Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Breakers Tripping in Neighborhood
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Old 09-05-2015, 08:32 AM
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If you do a search in Google for ARC fault breaker nuisance tripping, you will find that at least one specific brand of breaker did respond to the radio interference and would trip. They actually created a version of the AFCI breaker labeled HAM that supposedly had additional filtering. I did find a previous thread on TOTV regarding this issue, you may find some answers there.
To clarify a few points:
1. You should find the AFCI breakers serving the bedrooms and living room areas only.
2. These breakers are difference from GFCI breakers which are used for outside, bathroom, kitchen areas, where water is present.
3. During a close in lightning strike, I had 3 GFCI receptacles all in the garage trip, no circuit breakers so far. Been in the house, village of Pinellas, almost 2 years.
4. My neighbor had a really weird experience where opening the refrigerator door would trip the AFCI breaker supplying the living room. This happened several times over a 6-7 month period. When he contacted an electrician, he found the refrigerator circuit breaker was on the SAME leg as the living room AFCI breaker. The electrician swapped the refrigerator with another circuit on the opposite leg, and this appears to have eliminated the problem.
5. There have been LOTS of problems reported with these breakers. I have not seen any specific solutions, but a lot of theories on what may be happening.

I hope the above helps, and perhaps some of the inspectors or electricians can add their experience or insight.
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