Bill,
My questions are really based on wanting to know how they work and if they really will be able to do what the manufacturers have said they will.
Brendan has told us they are really to protect the future of the installed electrical system. Will they have an effective life long enough to provide that protection? Do the have a fail safe function? GFCIs do not fail safe. Brendan has told us that we must educate our customers to check these types of devices. Joe Homeowner is not going to do that on a regular basis. How many of us check and log the results for our GFCIs?
Once the manufacturers can provide a fail safe unit that self checks at a preset interval and has all of the electronics that would normally fail on a low cost plug-in homeowner replaceable card and they have proved that they will be fully effective on both fixed and portable wiring systems, I will support them.
When we push a life safety item that doesn't fail safe and has failure rates up to 58% in lightening areas we are not doing the public any favors. Will the AFCIs do any better?
Don(resqcapt19)
