Connecticut · Electrical licensing · official-source guide
Connecticut licenses electrical work at state level through the Department of Consumer Protection, using letter and number trade codes. E-1 is the unlimited electrical contractor and E-2 the unlimited journeyperson, with limited codes C-5, C-7, L-1, L-5, T-1 and PV-1 beside them. An E-2 needs 8,000 on the job hours plus 720 classroom hours.
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Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-09-12. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Connecticut licenses electrical work at state level. The Department of Consumer Protection issues the license. Its License Services Division takes the applications. Its Occupational and Professional Licensing Division publishes the scope of work attached to each code. The DCP continuing education page names the CT Electrical Board as the body that approves electrical courses. Chapter 393 of the General Statutes is the governing law. Sec. 20-330 defines electrical work as the installation, erection, maintenance, inspection, testing, alteration or repair of wire, cable, conduit and similar equipment that generates, transforms, transmits or uses electrical energy for light, heat, power or other purposes. Sec. 20-334 bars any person from engaging in, practicing or offering to perform the work of an occupation subject to the chapter without the credential. Application fees run $150.00 for a contractor and $90.00 for a journeyperson, both non-refundable. Every individual applicant must take an exam, and the exam vendor charges its own fee on top. All electrical licenses expire annually on September 30. For a contractor the practical result is that one card covers the whole state. Bridgeport asks for a copy of the current Connecticut License Card and names the E-1 by code on its electrical permit application. Hartford asks for the current contractor license and a workers compensation certificate naming the city. Neither city issues an electrical license of its own. The state card is the thing you renew, display and sell against.
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Connecticut does not label its electrical licenses master and journeyman alone. It uses letter and number codes, and DCP publishes a scope for each. E-1 is the unlimited electrical contractor, permitted to do all electrical work as defined in Sec. 20-330. E-2 is the unlimited electrical journeyperson with the same scope, restricted to working only while in the employment of a properly licensed contractor. C-5 is a limited electrical contractor for low voltage, alarm or signal work, audio and sound systems and telephone interconnect, not exceeding 48 volts or 8 amperes, with C-6 as the matching journeyperson. C-7 is the limited electrical sign contractor, covering installing, servicing, maintaining and testing electric signs at dedicated outlet receptacles adjacent to signs, with C-8 as the journeyperson. L-1 is the electrical lines contractor for line construction including distribution systems, high voltage cable splicing and pulling wire for systems in excess of 2,400 volts, plus traffic signal and highway lighting, with L-2 as the journeyperson. L-5 is a limited electrical contractor for low voltage, alarm or signal work and audio and sound systems not exceeding 25 volts or 5 amperes, and it excludes most telecommunication work, with L-6 as the journeyperson. T-1 covers telephone interconnect systems at previously installed outlet receptacles, with T-2 as the journeyperson. PV-1 is the limited solar electric contractor for photovoltaic or wind generation systems including storage and distribution, with PV-2 as the journeyperson. Read the voltage and amperage ceiling before you bid. The gap between C-5 at 48 volts and L-5 at 25 volts decides which low voltage jobs are yours.
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The journeyperson codes all carry the same restriction. E-2, C-6, C-8, L-2, L-6, T-2 and PV-2 each permit the holder to do the work only while in the employ of a contractor licensed for that work. That single clause is what separates payroll from a business. A journeyperson cannot contract, cannot advertise as a contractor and cannot hold the permit. The contractor codes, E-1, C-5, C-7, L-1, L-5, T-1 and PV-1, are the ones that let a person take the job, sign the contract and pull the permit. Sec. 20-334a sets out the shape of the system: the department issues unlimited and limited contractor licenses, unlimited and limited journeyman licenses, and apprentice permits. The apprentice sits underneath both. DCP routes new journeyperson applicants who trained through the state program to a dedicated application, telling anyone who completed an apprenticeship with the Connecticut Department of Labor to apply on that path. Anyone who trained outside a registered Connecticut apprenticeship uses the equivalent experience and training route instead, or the equivalent out of state license route. So a Connecticut electrical crew has a defined shape. One E-1 holds the license the business trades on. E-2 holders do the work. Apprentices accumulate the hours under permit. If the E-1 leaves, the business loses the credential that lets it contract, which is why the license belongs in your succession planning and not just your filing cabinet.
