
• Then sort by what is being sized, since branch circuits are Article 210, feeders are the feeder article and service entrance conductors are the service article. The arithmetic never changes and the citation does, which decides an item whenever the options are section numbers.
• Tab 430.22 beside 210.19 and write the difference between them in the margin, because the motor set is where most of these questions live.
• Write one line at 210.19: the number is a minimum for the conductor and for the device alike. That stops it being compared against the wrong thing later in the same question.
• Apply the small conductor cap last on small sizes, after everything else in the sequence.

the question set carries the code side of this topic, with the sequence set out step by step and the section printed against every line, at the question set, which is where the worked arithmetic lives.

Questions people ask

What makes a load continuous?

Duration, and nothing else. Article 100 defines a continuous load as one where the maximum current is expected to continue for three hours or more. The definition says nothing about what the equipment is or how important it is, so parking lot lighting on a photocell qualifies while a large motor running twenty minutes at a time falls outside it. The same fixture can be continuous in a warehouse aisle and ordinary in a supply closet, because the test lands on the installation. Exam stems flag it by saying so, by handing you a schedule, or by describing an occupancy.

Does the 125 percent go on the conductor or on the device?

Both. A branch circuit conductor supplying a continuous load needs an allowable ampacity of at least the noncontinuous load plus 125 percent of the continuous load under 210.19, and the next section along states the same requirement for the rating of the device ahead of it, in almost the same words and with the same exception attached. Both sit in the heat, since a conductor at its rated current for three hours has reached steady temperature along with the lugs and the device. An option that moves only one of the two is a distractor.

How is the motor 125 percent different?

It comes from 430.22, it multiplies the table full load current out of 430.6(A)(1), and the trigger is a continuous duty application, where the branch circuit rule asks for three hours at maximum current. A motor running half a minute at a time is still a continuous duty application unless the machine it drives can never run continuously under load. Short time, intermittent, periodic and varying duty go to 430.22(E), where the duty cycle percentages multiply the nameplate current. On a feeder, 430.24 grants the 125 percent once, to the highest rated motor of the group.

Did the 2026 edition withdraw the continuous load multiplier?

No. The load calculation material moved from Article 220 into Article 120, and 120.5(E) says a load calculation carries no requirement to take a continuous load at 125 percent. The multiplier survives in every conductor and device sizing rule, and it also survives inside the calculation article at 120.11(A), which applies 125 percent to the largest motor load where motors share a circuit with other loads. Sort by which question the stem asks: how much load a building has, or what the copper and the breaker have to live through.

When does the multiplier come off entirely?

Where the assembly, the overcurrent device included, is listed for operation at 100 percent of its rating. The permission attaches to the assembly, so a device marked for continuous duty sitting in a panel that carries no such listing falls outside it, and the listing names the enclosure the device was evaluated in. On an exam it behaves as a switch. Where the stem says the assembly is listed for continuous operation at its full rating, use the plain load. Where the stem stays silent, use the multiplier.

Why does the arithmetic sometimes divide?

Because the continuous multiplier and an adjustment factor work on opposite sides of the problem. The 125 percent raises what the circuit demands of a conductor, so it multiplies the load. An adjustment factor lowers what a given conductor delivers, so finding the conductor that still delivers the target after the cut means dividing by the factor. A 78 ampere continuous load with an adjustment of 0.80 needs 97.5 divided by 0.80, which is 122 amperes of base ampacity. Multiplying by the factor asks the conductor to carry less than the load.