From the beginning of the push by "interested individuals and groups" to establish the "idea" of Arc Fault Circuit Interruption as a device that is required to be installed in Dwellings, the "interested individuals and groups" have published claims about what AFCIs do. The bulk of the published claims had nothing to do with any documentation from the actual AFCI hardware and software, as, in the beginning, no working AFCI devices were available to be purchased and installed. The bulk of the published claims were based upon other claims of the POSSIBILITY of what the AFCI will do in the future. The first requirements placed in the 1999 National Electrical Code (NEC) were written, published and adopted into local law by various (and many) jurisdictions across America in this initial period of years, with a NEC mandated delay of enforcement until Jan. 1, 2002, because there were no working AFCIs available to buy and install in Dwellings AT THE TIME OF THE WRITING.
Once actual AFCI devices became available to purchase and install, all documentation was notably lacking any factual information about the working of the device, and it became immediately clear that each manufacturer had an individual and PROPRIETARY solution to the "idea" of AFCI.
As I said, in my previous post in this thread, this Forum had a couple manufacturer's representatives join and participate in discussion with us. I, for one, and many others here, entreated being shown ANY documentation of how they work. Nothing was released to us. Think about that. A group of highly educated, licensed and credentialed, curious professionals that work daily to install and service this new product are denied, by silence or even direct obfuscation, the information to be effective in providing good service to the end user of the manufacturer's AFCI.
The manufacturer's have stonewalled any technical AFCI information to the installers and end users.
An advanced technology should not require the blind faith of its users and/or installers.
Yes. You bet I have doubts about the manufacturer's claims.
