bonsoir all you guys and ladys ::

this is my first time to make new post here..

anyway can some you guys can help me with this one it reguarding about smoke alarm cr. tied with lighting cr.

but how i can deal with it being run into bedroom area . which i know they have afci requriement there. but the smoke alarm is used in every room and i tied to lighting cr. and that lighting cr have to be afci also??? i try to read the nec and i am little lost here and can you help me with this one ???


thanks for your time to read this

merci marc

Marc,

I run Smokes off of the Master Bedroom AFCI Circuit in houses I wire. I also use dedicated circuits for each bedroom and combine the lights with the receptacles as long as the lights aren't more than half of the load.

Hope this helps.

-Virgil

thanks virgil...

but i feel little embarrased about this and i should add this one on this question forums that the smoke alarm are interconneted so that what i am entangled with it and yes you have very good point with it and thanks for tip and i will wait for other to replies to see what we can come up with a very good way

thanks again

merci marc

I run all Smoke, CO, and Heat detectors in it's own 1/2 EMT on a dedicated 15 amp breaker. All smoke / Heat detector signal wires are conected together.

Smoke Detector Locations:

1) A few feet inside every bedroom door.
2) 15 feet from the outside of the bedroom door
3) A few feet from the furnace(s)
4) Top of each stairway
5) On every Floor

Keep in mind 1 detector may cover several of these like the 2nd floor hall smoke covers the 2nd floor, the top of the stairs, the outside of the bedroom doors.

CO detectors in the basement not next to furnace (reduce false tripping?), on 2nd floor, and maybe 1st floor. We never conected the CO signal wires with other COs but have concidered it.

That is good enough for most towns but some want a breaker lock and a heat detector in garage.

We don't use an ark falt breaker for this because most areas on on the 1999 NEC requiring only recepticals to be ark fault protected.

When 2002 NEC is used the smokes would be required to be protected being in the bedroom. Some talk about local amendments not alowing smokes to be ark fault protected because it is most important that the smokes always work. Fearing nuciance triping or ark tripping before or during a fire.

Ecception. If your a big EC in a little town doing appartments the you can do what ever.

Tom

thanks for your time to responde to me for this question and get this matter straghten for me so i can be prepare for next project for my clenit


merci marc

Vermont's ammendment to the '99 included receptacle outlets on AFCI's only.

Most here suspect this to be due to smokes on AFCI's.

I wonder why because they also dictate battery BU for smokes.

Active,
Some local codes do not permit a dedicated circuit for the smokes. They require the smokes to be on a general use lighting circuit. The idea is that if they are on a dedicated circuit, then if that breaker is off for some reason, no one will know it. Yes, you should get a low battery alarm, but many times the batteries are never replaced so you don't get the low battery alarm. If they are connected to a general use lighting circuit, and that circuit is off, they will get it fixed because they need the lights.
don