- Location
- Windsor, CO NEC: 2017
- Occupation
- Service Manager
Tomorrow night I'm covering AFCIs, GFCIs, and their cousins.
I just built a little mockup with a 2-space load center on a cord, a 15A AFCI inside the load center supplying a GFCI and a duplex receptacle on the load side of the GFCI. I mounted these on a board, and used LV cut-in rings for the devices. I left the ungrounded conductor hooked but not screwed down so that I can jiggle the black conductor on the duplex to simulate an arc fault.
I plugged in a little heater that draws 9.0A when running, and began arcing the connection. Once I got a little wild with my jiggling, the AFCI tripped. I reset the AFCI and then let it sit with a little arc on the screw. From Engel's report mentioned here I expected to be able to create a glowing connection to show the students with little difficulty, yet failed.
Has anyone been able to create a glowing connection, and if so, what should I try?
Edit to add: I had a sustained arc for twenty minutes or so before I got bored and put it away. Overall, I left it be for almost an hour or so.
I just built a little mockup with a 2-space load center on a cord, a 15A AFCI inside the load center supplying a GFCI and a duplex receptacle on the load side of the GFCI. I mounted these on a board, and used LV cut-in rings for the devices. I left the ungrounded conductor hooked but not screwed down so that I can jiggle the black conductor on the duplex to simulate an arc fault.
I plugged in a little heater that draws 9.0A when running, and began arcing the connection. Once I got a little wild with my jiggling, the AFCI tripped. I reset the AFCI and then let it sit with a little arc on the screw. From Engel's report mentioned here I expected to be able to create a glowing connection to show the students with little difficulty, yet failed.
Has anyone been able to create a glowing connection, and if so, what should I try?
Edit to add: I had a sustained arc for twenty minutes or so before I got bored and put it away. Overall, I left it be for almost an hour or so.
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