I agree with Tom. If your jurisdiction is serious about AFCIs, a small sub panel would do it.

When I was working my boss gave me a lot of latitude to interpret the code. His only rule was "make it safe".
The only time I waived a rule was when it really didn't fit the circumstance we were working in. Prisons were probably the worst. You really didn't want to make things "too" accessible. These boys are sitting around all day thinking up ways to get into mischief.
In the museum renovation where we were working with antique hardware I worked very closely with the engineers to come up with a safe standard when we had unlisted equipment.

Most of the time it was straight code.


Greg Fretwell