- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
I don't do any residential work, but I am interested in what you guys who do, think the additional costs to comply with the 2008 code rule that will require the use of the combination type AFCIs for most of the 120 volt circuits in the house. I am working on a new cost benefit analysis based on the new rule. In my fist pass I used an installed cost average of $400 per dwelling unit. Is this even in the ballpark? My look at the numbers shows that if the rule is fully complied with and the AFCIs would prevent 100% of the electrical fires (estimates of the AFCI effectiveness range from 40% to 75%), then in the first year the number of fires that would be prevented is 435 and the cost to prevent these fires would amount to $1,514,470. I ran the numbers out to 20 years and at that point the AFCIs would prevent 14,369 fires that year with a cumulative total of 127,930 fires prevented over the 20 years, but even then the cost to prevent each of these fires would be $170,108.
Note that the biggest reason that there are not a larger number of fires prevented is that a CPSC study shows that 85% of the dwelling unit fires of electrical origin occur in dwelling units that are over 20 years old.
Don
the cost to prevent is per each fire...my original post does not make that clear
Note that the biggest reason that there are not a larger number of fires prevented is that a CPSC study shows that 85% of the dwelling unit fires of electrical origin occur in dwelling units that are over 20 years old.
Don
the cost to prevent is per each fire...my original post does not make that clear
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