I realize AFCI protection is required at all bedroom outlets including the smoke but I have a situation where the whole bedroom is on one circuit, then there is a two gang box by the patio door. In this two gang box there is a three way for the bedroom light and a four way which switches the patio lighting which is on a different circuit. Would this be a violation? Should the patio circuit now also be AFCI protected because this one switch's wiring enters the bedroom 2 gang?
210.12(B) Dwelling Unit Bedrooms. All 120-volt, single-phase, 15- and 20-ampere branch circuits supplying outlets installed in dwelling unit bedrooms shall be protected ...
What I read here is that this is protection required of the circuit itself (not of just the outlet), if the circuit is supplying an outlet installed in a bedroom. So is your 4-way switch considered an outlet? Is the patio light considered installed in the bedroom?
The way I see it is a switch is not an outlet by the definitions (Article 100) in the NEC. An outlet is "a point on the wiring system at which current is taken to supply utilization equipment". A switch is "a device...capable of interrupting its rated current at its rated voltage". It is not the point at which current is taken to supply utilization equipment...IMO. Harold