Arc fault circuit

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jebo

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I'm troubleshooting an arc fault protected circuit for a bedroom and bath. The problem i'm having is the arc fault breaker trips every time any switch is turned on either in the bedroom or bath.Bedroom has ceiling fan ,closet fluorescent lighting strip,bath has vanity lighting fixture and bath fan
 
Make sure the neutral of the circuit is not touching anything grounded.


Make sure the neutral is not connected to other circuit neutrals .
 
iwire said:
Make sure the neutral of the circuit is not touching anything grounded.


Make sure the neutral is not connected to other circuit neutrals .
Click to expand...
And if the breaker is one which gives you a way to distinguish between an arc fault and ground fault trip, find out which you are getting.
The above would all cause a ground fault trip.
 
iwire said:
Make sure the neutral of the circuit is not touching anything grounded.


Make sure the neutral is not connected to other circuit neutrals .
Click to expand...

If the neutral was connected to other circuit neutrals wouldn't the AFCI device trip regardless of the closet light or paddle fan etc. being switched on?? Just asking.
 
Knuckle Dragger said:
If the neutral was connected to other circuit neutrals wouldn't the AFCI device trip regardless of the closet light or paddle fan etc. being switched on?? Just asking.
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If connected to another circuit neutral, it would probably trip on any load on the other circuit too. But if no loads on either circuit, then no trip.
A connection to ground, on the other hand, would trip only for loads on that one circuit.
 
What if one of the switches is an illuminated switch? Don't some of those power their internal lamp by using the EGC as a neutral conductor? If the lamp draws more than 3mA? Can't say I've ever seen this. Find out if trip is gnd or arc fault if possible.


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Sometimes (a lot of times) the breakers just go bad. Well, around here anyway; probably a power quality issue. I have multiple, multi-story military barracks buildings (dormitories). The first thing I do is replace the breaker with one I know works correctly; most of the time that is all that's needed. When there is a real fault somewhere, I simply isolate each device and piece of equipment in the circuit 'til i find what's causing the fault and make repairs/replacements as necessary.

I'm trying to get my company (DON) to get me one of those new-fangled circuit analyzers that could maybe tell me up front what's happening in the circuit first. But, being that the government continues to be short of funds the likelihood of that happening is slim.
 
Sparky3141 said:
Sometimes (a lot of times) the breakers just go bad. Well, around here anyway; probably a power quality issue. I have multiple, multi-story military barracks buildings (dormitories). The first thing I do is replace the breaker with one I know works correctly; most of the time that is all that's needed. When there is a real fault somewhere, I simply isolate each device and piece of equipment in the circuit 'til i find what's causing the fault and make repairs/replacements as necessary.

I use pretty much the same technique to trouble shooting AFCI circuit breakers. It all depends on the circumstances.
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can you lift the neutral from that circuit in the panel and then ohm that back to neutral buss? should be infinite ohms unless that circuit neutral is touching ground or another neutral from another circuit. if after you lift the neutral your devices still work then you have bad wiring.

CAUTION: JUST BE SURE THE LIFTED NEUTRAL HAS NO VOLTAGE ON IT BEFORE TESTING IT !!!


and to note, my method may not be industry best practices, but from a circuit perspective it can rule out one possible issue.
 
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