Some thoughts
Some thoughts
Great. The ground fault detection in the breaker worked. Did you ever test them to see if they tripped on any thing that invloved an arc?
Ya. Right!! Are you serious? What type of controlled test that would emulate and arc would you suggest that would be appropriate and safe? Or is this one of these "don't do this at home" experiments. I would put this right next to tripping a breaker using a light switch to short the circuit.
I know all too well the dynamics of an arc as they are unpredictable. I was a breaker application engineer for a large manufacturer and knew one of the designers personally. One of the biggest challenges that they had was to be soothsayer is the algorithms that were necessary to program the AFCI to recognize and also avoid nuisance tripping. Can it ever be assured that an AFCI will respond to any and all variations of arcing?
After a quick search can up with this:
National Electrical Code
The National Electrical Code specifically defines and mandates the installation of AFCIs. In the 1999 edition of the NEC?, Section 210.12 required that dwelling unit bedrooms have AFCIs installed to protect all branch circuits that supply 125-volt, single-phase, 15 and 20-ampere receptacle outlets installed in the dwelling unit bedrooms. This requirement became effective January 1, 2002.
In the 2002 edition, the update of section 210.12 on expanded AFCI protection to all bedroom outlets (lighting, receptacle, smoke alarm, etc.).
The 2005 NEC 210.12 expanded the AFCI requirement to provide for a technology upgrade. While previous generations of product detected parallel arcing, this new device ? a combination AFCI ? would also detect series arcing, and at lower current levels.
UL Standard
Product standards to cover AFCIs began to be developed in the mid 1990's. Underwriters Laboratories published UL 1699 - Standard for Safety for AFCIs - in 1996 to cover a wide variety of conditions to evaluate an AFCI. The standard includes requirements for the follow conditions:
? Humidity Conditioning
? Environmental Evaluation
? Unwanted Tripping
? Abnormal Operation
? Leakage Current
? Dielectric Voltage
? Operation Inhibition
? Voltage Surge
? Arc-Fault Detection
? Resistance to Environmental Noise
One of the most frequent questions about AFCIs is related to resistance to unwanted tripping.
There are four varieties of tests the UL standard specifies for unwanted tripping:
? Inrush Current: High current draw devices such as tungsten filament lamps and capacitor start motors.
? Normal Arcing : Brush motors, thermostatic contacts, wall switch and appliance plugs.
? Non-Sinusoidal Waveforms : Examples of devices creating these electrical waveforms include electronic lamp dimmers, computer switching-mode power supplies and fluorescent lamps.
? Cross Talk: This test measures trip avoidance for an AFCI when an arc is detected in an adjacent circuit. Only the circuit with the arc should cause the breaker to trip. Not another circuit.
Through the use of the National Electrical Code requirement and extensive UL testing, NEMA manufacturers AFCI products provide superior protection against arcing faults.
You can choose to believe this or not. Some choose not to that it is a big scam and a big moneymaker by the manufactureres. For some that's their identity such as they are a Ford person and think a Chevy is piece of junk and the other way around. It doesn't make sense but at least they stand for something.