I recently got a copy of a letter put out by Siemens claiming they have perfected AFCI breakers that can detect both series and parallel arcs.
So, if manufacturers claims are to be believed, AFCIs now:
- Detect arcing faults in series with a conductor.
- Detect arcing faults between hot and neutral conductors.
- Provide some protection against high-resistance connections by detecting when the fault progresses to an arcing or ground-fault.
- Provide some protection against sloppy wiring (multi-grounded neutrals, high-resistance grounded hots) with the GFP function.
Assuming this is all true, what is the feeling on pushing to have these things adopted wholesale for the 2008 NEC? On the face of it, it seems like there is at least the potential to provide much safer installations. Maybe it would be worth the added cost.
Thoughts, opinions?
-John
