Requirement for AFCIs

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

templdl

Senior Member
Location
Wisconsin
The AFCI has been put on the table for debate in Wisconsin this January.
I did not in no way intend for this to be a topic of discussion on this forum and will assume that it should be locked but only as a point on interest that some may want to follow. It may be noted that those who are pro AFCI are strong believers of their contribution to the reduction of electrical fires and want to keep then as part of the code requirements.
As such, there appears to be some resistance to their actual effectiveness is increasing.

Wisconsin Department of Safety & Professional Services Division looks to roll back electrical safety requirements

https://community.nfpa.org/communit...s-to-roll-back-electrical-safety-requirements
 
templdl said:
The AFCI has been put on the table for debate in Wisconsin this January.
I did not in no way intend for this to be a topic of discussion on this forum and will assume that it should be locked but only as a point on interest that some may want to follow. It may be noted that those who are pro AFCI are strong believers of their contribution to the reduction of electrical fires and want to keep then as part of the code requirements.
As such, there appears to be some resistance to their actual effectiveness is increasing.

Wisconsin Department of Safety & Professional Services Division looks to roll back electrical safety requirements

https://community.nfpa.org/communit...s-to-roll-back-electrical-safety-requirements
Click to expand...

You may want to do some research on what we did across the lake, here in Michigan. We took out the AFCI requirements for one and two family dwellings. Some congresscritters challenged it, and the challenging bill got sent for 'technical review' where it has been stuck ever since. I am hoping the technical review will reveal the fact that AFCI's are not only useless, but prone to false tripping and the AFCI requirements for everything will go away. We will see. Good luck to you.
 
I think it's important to point out that the resistance to AFCI's has NOTHING to do with the addition of a few hundred dollars per structure, and EVERYTHING to do with the fact they are very prone to false tripping, even from radios hundreds of feet away on different property parcels, and nave NEVER been show to have the ability to prevent a fire from an arc created by a 120 volt source.
 
I agree it is the effectiveness of AFCIs that is the issue and that they should not be mandated by code. Bless the folks out there working hard to shed light on the fraud that AFCIs are.

What is going to happen now is there is going to be a house fire and the news vans are going to show up and the TV reporter is going to be standing there with the distressed family telling the world how this tragedy could have been prevented if the state had not lifted the AFCI requirements. The only way to change things is for these requirements to stay in place and wait for the right lawyer or politician to have a problem with them in his own house.
 
Don't know about a lawyer or politician. I do suspect it is equally impossible to prove that if a house had AFCI breakers a person who died wouldn't have vs someone surviving a fire in a house because it had AFCIs. Nowhere has it ever been proven that an AFCI device has saved one life. Most fire investigators can't even determine with certainty that a fire was even caused by an electrical problem, but if all else fails electrical always sounds good.

I think what needs to happen is a class action suit that puts manufacturers up against the electrical industry and engineers who will dispel the fake science. 15 years is long enough for beta testing at our expense.

-Hal
 
ActionDave said:
What is going to happen now is there is going to be a house fire and the news vans are going to show up and the TV reporter is going to be standing there with the distressed family telling the world how this tragedy could have been prevented if the state had not lifted the AFCI requirements. The only way to change things is for these requirements to stay in place and wait for the right lawyer or politician to have a problem with them in his own house.
Click to expand...

We have had hundreds of house fires over the years since the state decided to ditch the AFCI requirements and not once has the above happened.
 
As predicted, we are starting down a well traveled road with no end.
The merits or lack thereof have been well vented in previous threads therefore I am closing the thread and templdl can update up on the progress as it develops/
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top