Hi everyone,
I have been using GE's fancy single pole AFCI breakers tied together on MWBC for sometime now on upgrading existing MWBC. I’m confused on a couple of things here and thanks in advance for reading my rambling questions....
1. What kind of sorcery is occurring in the GE circuitry that does not require ground fault sensing in their fancy single pole AFCI breakers that can be tied on MWBC?
2. If GE states that the neutral can be connected to either breaker and the breaker only monitors the hot, why do you have to connect the neutral to the AFCI breaker anyway, since one will not have it connected no matter what, why not straight to the bus bar? - I wouldn’t do that, I would follow GE’s literature, just curious, is one breaker monitoring the neutral and sharing that information through the neutral to the circuit board on the adjacent tied breaker through the hot? I don’t know these breakers seem like black boxes to me.
3. Can GE’s DFCI breakers also be tied together on a MWBC with neutral landing on either one – I don’t think so, am I wrong? I can’t figure this out from their nebulous literature. I don’t see how this would work because GFCI needs to monitor for ground faults, but maybe they make a magic DFCI that does not need this?
4. Will GFCI outlets work downstream of two GE AFCIs tied together on MWBC, when one of the breakers will have the neutral landed on it and the other will not? Will GFCI outlets work on both breakers? Can the GFCI outlet on the circuit of the MWBC that has the neutral landed on the other breaker sense ground faults properly on that side of the MWBC?
5. Why can I not find a big box of DFCI outlets to purchase that I can use for upgrading existing circuits in irritating areas that require both GFCI/AFCI – on many of these existing installs there is no space in the panel for this nonsense.
6. Why is electrical equipment so expensive, figure a DFCI, GFCI, CAFCI whatever breakers costs what it does, when the Chinese can make a blue ray player for less than the cost of a breaker, why the heck doesn’t someone make aftermarket breakers for $5 and get them UL listed for all vendors? I men really, if you can make a blue ray player and sell it for $50 at Costco, why can't someone make these breakers for even $2? There seems like big monopolies and very limited aftermarket competition in the electrical business say vs. the auto parts industry and it's not like electrical is a small niche market, it's everywhere!
Thanks for reading my long winded post and sorry for making it so long with so many questions, but I have to unload my building up of questions….
I have been using GE's fancy single pole AFCI breakers tied together on MWBC for sometime now on upgrading existing MWBC. I’m confused on a couple of things here and thanks in advance for reading my rambling questions....
1. What kind of sorcery is occurring in the GE circuitry that does not require ground fault sensing in their fancy single pole AFCI breakers that can be tied on MWBC?
2. If GE states that the neutral can be connected to either breaker and the breaker only monitors the hot, why do you have to connect the neutral to the AFCI breaker anyway, since one will not have it connected no matter what, why not straight to the bus bar? - I wouldn’t do that, I would follow GE’s literature, just curious, is one breaker monitoring the neutral and sharing that information through the neutral to the circuit board on the adjacent tied breaker through the hot? I don’t know these breakers seem like black boxes to me.
3. Can GE’s DFCI breakers also be tied together on a MWBC with neutral landing on either one – I don’t think so, am I wrong? I can’t figure this out from their nebulous literature. I don’t see how this would work because GFCI needs to monitor for ground faults, but maybe they make a magic DFCI that does not need this?
4. Will GFCI outlets work downstream of two GE AFCIs tied together on MWBC, when one of the breakers will have the neutral landed on it and the other will not? Will GFCI outlets work on both breakers? Can the GFCI outlet on the circuit of the MWBC that has the neutral landed on the other breaker sense ground faults properly on that side of the MWBC?
5. Why can I not find a big box of DFCI outlets to purchase that I can use for upgrading existing circuits in irritating areas that require both GFCI/AFCI – on many of these existing installs there is no space in the panel for this nonsense.
6. Why is electrical equipment so expensive, figure a DFCI, GFCI, CAFCI whatever breakers costs what it does, when the Chinese can make a blue ray player for less than the cost of a breaker, why the heck doesn’t someone make aftermarket breakers for $5 and get them UL listed for all vendors? I men really, if you can make a blue ray player and sell it for $50 at Costco, why can't someone make these breakers for even $2? There seems like big monopolies and very limited aftermarket competition in the electrical business say vs. the auto parts industry and it's not like electrical is a small niche market, it's everywhere!
Thanks for reading my long winded post and sorry for making it so long with so many questions, but I have to unload my building up of questions….