ECN Forum Forums Code Related Discussion NEC & other Code issues AFCI

In Michigan, we just adopted the 2002 NEC, and the AFCI circuits.
My question is.. How are most of you wiring these AFCI in the bedrooms and having the smoke detectors work off of thes recep/lighting circuits?
Thanks for any input
Doug

I usually (pretty much always) have a seperate 20 amp circuit for the bedroom plugs on an afci. I will put up to around 10 or so receptacle outlets on this circuit, which is around 2 bedrooms, maybe 3. I wire the bedroom lights on one 15 amp afci circuit, and feed the smokes off this. I loop all the smokes together (bedroom or not) with 14-3 romex. On some fancier jobs there is alot of recess cans in the bedrooms. Now we are talking more 15 amp afci circuits to avoid any overloading. For me I am putting in avarage of 4 afci breakers per house. The curly neutral on the afci breakers messes up my formerly pretty neutral termination jobs.

Those curly tails are cute! They add a "touch of whimsey" to an otherwise dull panel interior.

Hey a word of advice when you wire afci circuits make sure you know how you have run the circuits.This will make trouble shooting easy. When they trip. I mean map out the circuits and be consistant with each job. I`ve been back took all wiring apart and put it back together and found nothing and it all worked.