DCP publishes the hour counts it will accept for each journeyperson code on the equivalent experience and training page. The unlimited E-2 is the heaviest. It takes 8,000 hours of on the job training plus 720 classroom hours. L-2, the electrical lines journeyperson, takes 8,000 on the job hours plus 576 classroom hours. C-6, the limited journeyperson for the 48 volt low voltage scope, takes 4,000 on the job hours plus 360 classroom hours. PV-2, the solar electric journeyperson, takes 4,000 on the job hours plus 324 classroom hours. L-6 and T-2 each take 4,000 on the job hours plus 288 classroom hours. C-8, the sign journeyperson, is the shortest at 2,000 on the job hours plus 144 classroom hours. Two rules sit underneath the table and both matter. DCP states that classroom hours must be equivalent to the classes listed in its Exhibit A, so the subject matter is checked and not just the total. DCP also states that on the job training and work experience will not be considered in lieu of the classroom requirement. You cannot buy back missing classroom time with more field time. That is the single most common reason a Connecticut electrical application stalls. Count the classroom hours first, match them against Exhibit A, and only then count the field hours. An applicant who is short 40 classroom hours is short 40 classroom hours no matter how many years are on the job record.
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Connecticut does not let a journeyperson convert to contractor on the day the journeyperson card arrives. DCP states that the contractor application is open to a person who has held the respective journeyperson license for more than two years. The word respective is doing real work in that sentence. Two years as an E-2 supports an E-1. It does not support a PV-1 or an L-1, because each contractor code runs off its own journeyperson code. An electrician who wants two contractor codes needs the journeyperson history behind each one, or needs to qualify through one of the alternative routes. DCP publishes two alternatives for the contractor step, mirroring the journeyperson side. One is equivalent experience and training. The other is an equivalent out of state license. Both are reviewed rather than granted. The contractor application fee is $150.00 and non-refundable, and every individual applicant must take an exam. The exam fee is paid separately to the vendor. There is a commercial reading of that two year rule. The E-1 is a scarce credential with a time cost that cannot be shortened by hiring. If you are building a Connecticut electrical business, the licensed person is the constraint on how fast you can open a second crew or a second town, because the permit needs a contractor code behind it and the journeyperson beside you cannot supply one.
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Connecticut requires an exam from every individual applicant for an electrical license. DCP states that plainly on the electrical license page and adds that exam fees are due to the exam vendor rather than to the department. The DCP exam information page groups the construction trades together and lists electrical alongside glazier, plumbing, fire inspection, contractor, dealer, technician, home inspector and installer, pointing candidates to PSI bulletins for the detail. PSI is therefore the test administrator named by the department. What DCP does not publish on these pages is the shape of the electrical exam. The number of questions, the time limit, the passing score, whether the exam is open book and which edition of the National Electrical Code the questions are drawn from are not stated on the department pages that cover electrical licensing. Those details live in the PSI candidate bulletin rather than on the agency site, so this page does not quote figures for them. Plan around what is published. You must pass before the license issues, the fee is separate from the $150.00 or $90.00 application fee, and the application fee is non-refundable whether or not you pass. Sit the exam close to the end of your classroom hours, while the code work is still fresh, rather than after a long gap on the tools.
The fee list for Connecticut electrical licensing is short and DCP publishes it on the electrical license page. The application fee for a contractor is $150.00 and non-refundable. The application fee for a journeyperson is $90.00 and non-refundable. Renewal costs $150.00 for a contractor and $120.00 for a journeyperson. Non-refundable is meant literally. If your hours are rejected or you fail the exam, the application money is gone. Exam fees sit outside that list and are paid to the exam vendor. Note what the fee list does not contain. Connecticut does not publish a state surety bond amount or a state minimum general liability limit for electrical contractors on these pages, and Chapter 393 as served by the General Assembly does not set one either. That does not mean you can work uninsured. Hartford will not issue a trades permit without a current workers compensation insurance certificate listing the City of Hartford as the certificate holder, which is a municipal permit condition rather than a state licensing minimum. General contractors, property managers and commercial customers will set their own limits in the contract, and those limits are usually higher than anything a state would impose. Budget for the license fees as a small fixed annual cost and treat insurance as a commercial requirement driven by who you want to work for.
