Problems in home wiring, like arcing and sparking, are associated with more than 40,000 home fires each year. These fires claim over 350 lives and injure 1,400 victims annually.
Badly collected stat's........
IAEISept/Oct , pg 86;
Concern;
Most of the wiring fires included in the fire studies used by proponents to support the requirements for AFCI's have occured in older dwellings.
Ul's David Dini's reply ........
The tests for UL 1699 for use with NM cable require NM cable with ground, as the NEC requirement section 210-12 would apply to new construction where branch circuit wiring with an equipment ground would be required.
Additional requirements are being proposed for some types of AFCI's to be tested with NM cable without a ground.
You may want to consider adding AFCI protection for both new and existing homes. Older homes with ordinary circuit breakers especially may benefit from the added protection against the arcing faults that can occur in aging wiring systems.
Which would be a listing violation to do....
