arc fault breakers / smokes dectors

does all smokes have to be on arc fault or just the ones in bed room

 

Since they all need to be interconnected it would pretty hard to have some on AFCi and some not.

 

You also have to take into consideration what code cycle your particular area is under, how long the smokes have been installed, and how old the house is.
If you have existing smokes, more than 6 years old or so, you need to do nothing. Smokes on AFCIs are NO safer than those not.

 

Many, many areas have a local modification that negates the NEC requirement for smoke detectors to be on AFCI circuits.

 

John Nelson is right. Contact your local building code enforcement officer at your village, town or city hall. The AFCI was adopted because of the flammable materials in the room, and the extra protection to persons who are likely to be asleep if an arc starts the bedroom on fire. Also, I have seen many homes and empty apartments where the receptacle behind where the bed was was smashed. This is usually accomplished when an alarm and end table lamp is plugged in, and the bed gets shoved tight up against the wall.

But a smoke detector is a life safety device and it is more important, in some local codes anyway, that it stay live when an AFCI or a GFCI trips. And it is at the ceiling usually, far from risk of physical damage.

Juice