Connecticut electrical licenses run on an annual cycle. DCP states that all electrical licenses expire annually on September 30. That is a different date from the plumbing trades, so do not carry a remembered date across trades. Renewal is $150.00 for a contractor and $120.00 for a journeyperson. The continuing education deadline sits three months ahead of the renewal date. DCP requires all continuing education hours to be completed by June 30 of each year, while the license itself expires on September 30. That gap is deliberate and it is a trap for anyone who treats CE as a renewal week task. By the time the renewal notice concentrates the mind at the end of September, the June 30 CE deadline has already passed. Build the CE into the first half of the year instead. There is one exemption on the CE side. DCP states that if this is your first license renewal you are not required to complete any continuing education credits. Every renewal after that carries the requirement. For a contractor with several licensed people on the payroll, the annual cycle means the whole crew renews on the same date, so it is worth keeping one calendar entry in June for hours and one in September for fees rather than tracking each person separately.
Connecticut sets electrical continuing education in statute and DCP administers it. Sec. 20-334d requires not less than four hours per year for electricians, and allows that figure to rise as far as seven hours at the request of the board. DCP states the operating number as four credit hours per year. Courses must be approved by the CT Electrical Board, and DCP publishes the approved electrical continuing education course list as a state open data set. All hours must be completed by June 30 of each year. A first license renewal carries no continuing education requirement. Sec. 20-334d also caps class sizes, holding in person courses to 50 attendees and online courses to 25 attendees, which is why seats on popular code update classes go early in the spring. DCP allows a hardship waiver request on an appropriate showing of a bona fide health or other individual hardship, and states that loss of income from a cancelled license does not qualify. Failure to complete the hours can bring civil fines and suspension or revocation of the license. One point of accuracy matters here. The DCP electrician continuing education page does not itself state a National Electrical Code update requirement or name a code edition the hours must cover. It states only that the CT Electrical Board must approve the courses. So the code update content follows from which courses the board approves, not from a published NEC hours rule.
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Connecticut has a reciprocity provision in statute and an equivalency process in practice, and they are not the same thing. Sec. 20-333a lets the Commissioner of Consumer Protection issue a license without examination to a competent person holding a similar license from another state, the District of Columbia or a United States territory, where that state requires substantially similar or higher qualifications and a reciprocal arrangement exists. What DCP actually runs is a document review. DCP defines an equivalent out of state license as one that required the same number of classroom hours, equivalent classroom curriculum and on job training hours. The applicant submits a copy of the out of state license, a license verification from the issuing state, the laws and regulations proving the requirements were met, and the scope of work that license carries. DCP states in capitals that only one out of state license will be reviewed for equivalency, so an electrician holding several out of state credentials must choose the strongest one and submit that alone. Application fees are nonrefundable. The route is published for the journeyperson codes E-2, C-6, L-6, PV-2, T-2, L-2 and C-8, with a matching contractor route. DCP does not publish a list of states holding standing agreements with Connecticut. Treat an out of state move as a paperwork exercise measured against the Connecticut hour counts rather than as an automatic transfer.
Electrical code adoption in Connecticut runs through the State Building Code, not through the licensing statute. The Department of Administrative Services Office of the State Building Inspector publishes a history table of every code edition and the NFPA 70 edition that went with it. The current row of that table covers 10/1/22 to the present and names the 2022 State Building Code. The NFPA 70 column for that row reads NFPA 70-2020. The same page also carries a model code description for that row reading 2020 National Electrical Code NFPA 70-2014, which contradicts its own column. Both readings are on the state page and this page reports both rather than choosing one. What is not in dispute is the sequence. The 2018 State Building Code ran from 10/1/18 to 9/30/22 on NFPA 70-2014. The 2016 State Building Code ran from 10/1/16 on NFPA 70-2014. The 2005 State Building Code with its amendments ran from 12/31/05 to 9/30/16 and moved from NFPA 70-2005 to NFPA 70-2011. Connecticut therefore changes electrical code on the building code cycle rather than on the three year NFPA cycle, and it has historically lagged the current NFPA edition. Check the Office of the State Building Inspector before you quote a code edition in a bid or a scope of work, because the inspector enforces the adopted edition and not the newest one.
