Sequence of installing arc fault breakers in a new service panel

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subman

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Just courious. I was wondering how some of you start wiring a new panel, as regards the sequence you start.

I personally like to connect all grounding first, then make my way to all neutrals. I also like to install arc fault breakers from the bottom up. Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
i do the same thing. grounds, neutrals,branch hots, multibranch 2pole hots,line to line loads and then AFCIs. I dont care where the afcis are located as long as they r bunched together neatly vertically. if u start afci installs from bottom up make sure u have an exact calculation of the total beakers not to have any empty gap between reg breakers and afcis. But im
 
I do my panels a bit different. I take a bit of the outer jacket of the romex (NM) and number them as to what they feed. I have a blank panel legend that I write the area they feed on. Any circuits that require AFCI, I number & put phasing tape on (I personally use blue, my favorite color).

I then connect the neutrals of the non-AFCI, circuits to the neutral bus bar.
Also I generally wire the bedrooms & baths on the odd side first then the small appliance circuits on the even side.

Then more or less random with the balance of the circuits. This way if a circuit is non-working & I get a phone call, I can tell the homeowner generally where to look.

Also on my typed panel legend, I color code the circuits. Blue = AFCI protected. Green = GFCI protected. Black = regular.
 
First I use a bit of the romex jacket to pair up the conductors of the 15 and 20 amp afci and 220v circuits. Then I land all the grounds, then the neutrals. From top to bottom I do 2p breakers, then 20s, then 15s. Homeline panels afcis go towards the bottom so I don't cover up the neutral bar. Siemens panels don't matter since the afci breakers are normal size.

Now if this is a panel replacement I go by length of conductors. Any conductors that are too short get pigtailed, so the the breakers on the top get the wires that are long enough to get there and so on. The pigtailed conductors usually go lower than those since I can add any length pigtail as needed.
 
If it's one of those panels where the stabs at the top are solid and the ones at the bottom are notched then it makes sense to install AFCIs and 2-poles over 50A at the top, since those will not get replaced by twins or quads.

Also if you can do us solar installers a favor and leave any unused space at the opposite end of the main breaker or feed, that would be great.
 
subman said:
Just courious. I was wondering how some of you start wiring a new panel, as regards the sequence you start.

I personally like to connect all grounding first, then make my way to all neutrals. I also like to install arc fault breakers from the bottom up. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Waaay back in the good old days you could make up a panel with all the neutrals on one side and the grounds on the other, not anymore, you must mark your hot and your neutrals so they will end up on the same circuit breaker, so It adds a lot of time to making up a new panel you must really pay attention to all the circuits and where you land the wires on the breakers, it is easy to cross them up if your eye site is messed up because of age...
 
jaggedben said:
If it's one of those panels where the stabs at the top are solid and the ones at the bottom are notched then it makes sense to install AFCIs and 2-poles over 50A at the top, since those will not get replaced by twins or quads.

Also if you can do us solar installers a favor and leave any unused space at the opposite end of the main breaker or feed, that would be great.
Click to expand...

Why would that be helpfull to solar installers? I have never seen a solar install but I'm doing a job currently that may get one (by a separate subcontractor) before the job is done.
 
mkgrady said:
Why would that be helpfull to solar installers? I have never seen a solar install but I'm doing a job currently that may get one (by a separate subcontractor) before the job is done.
Click to expand...

Because the rules in 705.12 require the solar breaker to be on the opposite end in many situations.

BTW, slight typo, I should have said 'opposite end from the main breaker or feed.'
 
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