AFCI in Florida

[peter d]

My parents have a new house in Florida. For some reason, the EC installed AFCI breakers on the garage and outdoor receptacle circuits. These circuits do not feed any interior receptacles in areas where AFCI is required. I looked at some of the other houses in the development and it was the same. Is there some Florida code for this, or is it just a matter of the EC not understanding the code correctly? It's a tract house that was wired by a huge company that does work all over Florida, so if they are doing this when they don't need to on all the houses they wire, they are wasting an awful lot of money.

 

[cbledsoe89]

Are you sure they are not gfi breakers rather than arc fault?

 

[peter d]

Are you sure they are not gfi breakers rather than arc fault?

They were AFCI's. There were receptacle GFCI's protecting the rest of the circuit.

 

[chris kennedy]

Where in Florida?
No such requirement in Palm Beach, Broward or Miami-Dade counties.

 

[peter d]

Where in Florida?
No such requirement in Palm Beach, Broward or Miami-Dade counties.

Sarasota county.

 

[peter d]

Anybody in southwest Florida want to take a stab at this?

 

[mgookin]

My parents have a new house in Florida. For some reason, the EC installed AFCI breakers on the garage and outdoor receptacle circuits. These circuits do not feed any interior receptacles in areas where AFCI is required. I looked at some of the other houses in the development and it was the same. Is there some Florida code for this, or is it just a matter of the EC not understanding the code correctly? It's a tract house that was wired by a huge company that does work all over Florida, so if they are doing this when they don't need to on all the houses they wire, they are wasting an awful lot of money.

They were AFCI's. There were receptacle GFCI's protecting the rest of the circuit.

Sarasota county.

Anybody in southwest Florida want to take a stab at this?

Sure!

One could only speculate what happened.

If it were a safety issue it would be worth digging into. But then you need to find the permit to build the house, find the date of application, verify the code edition in effect on date of application, find out what code edition applied on that date, search the state database for an amendment to that code edition for that jurisdiction, etc...

Let's just agree it's odd but not dangerous.

Maybe someone else will come along with a better response.

Just curious - are all branch circuits on AFCI breakers?

 

[peter d]

Sure!

One could only speculate what happened.

If it were a safety issue it would be worth digging into. But then you need to find the permit to build the house, find the date of application, verify the code edition in effect on date of application, find out what code edition applied on that date, search the state database for an amendment to that code edition for that jurisdiction, etc...

Let's just agree it's odd but not dangerous.

Maybe someone else will come along with a better response.

Just curious - are all branch circuits on AFCI breakers?

Just the ones required by the 2011 NEC.

 

[chris1971]

Are you sure they are not gfi breakers rather than arc fault?

:happyyes::happyyes:

 

[chris1971]

My parents have a new house in Florida. For some reason, the EC installed AFCI breakers on the garage and outdoor receptacle circuits. These circuits do not feed any interior receptacles in areas where AFCI is required. I looked at some of the other houses in the development and it was the same. Is there some Florida code for this, or is it just a matter of the EC not understanding the code correctly? It's a tract house that was wired by a huge company that does work all over Florida, so if they are doing this when they don't need to on all the houses they wire, they are wasting an awful lot of money.

Local requirement?:? Call the AHJ.:thumbsup:

 

[peter d]

Local requirement?:?

That's what I'm wondering.

Call the AHJ.:thumbsup:

:happyno:

 

[kwired]

Outside of some local requirement having an impact, the EC probably bid as few AFCI's possible to get the job, but maybe his installers messed up. Since there is no code violation they remained after inspection, and the EC is left wondering where all those AFCI's got installed that he got billed for from his supplier.

 

[Cow]

Call the EC and ask them?

 

[Dennis Alwon]

The Helpers on the job just put afci everywhere because they don't know the code????

 

[JFletcher]

The Helpers on the job just put afci everywhere because they don't know the code????

That or they wanted to get rid of them as fast as possible. Maybe there was supposed to be an outlet on that run that required AFCI, got deleted/moved to another circuit, and the AFCIs stuck.

 

[user 100]

The Helpers on the job just put afci everywhere because they don't know the code????

Or the ec was one of the "true believers" in afci protection.

 

[Cavie]

I'm next door in Charlotte County. I haven't heard of that requirement. Sarasota has no Local codes. Straight from NEC. Do a little work in Sarasota. Did they have the AF in the rest of the required areas?

 

[peter d]

The Helpers on the job just put afci everywhere because they don't know the code????

More than likely, the "electricians" actually aren't electricians at all, just piecework installers that wire and finish these kinds of houses.

 

[peter d]

I'm next door in Charlotte County. I haven't heard of that requirement. Sarasota has no Local codes. Straight from NEC. Do a little work in Sarasota. Did they have the AF in the rest of the required areas?

Yes, that was all covered.

 

[Hendrix]

My parents have a new house in Florida. For some reason, the EC installed AFCI breakers on the garage and outdoor receptacle circuits. These circuits do not feed any interior receptacles in areas where AFCI is required. I looked at some of the other houses in the development and it was the same. Is there some Florida code for this, or is it just a matter of the EC not understanding the code correctly? It's a tract house that was wired by a huge company that does work all over Florida, so if they are doing this when they don't need to on all the houses they wire, they are wasting an awful lot of money.

The NEC is a minimum standard