SPARKY WEEKLY

⚡ Sparky Weekly: Week 28

🗓️ September 27, 2026

This week kept the same shape as the last one: study, build, teach it back. The archive keeps growing, and the questions keep getting harder in the right ways.

⚡ This Week's Focus

🧠 Study Time & NEC Questions

Same core loop as always: NEC questions, calculations, and theory. This week leaned into the math side more than usual — conduit fill, raceways, conductor sizing, box sizing and fill, ampacity, and motor calculations. I've now cleared over 300 questions completed.

Don't just get the answer. Know how to find it again.

📚 Bay Path Journeyman Training: Module 5

Module 5, class 5. That leaves 20 more classes this semester, with 25 total needed before Module 6 opens up. The focus right now is pulling the math together — reviewing calculations and formulas, and connecting them to how the NEC actually uses them in the field:

• Conduit fill

• Raceway sizing

• Conductor sizing

• Box fill

• Ampacity

• Motor circuits

It's the same pattern as Module 5's electrical theory work from last week — separate formulas starting to look like one system.

❓ Question of the Week

This week's 2026 NEC Question of the Week is an ampacity correction problem.

An electrician is installing #10 AWG copper THHN conductors in a location with an ambient temperature of 42°C (108°F). Using the 2026 NEC, determine the corrected ampacity of the conductors.

(A) 32.0 A (B) 34.8 A (C) 38.0 A (D) 40.0 A

Study Challenge: Don't just calculate it — find the information first.

• The base ampacity for #10 AWG copper THHN

• The applicable ambient temperature correction factor

• The calculation to apply the correction factor

Comment your answer and identify the NEC section(s) or table(s) you used.

Last week's voltage-drop question is here if you want to check your answer against it.

🔎 Deep NEC Web Browsing

Episode 4 is out, along with the outtakes from last week's episode. There's also a new video with 1,000 study slides set to music — same idea as always, different format: make the material something people will actually sit through.

Search. Find the source. Identify the edition. Follow the references. Verify.

📖 Sparky's Journal

New entry this week: Everything You Need to Know About Conduit Fill. It ties directly into the Module 5 math and the box/conduit calculations I've been running through in study time.

🎓 Learning How to Teach

The free course, How to Study the NEC, is now live on the site. It's the same philosophy behind Quick Hits and the Journal — if I can't explain the process clearly enough for someone else to follow, I still have work to do on it myself.

🌐 The Archive

New sources were added to JoshTheSparky.com/sources this week, and the site crossed 500 posts across all platforms combined. Check the Latest page for everything in one place. The rule hasn't changed: the social posts are the front door, the website is where everything stays.

📲 Three Posts a Day

Still holding the pace through the end of 2026 — sustainable over impressive.

📰 Trade News

Grid and manufacturing

• Transformer demand is projected to grow about 3.5% annually through 2035, and McKinsey estimates the global supply backlog could hit 1,690 gigavolt-amperes by 2030 — a real strategic concern for anyone procuring gear on a timeline.

• DOE announced $1.9 billion for 31 grid-improvement projects aimed at adding 23 gigawatts of transmission capacity, rebuilding over 1,500 miles of lines.

• Grid congestion costs hit $17 billion across the US in 2025, up from $12 billion in 2024, with PJM and ERCOT carrying the largest shares.

Data centers and energy

• PwC is projecting a $31.6 trillion AI data-center buildout cycle through 2050, with power access and chip supply increasingly determining where the capital actually lands.

• Texas is a study in contrasts right now: regulators eased large-load interconnection rules (a flat $100,000 study fee instead of a nonrefundable one), while the governor separately paused new data center permits until ERCOT reviews grid impact.

• Amazon placed an $8 billion order with Generac for backup generators, part of a broader hyperscaler push into on-site gas generation and battery storage.

• A Bloomberg-cited ASU study found data centers are raising nearby temperatures up to 4°F, contributing to community pushback that has delayed or blocked roughly $68 billion in projects this year.

Code and safety

• This week's CQD roundup was a good one for fundamentals: voltage drop is generally not enforceable under the NEC — the 3% and 5% figures live in informational notes, which aren't mandatory per 90.5(C) — except where a specific section sets a hard limit, like 647.5(D) for sensitive electronic equipment or 695.8 for fire pumps.

• CQD also had to walk back an earlier answer: AFCI protection is not required for the entire dwelling under the 2026 NEC. Section 210.12(B) still lists specific areas, and garages, bathrooms, attics, crawl spaces, and unfinished basements aren't on that list — worth remembering since I saw that exact claim circulate as settled fact.

• Other CQD items this week: pool bonding grids for unpaved perimeters (a single #8 AWG bare copper conductor or a grid on 12-inch centers, per 680.26(B)(2)(c), same for inground and above-ground pools), and a box-fill follow-up on counting MC cable clamps and mud-ring/raised-cover volume.

• EC&M also ran a piece on the key revisions to Chapter 2 of the 2026 NEC — GFCI, outdoor outlets, and kitchen receptacles — which lines up with where Quick Hits Chapter 2 is headed right now.

Industry and workforce

• NECA 2026 runs October 5–7 in Las Vegas, marking the association's 125th year.

• A new 12-month "2026 NEC Master Series" was announced in the National Electrical Collective forum — weekly live Zoom sessions, a dedicated chat community, and a year of FastTraxTube access, with account access starting after October 1.

• Worth a flag: at least one industry piece this week warned that standard contractor insurance policies may not cover claims tied to generative AI use on a job — worth checking with your carrier if you're using AI tools for design or estimating.

• Dycom Industries is building a 49-acre training campus to build its own skilled-trades pipeline for fiber and data center work — another example of contractors solving the workforce gap in-house rather than waiting on it.

The bigger economic picture

• AMD crossed $1 trillion in market value this month, up nearly 37% in September, with Data Center revenue more than doubling year over year to $6.7 billion. Intel, Arm, HPE, and Marvell all posted strong September gains riding the same AI infrastructure wave, each from a different part of the stack — processors, architecture, servers, and connectivity.

• Mortgage rates jumped to 6.95%, the highest since January 2025, following the Fed's rate hike this week to a 3.75–4.0% range. Housing inventory is still rising, and homes are moving slightly faster than a year ago, but new listings are falling, which is one to watch heading into fall.

As always, verify it, especially anything involving Code, calculations, or safety.

📚 The Bigger Picture

The NEC is the classroom. The questions are the practice. Bay Path is the formal training. The field is where it all has to work. Quick Hits are the short lessons. Brain Busters are the problems. Question of the Week is the challenge. Deep NEC Web Browsing is the research practice. The Journal is where I write things out. The website is the archive. And the community is everyone learning alongside each other.

⚡ Keep Going

Module 5 is 5 classes deep with 20 to go. The archive has passed 500 posts. Episode 4 is live, and this week's Question of the Week is on the board. Same approach as always — not trying to finish everything tomorrow, trying to build something that lasts.

Take care of yourself. Confirm everything. You're the electrician. ⚡ See you next week.

📖 Verse of the Week: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." — Matthew 6:33 (KJV)

🎵 Song of the Week: "The Way I Am" by Eminem 

💛 Support of the Week: "Help my sister's family rebuild after the fire" — a GoFundMe worth a look and a share if you can. 

⚡ SPARKY WEEKLY: WEEK 28

Keep studying. Keep building. Keep learning.

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