Arc Fault and LV lighting problems

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William b Plasket

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Is anyone having issues with arc fault and low voltage lighting (magnetic transformers)? Using ITE breakers. have 2 houses with same issue.
One house with numerous LV recessed, arc fault trip randomnly. Can go several days without a trip. Only circuits with an issue. other house, same issue, 1 circuit, circuit wilth LV track heads. have torn all circuits apart, no loose connections, no crossed neutrals, etc, etc.
Appreciate any comments.
 
I believe someone else had that problem. I will tell you what I know. AFCI's at one time or another have tripped due to vacuum cleaners, fluorescent lighting, paddle fans and now LV lights. I have not experienced trouble with any of them but I have heard from others.

I would hook the track temporarily right to the arc fault and see if it trips. Use a temp. piece of wire.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
I believe someone else had that problem.
Click to expand...
I think that somebody may have been me, but now I'm starting to forget. I had a house where there were many LED and CFL lamps, and ELV track heads. Now I'm a little foggy on what went wrong and what I did to mitigate it...
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I had that problem I posted a couple of months ago. The customer supplied a low voltage recessed track that would cause the single pole GE arc fault to trip when all the lights were turned on on that circuit. The track manufacturer told us to reduce the total wattage on the circuit below a certain amount. (can't remember the wattage amount?). Customer installed CFL in the other lights and after that, I never heard back from the customer. Not sure why reducing the total wattage on the circuit would alleviate the problem? FYI, the circuit was not overloaded. Amp clamp showed 4-5 amps with all the lights on the circuit.
 
Some AFCIs have problems with power factor offsets. By reducing the LV wattage you were probably reducing the inductive power factor of the LV transformer.

Friends of mine in consumer electronics are also starting to run into this occasionally, esp. with home theater systems. As far as I'm concerned the AFCI manufacturer is to blame for cheap design that meets specs but doesn't consider real-world home environment, not unlike how some cheap-design first-gen GFCIs would trip if a ceiling fan was on the same circuit.

When a vacuum cleaner trips the AFCI, that's usually a really sparky commutator in the vacuum motor and the AFCI is legitimately detecting the arcing. Time to replace the vacuum. Vacuum cleaners are of course notorious for arcing commutators.
 
In rush current on a cold transformer. I had an issue like this on a computer power supply.
 
Electronic low volt and arc fault breakers.

Electronic low volt and arc fault breakers.

I have the same issues, mainly with ELV lighting. Talked to Siemens and they sent a troubleshooting guide that was helpful. They claim RFI from the transformer is the culprit. I talked to LBL lighting about there 75ELV transformers integral to the fixture. They offered no solution.
Here is where I'm at now.
Option 1 - Tyco makes an RFI filter that Siemens recommends. The problem is - it should be installed close to the load which is not parctical (size problem).

Option 2 - Lightech makes a LET75R. Cut sheet says 'RFI protection compatible'

I think electricians are stuck in the middle right now while arc fault standards are enforced, lighting transformer standards are more on the wild west side. Anybody out there have any ideas ?
 
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