Electrician question on Arc Fault Circuits????

bassfishingnw · 04-27-2006, 05:51 AM

My family and I are having a house built and we are very close to final walk through. I have noticed that the city has not past the final electrical because the Arc Fault Circuit keeps tripping. I had know clue what this was but after a GOOGLE search it sounds pretty important!!

Should I be worried about this not getting fixed??

thanks,
Jason :smile:

No Wishin Just Fishin · 04-27-2006, 05:58 AM

You will not be able to move in until it is fixed and passes the final inspection. Probably a faulty breaker. If the wiring is the problem the walls will need to be rewired and new wires "fished" in. You will not get occupancy unless the electrical passes.

Just another reason to use a "Union" contractor, as it would already be taken care of.

HazMatt · 04-27-2006, 06:02 AM

I'm not an electrician, but I stayed in...Nevermind.

If an arc flash occurs, it is a very serious situation. Heat in excess of 25K deg. F (think surface of sun), noise in excess of 140 dBA (permanent hearing damage) - and that doesn't include the vaporized metal from fuses/breakers.
Interesting this is becoming an issue in residential. There is a code for this in NFPA 70E regarding Arc Flash protection. There are also codes in the NEC that deals with this. Arc flashing is a major concern, especially if you have ever had a breaker go out and you stand there flipping the switch back and forth. Had an electrical engineer tell me not even 3 weeks ago that if you have to flip a breaker more than 4 or 5 times in a row, you are risking that breaker failing and having an arc flash. You definitely want to get the protection for that with the technology available now.
I know there are a bunch of safety folks on this board that could probably explain it better than I, but we are in the middle of upgrading our facility to meet the standard, and it is a doozy!
Good luck and stay safe...
Always stand to the side of a panel when turning a breaker On or Off!

bassfishingnw · 04-27-2006, 06:09 AM

I wonder if I should have the builder find out "WHAT" is causing the constant tripping. This sounds a little scary...the whole FIRE thing! I surely won't tell me wife about this because this will put here over the EDGE!!

We have out final walk through today...and I bet we will need to reschedule!!!

Thanks for your insite!!!!

baltz526 · 04-27-2006, 06:33 AM

the constant tripping of the breaker is most likely a seperate circuit neutral (white) tyed into the arcfault circut, an arcfault has to be completly seperate from all other branch circuts. so in a box near your bedrooms a white from the arcfault circuit is tyed to another branch circuit. if the electrition is not aware of this, i would classify them as

and no i'm not an electrition

Swamp Puppy · 04-28-2006, 07:02 AM

When i built my house we had the same problem. the arc fault breaker for two of the bedrooms kept tripping every time we would turn on a light switch. after extensive troubleshooting it turned out to be a faulty wire. the wire was broken (inside the insulation) in the middle of a run. no way to see it..it was just one of those things we had to figure out. fortunately for us, the wire was running through the attic space so it was fairly easy to splice/replace that section.

NoWishin' - pretty presumptious of you. i've seen lots of Union jobs screwed up. though one would think that for the money those guys charge they would wire the house in gold.

I did all the electrical (in fact, i did most of my house) myself. not only did i not have to pay union guys to stand around for 30 bucks an hour...i didn't pay a general contractor to watch them stand around.

Angler of Repose · 04-28-2006, 08:48 AM

Swamp Puppy...
If I had a buck for everytime I heard somebody say they wired their own house, I could have retired 5 years earlier. Union electricians are trained in ALL phases of electrical construction and your odds of getting a better job are much higher. Have you checked with your homeowner's insurance to see if you are covered in event of an electrical fire?
bassfishingnw: Swap out the breaker first before tearing into the walls. They can come from the factory bad.
AoR IBEW member for 34 years

HazMatt · 04-28-2006, 09:07 AM

I really hope you find the problem and it isn't anything too bad.

Sorry - comments off topic & not needed...

Fishen Fool · 04-28-2006, 12:12 PM

contractors problem, not yours !!!

Swamp Puppy · 04-28-2006, 07:14 PM

Angler of Repose

yes, there are no problems at all. in fact, the electrical phase of the construction was by far the easiest of anything i did. some of the 3-way and 4-way switching had me scratching my head, but nothing major. even the county inspector was impressed with our job..he noted a number of things that we did that were "above code" and mentioned how we wouldn't have gotten that with a standard construction job. and the best part was i got to put everything in exactly where i wanted it. if i thought an extra light in a space was a good idea i wired one in...a couple of extra outlets in the garage near the work bench...got them too. i also planned everything out so that i wasn't running right on the ragged edge of the circuits capacity and tripping breakers if i had everything running. i probably have 5 or 6 extra circuits in my house over a normal house just to keep everything well under capacity.

passed my rough AND my final on the first inspection with no corrections. can't get any better than that.

anyone with a basic electrical knowledge could have handled it...there isn't anything difficult about it. get a code book and a book on residential wiring and you have everything you need.