RickT
New member
- Location
- Dayton, Ohio
Hopefully this question isn't off topic. I'm new to the forum so apologies if so.
Here's the situation. Two sets of bedroom receptacles are newly wired (replacing the old k&t with work completed in the last 12 months by yours truly) using two 20 amp circuits (one for each bedroom). Both are AFCI protected using a receptacle type of protection device (15 amp receptacles). I did a TON of research in completing my whole house rewiring project (with a lot of help from this forum, incidentally), and believe the work I did to be quality work: followed code requirements, passed inspection, and didn't cut corners anywhere.
At night, we are running a space heater in each bedroom. Both AFCI devices are tripping at some point in the night, but not every night.
Tonight I was able to experiment a bit after they had both already tripped, and confirmed that BOTH of the space heaters seem to be causing the issue. In addition, each heater will, on its own, trip BOTH of the AFCI receptacles in these rooms despite not being in the same circuit. To be clear: this doesn't always happen, it only happens on some nights after they have both been going for a while. This leads me to believe that the heaters themselves are not the actual culprit, but i that there is something going on in the circuits, and only after the point they have seen a few hours of heavy use.
I am looking for advice as to what to do about this situation: how to determine what exactly might be causing it, and whether there is something I can do to fix it.
And again: I do apologize if this is off topic. I'm a civil engineer and not an electrical professional, but I spent the last year teaching myself the electrical code and rewiring my entire1920s era house. So I think I probably know what I'm doing, but don't have the experience necessary to figure out a problem like this.
Here's the situation. Two sets of bedroom receptacles are newly wired (replacing the old k&t with work completed in the last 12 months by yours truly) using two 20 amp circuits (one for each bedroom). Both are AFCI protected using a receptacle type of protection device (15 amp receptacles). I did a TON of research in completing my whole house rewiring project (with a lot of help from this forum, incidentally), and believe the work I did to be quality work: followed code requirements, passed inspection, and didn't cut corners anywhere.
At night, we are running a space heater in each bedroom. Both AFCI devices are tripping at some point in the night, but not every night.
Tonight I was able to experiment a bit after they had both already tripped, and confirmed that BOTH of the space heaters seem to be causing the issue. In addition, each heater will, on its own, trip BOTH of the AFCI receptacles in these rooms despite not being in the same circuit. To be clear: this doesn't always happen, it only happens on some nights after they have both been going for a while. This leads me to believe that the heaters themselves are not the actual culprit, but i that there is something going on in the circuits, and only after the point they have seen a few hours of heavy use.
I am looking for advice as to what to do about this situation: how to determine what exactly might be causing it, and whether there is something I can do to fix it.
And again: I do apologize if this is off topic. I'm a civil engineer and not an electrical professional, but I spent the last year teaching myself the electrical code and rewiring my entire1920s era house. So I think I probably know what I'm doing, but don't have the experience necessary to figure out a problem like this.