This is the rule most Connecticut electrical contractors are technically in breach of. Sec. 20-334 requires a licensee to carry the license while working. It also requires a contractor to display the state license number on commercial vehicles and in all advertisements, bid proposals, contracts, invoices and business stationery, in a conspicuous manner. The penalty is a fine of up to five hundred dollars per violation, with the first violation excepted. Read the list again, because it is wider than most people assume. It is not only the van. It covers every advertisement in any form, every bid proposal you send out, the contract the customer signs, the invoice you collect on and your letterhead. A website is an advertisement. A vehicle wrap is an advertisement. A yard sign is an advertisement. Per violation is the phrase that carries the cost, because a campaign running across several placements is not one violation. The practical fix takes an afternoon. Put the code and the number together, as E-1 followed by the number, in the footer of the website, on the estimate and invoice templates, on both sides of every vehicle and on any printed material. Doing it also helps you commercially. A customer who can read the number can find you in the state lookup in one search, which turns a claim into something checkable.
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Sec. 20-334 makes it an offence to engage in, practice or offer to perform the work of any occupation subject to Chapter 393 without the credential. The word offer matters for marketing. An advertisement that offers work you are not licensed for is itself the conduct the statute reaches, whether or not anyone ever books the job. That sets a hard line around wording. A C-5 or L-5 holder works a defined low voltage scope and cannot advertise unlimited electrical work. An E-2 holder may do unlimited electrical work but only while in the employment of a properly licensed contractor, so an E-2 cannot present a business as an electrical contractor. A PV-1 holder advertises solar photovoltaic and wind generation work, not general electrical service. Sec. 20-334 also gives the Commissioner power to deny, suspend or revoke a license for felony convictions, gross incompetence, malpractice, unethical conduct or violation of the regulations, with reinstatement requests possible after a period of 90 to 180 days. On the money side, the fine schedule for unlicensed electrical work sits in Sec. 20-341. The General Assembly Chapter 393 page as served ends at Sec. 20-334d and does not carry the text of Sec. 20-341, and no DCP page states those figures, so no unlicensed work fine amount is published here. The display fine of up to five hundred dollars per violation in Sec. 20-334 is the figure that is on the record.
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Connecticut cities do not license electricians. They check the state card at the permit counter, and each one checks it slightly differently. Bridgeport, the largest city in the state, states on its electrical permit page that an application may be made by any person holding a valid Connecticut license to do electrical work or an authorized agent for the holder, and by a property owner of a single family residence who permanently resides at the property. The application requires a copy of the contractor current Connecticut License Card, and the page names the E-1 by code. Bridgeport also blocks permits where city obligations are outstanding, stating that no permits can be issued by the Building Department where there are delinquent property tax or WPCA sewer user fees, citing City Ordinance 15.08.020. Applications go through the Park City Portal. Hartford requires a current workers compensation insurance certificate listing the City of Hartford as the certificate holder, along with the current contractor license where a contractor is doing the work. New Haven has moved to electronic permitting and states that paper applications will not be accepted, with separate fee schedules for one and two family work and for three plus family, commercial and mixed use, plus published electrical minimum cost documents. None of the three publishes electrical permit fee amounts on those pages, so no permit fee figures appear here.
Connecticut runs one public lookup for every credential the state issues, and it is the same tool a customer, a general contractor and a procurement officer will use on you. The DCP verify a license page points to the eLicense portal. The lookup sits at elicense.ct.gov and searches licenses, permits and registrations for individuals and businesses, covering both active and inactive records across more than 800 license types regulated by state agencies. A search by name or by license number returns the record. Two things follow from that for a contractor who has to go win work. First, the number you advertise is the search key. If your license number appears in your footer, on your estimate and on your truck, anyone checking you resolves the record on the first attempt instead of scrolling a list of similar business names. Second, the portal shows inactive records as well as active ones, so a lapsed renewal is visible to anyone who looks, not just to DCP. That makes the September 30 expiry a sales issue and not only a compliance one. DCP also publishes the approved electrical continuing education course list as a state open data set, which is the place to confirm a course counts before you pay for a seat.
