Someone had a situation where their puppy chewed a 120v, 1500w space heater cord. Luckily for the dog, the heater was not plugged in at the time and the dog chewed all the way down to the copper. I was thinking if it would be better to put the circuit on an AFCI breaker. The house is about 30 years and obviously AFCI breakers did not exist back then. Will a AFCI breaker prevent any potential fires or a pet being electrocuted in a situation like this? Any feedback appreciated.
AFCI breaker
- Thread starter Ken 6789
- Start date
- Status
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
I don't believe an arc fault will protect the dog or anyone from getting zapped. If the heater is plugged in the arc fault may trip depending on the situation and prevent a fire.
Lcdrwalker
Senior Member
- Location
- Columbus, Ohio
I don't think that an AFCI would work unless there was a short. The trip threshhold and characteristics wouldn't provide protection from contact. This would be a case of an AFCI breaker for the cord and a GFCI for puppy protection:grin:
brian john
Senior Member
- Location
- Leesburg, VA
Actually if the chewing results in any ARCING, it will offer some protection. A GFCI might also work depending on the surface the dog is standing on.
Then again one of my dogs chewed a 2-wire cord ONCE, never did it again.
Maybe we need armored cords to go along with our tamper receptacles.
Then again one of my dogs chewed a 2-wire cord ONCE, never did it again.
Maybe we need armored cords to go along with our tamper receptacles.
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