John,

There is not one bit of statistical evidence (from the existing installed AFCI's) that expanding the use of AFCI's will make a big differance. I believe the panel vote had 4 negatives against the proposal, but that wasn't enough to defeat it.

I agree with Don 100%, especially about the testing & longevity issue. A couple of years ago, a survey found that about 17% of the installed GFI's don't work which tells me that no one is pushing the test button or they are ignoring the results.

Tom

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.