ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area 1 AFI per bedroom?

Iknow that BR's must be AFI protected;can 2
small BR's share a breaker?

Yes...

Necbuff- thanks-can you site code sec that permits more than one BR on AFI?

There is no code section that states that more than one bedroom can be on an AFCI breaker. The flip side is that there is no section that says you can't do this.

Take a look at 210.11(A) If you work this out, you'll find that a 15 amp circuit can handle 600 square feet and a 20 amp circuit can handle 800 square feet. So, if your two bedrooms total less than 600 or 800 square feet, one of the two circuit sizes will do the trick.

Tom

Ya know, the NEC doesn't say you have to distribute the circuits by square footage. It does say that you need to provide the general lighting circuits for the house at 3 watts per square foot. How you distribute the receptacles and lighting circuits is up to you. If you want to place all the receptacles on one circuit, and all the lighting on the other in a 1200 square foot house, go for it. If you want to put the living room lights and receptacles on one circuit, and the rest of the house on the other, this, too, is OK.
Your AFCI can be run to all outlets (lighting, receptacles and smokies) in all the bedrooms, and have other circuits for the rest of the house. The smokies, of course, will be protected throughout the house by the AFCI.

Earlydean,

Are you saying that in a 1200 sf house, the living room can be one of the two required circuits & the rest of the house can be on the other? I thought that 210.11(B) required at least an attempt to balance the loads, or have I totally missed something?

Tom

My understanding of this is, if you want to install all of the bedrooms on one AFCI circuit, there is no requirement that prevents this. I am not saying this is good practice, but it is not against the code.
What would happen if one was to do this, and a homeowner used the receptacles overloading the circuit? The breaker would trip - just what the NEC is designed to do - safety. ... not design.

Pierre

What's a bedroom?

By that I mean, if you have an "exercise room" and an "office" that are essentially indistinguishable from the rooms the plans call "bedroom", what determines whether those are "bedrooms" for the purpose of the AFIC requirement?

Around here, the Building Department signs off on a set of plans in the course of letting the general construction permit. . .so the space is whatever it is labled as on that print.

Thanks all for your replies- got thumbs up on final insp. today and for those who think that inspectors are all hardcore, this guy said he didn't see the bed in what, on the plan, said 'dining' room, but before I'm done with other side of the 'duplex from hell', I'll put an AFI on that circuit.