Afci's and Lutron
Afci's and Lutron
Lutron documentation will show you that any loads protected by Afci can not exceed 1000 watts on that circuit if dimmers are installed.
copied and pasted from Lutron Documentation.
? According to the UL standard, AFCI breakers are only required to be rated to handle 1000W of dimming load.
? According to the NEC, AFCI breakers are required for all bedroom lighting circuits.
? Lighting layout must be planned so that enough modules are allocated for bedroom lighting with a maximum of 1000W of dimming load.
Why can AFCIs only have 1000 Watts of dimmable lighting load connected?
Breakers of all types are Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Listed before being sold. To become UL Listed, one of the testing criteria states that an AFCI will not trip when less than 1000 W of dimmed tungsten lighting is connected (UL File 1699, Section 41.3.1, Subsection C). According to these testing require- ments set by UL, it is permissible for an AFCI to trip with greater than 1000 W of dimmed tungsten light- ing load. Remember that the goal of the AFCI is to try to detect arcs and disconnect the circuit. As such, the design goal is to meet the 1000 W of dimming requirement, but to not set the trip threshold any higher than is necessary. Lutron?s testing has concluded that the margin above a 1000 W of dimming is very small and that it should not be exceeded. Therefore, to avoid false tripping on dimming circuits that are fed by an AFCI, the maximum connected dimmable lighting load should NOT exceed 1000 W.