New York Electrical Contractors

[george t. everett]

I was told today by my local electrical inspector, who works for the New York Board of Fire Underwriters, that they received a letter from New York State saying they do not need to inspect for AFCI circuit breakers any more. Has anyone heard anything to this affect?

 

[bill addiss]

Re: New York Electrical Contractors

George,

That's correct.
Here's the way it goes (to my understanding)

The NY State Building Code refers (generally) to the 1999 NEC.

The Residential Code of NY State (RCNYS) is applicable to detached one and two family dwellings and multiple single family dwellings (townhouses) not more than three stories in height with a separate means of egress. So, this takes precedence over the Building Code reference. It (the RCNYS) does not contain any requirements for arc-fault circuit-interrupters, therefore they are not required.

To clarify, they are permitted, but not required.

I have a copy of an official letter from the Dept of State (Codes Division) which states they "are not required by the RCNYS" and "cannot be required by the Inspector". If you need any more info on this let me know.

Bill

[ May 19, 2003, 08:15 PM: Message edited by: bill addiss ]

 

[physis]

Re: New York Electrical Contractors

I've been hearing more and more about AHJ's either not enforcing the NEC's requirement for AFCI's or actually disallowing them in some uses. This seems like pretty anomalistic behaviour to me.

They're relatively new, has anybody been encountering problems with them (the AFCI's), false tripping, failures, are they causing trouble?

 

[bill addiss]

Re: New York Electrical Contractors

George,

BTW, It seems that the Inspectors never (officially) had to inspect for and require AFCIs in the first place. They are not required by the present codes and prior to last July we (NY) were on the 1993 NEC.

Bill

 

[bonding jumper]

Re: New York Electrical Contractors

Dammit, i just added afci breakers to all my drawings too. Oh well, looks like my building will be nice and safe