petersonra
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern illinois
- Occupation
- engineer
Re: Big oops ... need suggestions
If the CMP wanted all branch circuits that pass through a bedroom to have AFCI protection they would have just said so. Instead they said only branch circuits that supply outlets in the bedroom.
It is not too great of a leap of logic to suggest that they were only concerned about branch circuits that supplied devices using power that were physically in the bedroom. Since the switch controls a device that is not in the bedroom, it seems likely they did not intend for it to necessarily be on an AFCI.
This brings up a nasty thought. Since it seems the current AFCI devices only protect the branch circuits, why would you not want afci protection on branch circuits that pass through but don't stop in a bedroom??? Following this train of thought leads one to believe that they felt that it was safe to pass through a bedroom with a branch circuit without requiring afci protection, but if you had to terminate inside a bedroom it needed AFCI protection.
If the CMP wanted all branch circuits that pass through a bedroom to have AFCI protection they would have just said so. Instead they said only branch circuits that supply outlets in the bedroom.
It is not too great of a leap of logic to suggest that they were only concerned about branch circuits that supplied devices using power that were physically in the bedroom. Since the switch controls a device that is not in the bedroom, it seems likely they did not intend for it to necessarily be on an AFCI.
This brings up a nasty thought. Since it seems the current AFCI devices only protect the branch circuits, why would you not want afci protection on branch circuits that pass through but don't stop in a bedroom??? Following this train of thought leads one to believe that they felt that it was safe to pass through a bedroom with a branch circuit without requiring afci protection, but if you had to terminate inside a bedroom it needed AFCI protection.
