ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Arc Fault Breakers

you've gotta be kidding Reno

do you really expect us to believe here that there ALL related problems are our wiring methods?

lemme give you a heads up, NEMA works for who?

as to associated problems in the field, you'll note that the specs say 'no meggers'

but these jems are across the line 365/24/7

and no, the manufacturer , or the supplier won't be sympathetic to dirty power or lightning strikes when you call up with $1000 of bad ones


what i recommend is a meter/main , if possible , with some manner of surge protection ahead of them all

~S~

No, I'm not kidding; that is NEMA's 's official response.

The only way to counter that is with DATA ... not speculation, guesses, or war stories. We need to compile accounts that read like this: "I took a new, fresh out of the box, UL listed appliance, plugged it in to and AFCI protected receptacle under test bench conditions, and the AFCI tripped repeatedly. This happened with several different AFCI's, and of different makes. Evaluation of the appliance by its' manufacturer found no fault with the appliance."

Another type of data might be "The AFCI never tripped until I replaced the light switch with a "Brand L" dimmer / occupancy sensor / bottle opener, after which the AFCI refused to set. Manufacturer "L" tells me this is a common problem, and they advise against using their switches on AFCI-protected circuits."

THAT's the sort of statement we need to make. Until we can produce such data, the "AFCI steamroller" is just going to keep rolling over the committee.

Is this what I (and Harold) have to look forward to?

so your insinuating anecdotals will move cmp-2 to further consider afci's in some respect here Reno?

if i recall 210-12 became the poster-code for ROP's shortly after it's debute

in fact, i'd wager that one specific article attracted more rop's than any other, and perhaps even reaching up into the top 10 rop's (volume wise) in code history.

some of them were EE level, and quite well written btw, many came from debates on line as well

didn't amount to a whole lot, did it? In fact, it seems we got the runaround over the simplest of requests, like series/parallel clarification

i would suggest, if anyone has copies, for that to be a good starting point, if only for fruitful debate

~S~

yeah, sorry but if your state hasn't gone through the afci evolution, you may find it's a tad painful event as an EC, or even an AHJ HotOne

perhaps it'll sugar off to some sanguine relationship eventually.

on a good note, i recently had an insurance company make a compromise on old K&T wiring, via introducing afci protection

cost of rewire- $8K-10K

cost of afci protection $500 +/-

~S~

As I said before, debating AFCI's is for a new thread. If anyone wants that discussion, start the thread.

The OP of this thread asked for some real-world problems. I provided one. Others are welcome to contribute.

P.S.: You might check the names behind a few of those AFCI proposals. "Steinke" is not a common name, especially in Reno, Nv.

got linky Reno?

~S~

I have seen Amish Electric in the ROP

real world problems ?

well that might be taken as problems we have with the real world Reno....

however, here's a tip that you fella's ought to know, and get on early

if your wiring a dwelling, and like to spark up various home runs for the trim guys, leave the afci's out of it

they can't take the repeated punch of power tools for weeks on end

~S~

One i heard from a reputable inspector with 40 odds yrs on the trade

He viewed my panel, which i try my best to make neat and workmanlike with the standard herringbone arrangement and said 'i don't think the manufacturer wishes those afci pigtails straightened out there'

~S~