Motor and transformer circuits on the Texas journeyman exam

What motors are actually worth here

The published content outline gives motors and generators two of the twenty-four scored items on the journeyman calculations portion. On the master calculations portion it is six of thirty, and services is eight. That is where the idea that motors dominate the calculations comes from, and it is true one license class up from this one.

Our bank holds forty-three questions in this area, with a difficulty spread of two, twelve, twenty and nine across the four bands. Sixty-one of the five hundred mention a motor somewhere, across six different subject areas, which is the more useful number: motor language shows up inside questions that are filed under conductors, grounding and installations.

The Texas journeyman exam is two separately scored papers taken in one sitting. NEC Knowledge is 56 scored items inside 59 sat, with 130 minutes on the clock. Calculations is 24 scored inside 26 sat, with 110 minutes. Each half passes at 70 percent on its own, so you can clear one and rebook the other. For fiscal 2025 TDLR reports 24.46 percent passing the knowledge portion and 20.56 percent passing calculations, out of 26,303 attempts across every Texas electrical exam that produced 6,181 passes.

The rule the whole area turns on

The motor calculations page works that split, and overload protection covers what the nameplate current does once you have it. Read them in that order.

The six topics

• Motor calculations on the Texas journeyman exam, and the split that decides most of the points. 430.6 sends you to a table for one current and to the nameplate for another.
• Feeders for a group of motors, and the allowance candidates hand out more than once. Largest motor at 125 percent, the rest at full load, in that order.
• Overload protection, fault protection and the disconnect, and why the exam keeps them apart. 430.32 by service factor and temperature rise, with the nameplate current.
• HVAC circuits on a Texas paper, where a national answer and a Texas answer come apart. Article 440 plus the Texas 210.8(F) amendment the national text retires.
• Transformer questions on a Texas paper, and the number that moved under everybody. Primary and secondary protection under 450.5, moved from 450.3 in 2026.
• Elevators and escalators on a Texas paper, and the trade the licensing act leaves alone. Article 620 on the paper and Tex. Occ. Code 1305.003 on the job.

Where the area gets hard

Eleven of the forty-three mention a feeder, and five of the nine hardest questions in this area are feeder problems. The rule is simple to state and easy to execute backwards: the largest motor at 125 percent, every other motor at its full load current, added together. Candidates who apply 125 percent to all of them, or to none, land on numbers that are offered as answer choices. Motor feeder sizing is the page for it.

The Texas amendment that outlives the national rule

The national 2026 text carries an exception at 210.8(F) for listed outdoor HVAC equipment with a sentence that expires it on 1 September 2026. 16 TAC 73.100(b) adopts that exception with the expiry sentence removed. So the exception the rest of the country loses on that date is the one Texas keeps, and the code you are examined on is the code as Texas adopted it. There is a pending NFPA proposal to move the national date, which is undecided as we write this and is not a change yet.

The HVAC page prints the whole thing, both sides. It is the clearest case on this site of why the adopted state edition and the national edition are worth keeping separate in your head.

What these cost on the job

A motor circuit sized from the nameplate current where the table current was called for produces a conductor that passes a visual check and fails a load. The overload set from a table current where the nameplate was called for protects the wrong thing. Both errors survive the install and surface under running load, which is the expensive place to find them.

The HVAC side carries a live Texas difference that matters on a permit as much as on a paper, since the exception Texas keeps is one the national text retires on the same date. The HVAC page prints both, and local rules covers what a city can add on top.

Where motor language shows up elsewhere

Sixty-one of the five hundred questions mention a motor and they sit in six different subject areas. A conductor sizing item can carry a motor load. A grounding item can turn on the equipment grounding conductor for a motor circuit. A disconnect item can be a motor disconnect with the fifty foot half of in sight from attached to it. The published two calculation items are a poor guide to how often the vocabulary appears.

That is the argument for reading this area even at its light published weight: the method transfers. Conductor sizing and disconnecting means both collect motor-flavored items.

What to do with this before test day

Tab 430.6, 430.24, 430.32, 440 and 450.5. Then work the feeder sizing until the order is automatic, because that is the block where the hardest items live. Two scored items is worth roughly one evening of preparation on the journeyman paper, and more than that is time taken from conductor sizing, which carries seven times the weight. Thirty free questions, timed will tell you if the order is automatic yet.

The worked motor arithmetic is in the question set.

Questions people ask

How many motor questions are on the Texas journeyman exam?

The content outline PSI publishes gives motors and generators two of the twenty-four scored items on the journeyman calculations portion. That is the published figure and it is smaller than most candidates expect. The reputation motors have for carrying the calculations belongs to the master exam, where motors and generators is six of thirty scored calculation items and services is eight. Our own bank holds forty-three motor questions, a deliberate overweight, because the method transfers to other areas.

Which current do I use to size motor conductors?

The table current, from the tables the code provides for the motor type and voltage. The nameplate current is what sizes the overload protection. 430.6 makes that split explicit, and six questions in our bank hand you both numbers in the same stem to see which one you reach for. The wrong answer offered on those items is the number you get from using the other current, which is why it looks reasonable when you land on it.

How do I size a feeder for several motors?

The largest motor at 125 percent of its full load current, every other motor at its full load current, and the sum of those is the feeder load. The execution errors are applying 125 percent to all of the motors or to none of them, and both of those results are usually offered as answer choices. Five of the nine hardest items in this area are feeder problems, so the order is worth drilling until it runs without thinking about it.

Does the Texas 210.8(F) HVAC exception still apply after September 2026?

The national 2026 text expires it on 1 September 2026 through a sentence inside the exception. 16 TAC 73.100(b) adopts that exception into Texas with the expiry sentence removed, so in Texas it continues. You are examined on the code as Texas adopted it. There is a pending NFPA proposal to move the national date, which is undecided and is not a change until it is made. This is the clearest live case of the adopted state edition differing from the national one.

Are transformer calculations on the journeyman exam?

They appear, and they are lighter than motors. Fourteen questions across our whole bank mention a transformer and they sit in four different subject areas, with only two in theory and six in grounding. Primary and secondary protection is at 450.5 in the 2026 edition, having moved from 450.3. For a journeyman candidate the practical target is knowing where the section is and how the primary and secondary sides are treated separately, which is a couple of hours of work.