I failed my final electrical inspection today for my remodel. One minor mistake was a missing nomex connector on a whole house fan and the second was no AFCI breaker in a circuit that I altered.

During the first inspection (the one prior to sheetrocking) the inspector's only comment was that I needed an additional outlet in one bedroom. So I replaced an existing wire run with enough new wire to accomodate a one new outlet. I did not see a need for an additional outlet but I figured if that would make the inspector happy it was no big deal.

During the final electrical inspection I am told that I now need an AFCI breaker because my permit was pulled 6/2002 and I extended a circuit.

I located a 15A type BR AFCI breaker for my C&H panel. Bloody thing cost me $90. When I installed it I identified the correct circuit and powered down the entire box. I replaced the breaker and verified that I attached the load wire to the correct side and the white pigtail to the neutral bus bar. Then I applied power to the box and tried to re-energize the AFCI protected circuit. The AFCI breaker consistantly trips into trip-free position without the lights on or anything plugged into the outlets.

This should have been a 5 minute breaker swap that has gone awry.

So now what?

Does the NEC explictly require an AFCI breaker for this circuit? ( If not what is the chapter and verse? )

Do I have grounds for an appeal because this was not identified in the first inspection? Who would I appeal too?

Should the the AFCI issue been identified in the first inspection?

If it matters I am in Snohomish County, Washington State.

It worked fine without the AFCI breaker.
All outlets on the circuit are wired correctly and verified with a circuit tester.
Changing out the C&H panel is not an option.
While this is a simply horizontal wire run, there is no easy way just to replace it.

Tomorrow I plan on t-shooting the circuit to see if there is an easy fix.

Bryan

 

Article 210.12 is where youll want to look.
Did you connect the load neutral to the neutral lug on the breaker?

 

The rough electrical inspection only looks at the stuff that cannot be inspected and repaired at the final. A breaker is easily inspected and changed at any time. I wouldn't waste any time or energy on an appeal.

Any chance this is a multiwire circuit?

 

Thanks for the help. I reinstalled the AFCI this morning and everything went perfectly. Must have been something with the breaker installation last night.

Thanks for your help.

Bryan

 

Are you sure the circuit wire neutral was run into the AFCI breaker. If it was run to the neutral bus, I have found the same situation where the breaker trips with a light switch,etc.

I bought the same Cutler Hammer BR series AFCI breaker for about $40 about two years ago.

 

Hmmm....... Interesting question. I attached the AFCI neutral to the neutral bus bar in the panel. The circuit neutrals are common with other circuits.

The original problem seems to be in the wire run for the bedroom light fixture. The breaker trips when a light fixture (single 60 watt incandesant bulb) is placed on the circuit. With a fixture in the circuit and the switch off the AFCI breaker remains on. Turning the switch on trips the AFCI breaker. With no light fixture the breaker remains on regardless of the switch position. Tried two different light fixtures to rule out the fixture.

I do not have a meggar to check the wire run from the switch to the light fixture.

Any ideas how to check this run for faults before opening the a wall and ceiling.

I guess I am more PO'd at the inspector for not flagging the need for an AFCI in this circuit before I closed the walls. Much of this pain could have been avoided since I would have just ripped out and replaced the run before rocking the room.

Bryan

 

You will need a 2 pole 120/240 AFCI breaker for this multiwire circuit. Cutler-Hammer has them available in the BR style.

 

Posted by John Nelson

 

I love Google. I love Google. I love Google. I love Google. I love Google.

HowTo install an AFCI circuit breaker
Fact sheet about AFCI circuit breakers (in PDF)


This shows a Siemens AFCI breaker installation. But the concept is still the same.


the load power wire (black wire) is connected to the left terminal,

the load neutral wire (white wire) is connected to the right terminal. (This is the part that I was missing. I had the neutral and the pigtail connected to the neutral bus bar in the panel)

The holes for connecting the wires are at the bottom of the circuit breaker and are colored dark for hot and silver for neutral.


I miss Navy ungrounded 3 phase electrical systems. They made so much more sense.


marcerrin:
Yes, I understand John's statement. Even though he is correct does not mean I like it anymore. Oh well. I learned a few new things this weekend.

 

Still not working correctly. I wired up a load directly to the breaker and it works fine. But when I connect the circuit the AFCI trips when a load is put on it.

More questions:
The wire run has a black, red, white, and ground wires. The black and red wires are on seperate breakers. The circuit that needs to be protected is on the black wire. So I connect the black and white wires to the AFCI breaker.

Could the breaker be tripping because the red wire also uses the white for a neutral?

Could it be that this is the breaker that I need?
Type BR Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter, Common Trip, 2-Pole, 15 AMP, 10 kAIC, 120/240 VAC

 

I believe you'll need a double pole (AKA 220V) ACFI breaker. Just like a GCFI, the ACFI breaker will monitor the neutral/hot current. What goes in must come out. With a shared neutral you'll have an "inequality" going on. A double pole breaker will solve that problem. Of course, the neutral from the shared neutral circuit connects to the ACFI, and the ACFI white curly wire will connect to the neutral bar in the panel.

 

Did some additional research at Cutler-Hammer's website. Looks like the exact breaker I need is a BR215AFIT (page 55). So I get to cancel my inspection until I can lay my hands on one of these this week.

Everyone, thank you for all of your help.

Bryan

 

$180 later I am the proud owner of a 2 pole AFCI circuit breaker that is supposed to be the solution to this problem.

But it does not. One circuit of the two will energize. The other will not even energize. I am ready to throw in the towel but will probably continue to hack away at it tonight. Too stubborn to give up. The inspector is coming back out tomorrow (another story). This is the same guy who required the additional outlet that triggered this entire mess.

This house was built in 2001. This requirement went into effect January 2002.

Could it be that the house wiring is not capable of taking an AFCI breaker?
Could it be that the runs are too long?
Could it be that there are too many receptacles or light fixtures on the circuit?
There are two Leviton surge suppressor outlets on this circuit. Could they be causing a problem?

Everything works fine on the original circuit breakers. The AFCI breaker fsck'd the whole thing up.

Bryan

 

The surge suppressors could very well be causing this problem. The AFCI has a built-in GFCI (at either 5mA or 30mA), and the surge suppressor regularly shunts current to ground in the event of a surge. Take off the surge suppressors and see what happens.

 

Got a little farther last night by going back to the basics.

Looks like the breaker itself has "issues". Attached a test (switch & light bulb) rig to one pole of the breaker and the common neutral. This pole would energize but when I pressed the 'Test' button nothing happened (should trip). Attached the test rig to the other pole but it would immediately trip into the "trip-free" (center) position.

Next I removed the test rig and installed the breaker without any load. Again one pole would energize but fail the test. The second pole would immediately trip into the center position.

Since this is a special order it is going to take another day to get a new breaker.

Yet another 5 minutes "simple" job gone haywire.