AFCI Troubleshooting

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mkgrady said:
I will try that. But still if there were continuity where I shouldn't wouldn't the circuit trip as soon as the breaker is turned on? That is my understanding. Maybe I have that wrong.
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Also some newer AFCIs won't trip for that type of fault. GE and one of the Eaton lines, BR I think, no longer have a ground fault detection circuit.
 
Found the Problem

Found the Problem

There were neutrals tied together from seperate circuits. Dumb mistake but I first ruled that out because I thought that would cause a trip immediately. I now know that it takes a load on the circuit before it will trip. Thanks for all the responses
 
mkgrady said:
There were neutrals tied together from seperate circuits. Dumb mistake but I first ruled that out because I thought that would cause a trip immediately. I now know that it takes a load on the circuit before it will trip. Thanks for all the responses
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Interesting that the wiring was done like that. I would have though it would have Ben an inadvertant neutral to EGC connection.
 
mkgrady said:
There were neutrals tied together from seperate circuits. Dumb mistake but I first ruled that out because I thought that would cause a trip immediately. I now know that it takes a load on the circuit before it will trip. Thanks for all the responses
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Glad you found it!
The immediate trip on detection of a downstream G to N connection (or most other neutral faults) is not an inherent part of the basic GF detector circuit in a GFCI breaker. Instead it is an additional set of components that are also present by default in a current GFCI receptacle or breaker.
That function is usually not present even in an AFCI breaker that incorporates GF detection.
 
Art 100 definition has a handy fine print note that explains the UL standard.

Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI). A device in-
tended for the protection of personnel that functions to de-
energize a circuit or portion thereof within an established
period of time when a current to ground exceeds the values
established for a Class A device.

Informational Note: Class A ground-fault circuit interrupt-
ers trip when the current to ground is 6 mA or higher and do
not trip when the current to ground is less than 4 mA. For
further information, see UL 943, Standard for Ground-Fault
Circuit Interrupters.
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eta, I see you are from Oz. It might be different for your ground fault trip levels.
 
All good advice so far. I apologize for sounding basic but if you can't find some obvious problem with the circuit then I would start by breaking the circuit in half. You wired the house so you should know apoprox. where the half way point is. If you open the circuit in the middle try plugging a load in on the energized part. If the problem disappears then you know it's in the back half. If it remains keep breaking that front circuit down until you find the problem.
 
dmxtothemax said:
Are you sure you are not confussing AFCI'S and GFCI'S ?
tripping threashold of 30ma sounds like a gfci to me ?

:?
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All of the original branch circuit/feeder AFCIs had a ground fault function that tripped between 30 and 50 mA. Some of the new combination type AFCIs no longer have a ground fault trip function.
 
don_resqcapt19 said:
Also some newer AFCIs won't trip for that type of fault. GE and one of the Eaton lines, BR I think, no longer have a ground fault detection circuit.
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Strange as the AFCI having GF was what in my opinion the best part about it. We've beat the subject to death about the AFCI's actusl ability to detect an actual arcing fault, L-N, series, etc w/o involving a ground. Take away the GF and?
Interesting the you included these brands together as I know from a very reliable source that C-H did originally manufacture and name brand GFCI breakers for GE when they were first introduced.
 
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