Arc Fault Circuit Interruptors

[scott21230]

Probably easy enough to wire in, but if it's anything like a GFCI breaker, it takes up more room in the breaker box.

[G Henslee]

Nobody cares what you hate, Poop.

[Bud]

Can't have a common neutral. Similar to a GFCI breaker in installation.

Arc faults can be series - like a loose connection that is arcing or parallel - from line-to-line - like an arc between frayed wires. The original breakers only detected one - I think parallel but not sure. They are required to protect for both kinds at a near date. I would suggest waiting to get the kind that protect for both kinds (may be out now).

They trip on ground faults of 30 mA - to protect equipment/fire not people. I am not aware of any that trip at 5 mA like a GFCI but that could have been included. Using a GFCI outlet in addition (or instead of) may protect your kid more.

Bud--

[CL (dnoyeB) Gilbert]

I am planning on putting one of tese in my breaker panel to protect the wiring in our bedrooms. And secondarily to protect my Son who sooner or later is going to learn what electricity is, as we all have.

Is there anything special I need to know about wiring the Arc Fault circuit breaker into my service panel?

[Pop]

"CL (dnoyeB) Gilbert" wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

Jeez, I hate "guessers"! Here's the straight skinny:

Try google; lots of hits.

HTH, Pop

[William.Deans]

Greetings,

A human life is worth a certain number of dollars but it is not always the same amount. For instance, I have heard that a car driver's life in congested traffic is worth an estimated $750,000. By spending an extra $750,000 on our road system to prevent congestion we could save one life. We spend significantly more than this on each life we save in aviation. We would spend even more to save an astronaut's life. If you had money tagged for safety and spent it on say, making the space shuttle safer, instead of traffic congestion you would be "killing people." That is to say that more people would die in congestion because the money was spent on space shuttle safety than if you had just shot all the astronauts in the back of the head and built some wider roads. You will probably find the same kind of scenario is true with ARC fault breakers. The same money would do a lot more "life saving good" spent elsewhere. Please consider this in your decision.

Hope this helps, William

PS: Maybe you just want to install an ARC fault breaker and if so go for it. It certainly won't hurt anything if properly installed and they are safer.

[CL (dnoyeB) Gilbert]

Thanks for all the replies.

[Art]

If I lived in a 50 year old house I would certainly put them in after replacing a light fixture at my father's old house. Fortuantely we moved him to a new place. The old wiring had crumbling insulation.