The Connecticut code system is worth reading as a market map rather than a filing requirement. E-1 is the broad one. It carries all electrical work as defined in Sec. 20-330, which is the residential, commercial and industrial service market in a single card. PV-1 opens photovoltaic and wind generation systems including storage and distribution, so a solar and battery storage business can stand on its own credential rather than borrowing an unlimited contractor. C-5 and L-5 sit on the low voltage side and they split at the voltage ceiling, 48 volts and 8 amperes for C-5 against 25 volts and 5 amperes for L-5, with C-5 also reaching telephone interconnect that L-5 excludes. That difference decides whether alarm, signal, audio and sound system work is within your scope. C-7 covers electric signs at the dedicated receptacles adjacent to them, which is a defined commercial niche with its own customer base. L-1 covers line construction and distribution, high voltage cable splicing and pulling wire for systems in excess of 2,400 volts, plus traffic signal and highway lighting, which is utility and municipal work rather than building work. Adding a second contractor code widens what one business may lawfully bid without forming a second company, and each added code needs its own qualifying history behind it. Decide which market you want before you decide which exam to sit.
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These are common details other guides publish about Connecticut, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
At state level. The Department of Consumer Protection issues electrical licenses under Chapter 393 of the General Statutes, and the card works statewide. Cities check the state license at the permit counter rather than issuing their own. Bridgeport asks for a copy of your current Connecticut License Card on the electrical permit application.
E-1 is the unlimited electrical contractor and is permitted to do all electrical work as defined in Sec. 20-330. E-2 is the unlimited electrical journeyperson with the same scope, but may work only while in the employment of a properly licensed contractor. Only the E-1 can contract and hold the permit.
DCP requires 8,000 hours of on the job training plus 720 classroom hours for the E-2. Classroom hours must be equivalent to the classes listed in the department Exhibit A, and DCP states that on the job training and work experience will not be considered in lieu of the classroom requirement.
DCP opens the contractor application to a person who has held the respective journeyperson license for more than two years. Respective means the matching code, so two years as an E-2 supports an E-1 but not a PV-1 or an L-1. Equivalent experience and out of state routes are reviewed separately.
The contractor application fee is $150.00 and the journeyperson application fee is $90.00, both non-refundable. Renewal is $150.00 for a contractor and $120.00 for a journeyperson. Exam fees are separate and are paid to the exam vendor rather than to the department.
All electrical licenses expire annually on September 30. The continuing education deadline is earlier: all hours must be completed by June 30 of each year. Those two dates are three months apart, so treat the June date as the real deadline and the September date as the payment date.
Sec. 20-334d requires not less than four hours per year and permits an increase to as much as seven hours at the request of the board. DCP states four credit hours per year. Courses must be approved by the CT Electrical Board. A first license renewal carries no continuing education requirement.
Sec. 20-333a allows licensure without examination where another state has substantially similar or higher requirements and a reciprocal arrangement exists. In practice DCP runs an equivalency review of classroom hours, curriculum and on job training hours, and will review only one out of state license per applicant.
Code adoption runs through the State Building Code. The Office of the State Building Inspector history table shows the 2022 State Building Code in effect from 10/1/22, with NFPA 70-2020 in the NEC column. The same page also carries a conflicting reference to NFPA 70-2014 for that row.
Yes. Sec. 20-334 requires the state license number to be displayed on commercial vehicles and in all advertisements, bid proposals, contracts, invoices and business stationery in a conspicuous manner. The fine is up to five hundred dollars per violation, with the first violation excepted.
No. C-5 is a limited electrical contractor code covering low voltage, alarm or signal work, audio and sound systems and telephone interconnect not exceeding 48 volts or 8 amperes. Sec. 20-334 reaches offering to perform work you are not licensed for, so the advertisement itself can be the violation.
Through the eLicense portal at elicense.ct.gov, which DCP links from its verify a license page. It searches licenses, permits and registrations for individuals and businesses across more than 800 state regulated types, and shows inactive records as well as active ones.
We can review the local market, your current search visibility, and paid-search fit before recommending any marketing work.