Yup ... anyone who has welded knows you can do an awful lot with 1500 watts .... even at a modest 12v setting. That's car battery voltages.
FWIW, I've drawn some pretty good arch simply by jump-starting cars. Available energy? Well, enough to detonate one such cars' battery. Yet ... could the arc have been maintained for any length of time? I have not tried it.
"Peer review" is what we're doing here. We are checking the assumptions, assertions, and logic of Mr. Engle. That means finding his sources.
Mr. Engle also makes statements in his paper that infer the composition of the electrodes matters. For a broken wire, that's a pair of copper electrodes. He asserts that there is a difference between and arc and a spark. He asserts there is a not enough energy to light cotton. He asserts that there is a difference between a 'series' arc and a 'parallel' arc.
Yet, the biggest assertion is that the laws of physics precludes arc creation. He refers us to Pashchen's Law. Well .... does the law really say that?
I would say that this matter must be resolved before the AFCI debate can proceed.
