AFCI problem

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goldstar

goldstar

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Location
New Jersey
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Electrical Contractor
A GC friend of mine was at a Big Orange store the other day and an electrician (and I know he's an electrician because I know him) that works in this particular store told him that AFCI's will not work with chandelier lift motors. He can't explain why. In addition he said that you cannot exceed 1000 watts on an AFCI or it will trip. Has anyone heard of this or experienced this? If this is a hoax I'd hate for this to get spread around.
 
Not sure about the lift motors as some motors have caused problems in the past. In terms of 1000 watts-- bogus-- what good is a 20 amp AFCI if it will only allow 1000 watts.
 
goldstar said:
A GC friend of mine was at a Big Orange store the other day and an electrician (and I know he's an electrician because I know him) that works in this particular store told him that AFCI's will not work with chandelier lift motors. He can't explain why. In addition he said that you cannot exceed 1000 watts on an AFCI or it will trip. Has anyone heard of this or experienced this? If this is a hoax I'd hate for this to get spread around.
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Had ceiling fans trip them.... Maybe it was an old batch. I think the older ones had more problems.
 
I had some problems while the job was in its mid-stage. I had the receptacles in and powered up and the carpenter was using a trim saw. Each time he started the saw he was able to make a cut but as soon as he let go of the trigger it tripped the AFCI breaker. Same thing happened with the tile saw. Haven't had any problems with the lift though.
 
Back when we used to have to install them we had a problem with a few motor loads tripping them, and lift hoist can have an inductive kick. same problem we have no and then on GFCI circuits, with any inductive loads, some brands are not as subjective to it, and I think it was said GE has put out a AFCI that doesn't use the GFP part of an AFCI, so at least with these it wouldn't be a problem. but some of those lifts are a brush motor so maybe its tripping on the AFCI part?
 
LarryFine said:
Must be reading the arcing of the switch contacts.
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I've seen an brand new trim saw trip an AFCI on start up. It had a soft start feature. It would not trip a GFCI protected circuit so that said to me that the arc detection feature was causing the breaker to trip.

I tried every other power tool on the job. Only the trim saw tripped the breaker.
 
hurk27 said:
Back when we used to have to install them we had a problem with a few motor loads tripping them, and lift hoist can have an inductive kick. same problem we have no and then on GFCI circuits, with any inductive loads, some brands are not as subjective to it, and I think it was said GE has put out a AFCI that doesn't use the GFP part of an AFCI, so at least with these it wouldn't be a problem. but some of those lifts are a brush motor so maybe its tripping on the AFCI part?
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the only problems i have had is when a customer whould plug in a vacuum with the switch on.
 
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The 1000 watts has to do with the amount of dimming wattage on the breaker. According to the UL standard, AFCI breakers are only required to be rated to handle 1000W of dimming load. Over that they may trip but are not considered defective I guess. Try explaining that to the home owner!
 
jzadroga said:
The 1000 watts has to do with the amount of dimming wattage on the breaker. According to the UL standard, AFCI breakers are only required to be rated to handle 1000W of dimming load. Over that they may trip but are not considered defective I guess. Try explaining that to the home owner!
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What is a dimming load? Does that mean you can only dim 1000w of lights on an AFCI protected circuit?
 
Here are some items that will trip an AFCI.

1. RF frequency
2. Fluorescent dimmers
3. Intermatic photo cell
4. Lutron Dimming Modules
5. Wago stab ins
6. Lightolier LV heads- only on siemen breakers
7. Lightning
 
Gategator37 said:
Here are some items that will trip an AFCI.

1. RF frequency
2. Fluorescent dimmers
3. Intermatic photo cell
4. Lutron Dimming Modules
5. Wago stab ins
6. Lightolier LV heads- only on siemen breakers
7. Lightning
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I'd like some more details about wago stabins tripping an AFCI? What about stabins that come with can lights? Or backstabbed receptacles?
 
jzadroga said:
The 1000 watts has to do with the amount of dimming wattage on the breaker. According to the UL standard, AFCI breakers are only required to be rated to handle 1000W of dimming load. Over that they may trip but are not considered defective I guess. Try explaining that to the home owner!
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I am interested in this info. Where did you get it from-- I cannot find it in the UL White book 2010
 
goldstar said:
And therein lies the problem. No matter what you tell a homeowner you're still going to come out looking like an idiot because " They've never had this problem before".
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No matter what you tell a homeowner you're still going to come out looking like an idiot because they can go to the hd store and see a reg circuit breaker is $5 verses $50 for an AFCI:-?
 
I learned this information in continuing education. This does affect can light wagos and I am not sure about receptacles.
 
a neutral to ground bond will trip an afci. ever try testing a receptacle with a wiggy? that trips an afci if you test between hot and ground. i could be wrong but i believe that is correct
 
Gategator37 said:
Here are some items that will trip an AFCI.

1. RF frequency
2. Fluorescent dimmers
3. Intermatic photo cell
4. Lutron Dimming Modules
5. Wago stab ins
6. Lightolier LV heads- only on siemen breakers
7. Lightning
Click to expand...

Gategator37 said:
I learned this information in continuing education. This does affect can light wagos and I am not sure about receptacles.
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jzadroga said:
I was told this buy Lutron tech support for their dimming systems
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I would love to see some substantiation for these claims.
 
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