GFCI's and AFCI's

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Hendrix said:
Does anyone trim the grounded conductor such that you don't have the curley q blocking the nutral bus?
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Certain panel designs the breaker blocks the neutral bus anyway:blink:

Square D's plug on neutral solves this problem and is available in both QO and Homeline panels.:thumbsup:

Otherwise I generally do not trim the pigtail that comes with the breaker, but haven't really done that much residential work since AFCI's expanded to nearly everywhere needing them, what little I have done I mostly used plug on neutral panels and breakers.
 
Hendrix said:
Does anyone trim the grounded conductor such that you don't have the curley q blocking the nutral bus?
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More than not, I do. The coil is a waste of cross section area, and, when there are a bunch of AFCI breakers in a panel, I feel the breaker neutral lead, whether straightened (they are wavy at best) or coiled, are just plain messy.

Also, I consider that the half life of this AFCI breaker is really only 13-15 years before the signal processor turns into green goo and requires replacement. If there becomes a compelling reason to keep the full length neutral lead, the next AFCI will have it.
 
al hildenbrand said:
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Also, I consider that the half life of this AFCI breaker is really only 13-15 years before the signal processor turns into green goo and requires replacement....
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How would anyone even know that the electronics have failed? These are not fail safe devices...when the electronics fail it just becomes a standard thermal magnetic breaker.
Yes I am aware that the instructions say to test the AFCIs monthly, but I would expect that does not happen very often.
 
don_resqcapt19 said:
Yes I am aware that the instructions say to test the AFCIs monthly, but I would expect that does not happen very often.
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I would bet that afcis are virtually never regularly tested by ho's.

How many people tested/test their gfci's monthly? Drain their water heater every year? Clean out their dryer ducts every six months? Yet it was thought that still another recommended schedule would be followed.:D
 
How many of us electricians even test such items on any regular basis - outside of when doing it for others anyway?
 
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