North Dakota Class B Electrician License

A License Built for Rural North Dakota

The Class B electrician license exists for a specific niche: farmstead and residential wiring in communities with a population of 2,500 or fewer. It's not a stepping stone to the journeyman license or a simplified version of it — it's a separate credential with its own scope restrictions that make it impractical in urban areas but well-suited for North Dakota's agricultural landscape.

If you're wiring single-family homes and farm buildings in rural communities, the Class B gets you to independent contracting authority with fewer hours than the journeyman path. If you want to do commercial or industrial work, or work in Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, or any city over 2,500 people, this license won't cover you.

Requirements

Experience: 3,000 hours of supervised practical experience over at least 18 months. That's less than half the 8,000-hour journeyman requirement.

Education credit: Graduates of a board-accepted two-year electrical program receive a 1,000-hour credit, reducing the field requirement to 2,000 hours.

Exam: Same structure as the journeyman and master exams — a one-hour closed-book section and a 3.5-hour open-book section, administered in person at the NDSEB office in Bismarck. Passing score: 70%.

Fees: $40 application fee, $40 annual renewal by April 30.

CE: 8 hours annually, with at least 4 hours on NEC code updates — same as every other licensed category.

Scope Boundaries

The Class B license authorizes you to plan, lay out, and install farmstead and residential wiring within:

• Single-family dwellings
• Two-family dwellings
• Farm buildings and agricultural structures

And only in municipalities with a population of 2,500 or fewer.

That population limit is enforced. You can't do Class B work in Bismarck (population ~75,000) or even a mid-sized town like Dickinson (population ~25,000). The license is functionally restricted to small towns and unincorporated rural areas.

What's Off-Limits

Class B licensees are legally prohibited from performing:

• Commercial electrical work
• Industrial electrical installations
• Any work in communities exceeding 2,500 population
• Service to multi-family buildings beyond duplexes

If a project falls outside these boundaries, you need a journeyman working under a contracting master, or a master license of your own.

Class B Contracting Authority

Unlike the journeyman license, which prohibits independent contracting entirely, the Class B license is issued only in a contracting status. This means a Class B licensee can establish a business, enter into contracts, and pull permits — but only for work within the scope boundaries above.

You'll still need the same business infrastructure as any electrical contractor: Secretary of State registration, WSI enrollment, general liability insurance ($50,000 minimum for Class B vs $100,000 for masters), and either a surety bond or participation in the Undertaking Fund.

Who Should Consider This License

The Class B makes practical sense for electricians whose work is almost entirely rural residential — farmsteads, small-town homes, and agricultural buildings. The lower hour threshold means faster entry into independent contracting, and the exam covers the same NEC material you'd encounter on the journeyman test.

If there's any chance your work will take you into commercial projects or cities over 2,500, the journeyman path is the better long-term investment despite the higher hour requirement.

The North Dakota Electrician License Guide covers all five license categories side by side, including the Class B scope restrictions and the contractor setup process.

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