K8MHZ
Senior Member
- Occupation
- Electrician
After reading a thread on a ham radio site about Eaton AFCI's being tripped by a ham radio, I not only found a video of it actually happening, but found out that there has been so many complaints about their breakers they supposedly changed the design and product code. The new code has HAM at the end. For instance CHFCAF115HAM. The problem is, they didn't work. Well, they worked for some people, but not for all. I am waiting permission to use a pic of the HAM breaker (that didn't fix the problem). In the mean time, here is a video from another radio operator tripping Eaton AFCI's from hundreds of feet away.
Here is the vid. If you get bored, FF to 3:26 where the first trips occur. The power is reduced all the way down to 25 watts and is still tripping the breakers. Remember, the transmitter is across the street at a neighbor's house.
So far, the only AFCI devices I have read about tripping from a ham radio are Eaton breakers and Leviton receptacles. I have not heard about any Square D AFCI devices falsing from a radio.
Has anyone here had problems with radios tripping AFCI's? Or maybe have AFCI's that are very mysteriously tripping and everything on the property was ruled out?
Legal wise, if the radio operator is legally licensed to transmit on the offending band, the FCC protects the operator and puts the fault on both the owner and the manufacturer of the AFCI's. I have read on some sites to complain to the FCC, but they will just tell you to use a different brand of breakers. I don't think the FCC has even addressed, or cares to address, the fact that there are AFCI's that can't function properly in the presence of RFI, especially as weak of an RFI source shown in the video.
Most of the hams I know are nice folks and probably don't want to trip every Eaton AFCI breaker within 400 feet or so, leaving their neighbors without power.
I have recommended one ham with Eaton panels to put in a SqD sub for all the AFCI circuits, but did so with a caveat that I couldn't be sure it would work. I also think Eaton should have to foot the bill.
Has anyone here had problems with SqD AFCI breakers? Would switching over to them be any different than using Eaton's in the same environment?
The vid shows the offending bands to be 17 meters (about 18 MHz) and 20 meters (about 14 MHz).
Here is the vid. If you get bored, FF to 3:26 where the first trips occur. The power is reduced all the way down to 25 watts and is still tripping the breakers. Remember, the transmitter is across the street at a neighbor's house.
So far, the only AFCI devices I have read about tripping from a ham radio are Eaton breakers and Leviton receptacles. I have not heard about any Square D AFCI devices falsing from a radio.
Has anyone here had problems with radios tripping AFCI's? Or maybe have AFCI's that are very mysteriously tripping and everything on the property was ruled out?
Legal wise, if the radio operator is legally licensed to transmit on the offending band, the FCC protects the operator and puts the fault on both the owner and the manufacturer of the AFCI's. I have read on some sites to complain to the FCC, but they will just tell you to use a different brand of breakers. I don't think the FCC has even addressed, or cares to address, the fact that there are AFCI's that can't function properly in the presence of RFI, especially as weak of an RFI source shown in the video.
Most of the hams I know are nice folks and probably don't want to trip every Eaton AFCI breaker within 400 feet or so, leaving their neighbors without power.
I have recommended one ham with Eaton panels to put in a SqD sub for all the AFCI circuits, but did so with a caveat that I couldn't be sure it would work. I also think Eaton should have to foot the bill.
Has anyone here had problems with SqD AFCI breakers? Would switching over to them be any different than using Eaton's in the same environment?
The vid shows the offending bands to be 17 meters (about 18 MHz) and 20 meters (about 14 MHz).
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