A little more info on tripping breakers
 

If you are having a problem with breakers tripping due to a radio transmitter in your proximity, Eaton is currently having electricians replace their current revision AFCI breaker with the prior revision breaker. I have been told that they are currently developing a breaker that will solve both the radio transmitter and motor problems.

I know of a total of 13 breakers, installed in the panels of 3 separate homes (all located within 100 feet of the radio) that were replaced by the prior version of the Eaton AFCI breaker, and the problem was eliminated in every case. I don't know, and seriously doubt that this corrected the problems caused by vacuum cleaners, paper shredders, exhaust fans, some older PC power supplies, flourescent lights, etc.

I believe that the current version of the Eaton AFCI began being installed in Villages homes in approximately Jan 2012. I'm sure that this may have varied by several months depending upon the electrical company. Both the old and new version of the AFCI breakers meet the electrical code. The newest version can be identified by a white "Test" button on the breaker in the panel. The prior version breaker had a yellowish "Test" button.

Breakers
 

Had the problem with the 20 amp breakers. Seams that the new type are very sensitive to wires heating up. While hot the resistance in the wires drops and the breaker senses this and trips. The ceiling lights in the kitchen get very hot and heat up the adjoining wires.


The solution is to replace them with a previous generation. They replaced mine but I need to upgrade them once the new generation is fixed because of the new code.

Or, replace the can lights with LED's....no heat, and the big boxes have plug in units to replace the big bulbs.

If it is, in fact, caused by RFI (radio frequency interference), then the FCC will step in and have a word with the "ham". There is a ham club in TV that might help, also. You might have to run extra ground rods from your main electrical box.

Check the Neutral and Ground
 

Since the neutral on a 120 circuit is ALSO tied to the ARC breaker in the panel box and not the ground/neutral bar of the box it is important the the ground conductor and the neutral not be touching in any of the outlets. On a regular breaker only the black (HOT) wire from the ROMEX is tied to the breaker. We had the tripping problem and found this to be the problem in one single outlet box. After this was corrected we haven't had a single tripped breaker. Usually the ground conductor and the neutral are tied to the same bar in the panel box and this was never a problem. The information in bold below describes this problem but it is an easy fix. The circuit would appear normal until you plugged basically anything into on of the outlets on the breaker and then it would trip the ARC breaker every time before we found this problem.


What About Nuisance Tripping of AFCI's

Nuisance tripping refers to a circuit breaker or an AFCI that trips off, turning off electrical power when there was no apparent reason to do so. Some sources assert that what appears to be "nuisance tripping" of AFCI's actually occurs due to wiring practices of some electricians more than for any other reason. These include

Reversed hot and neutral wires - reversed polarity - which is an unsafe condition
Shared neutral wiring on single pole circuit breaker circuits: this is already an existing problem with GFCI's on multiwire branch circuits.
Incorrect or accidental connections between the ground and neutral wire: this is also an unsafe condition which can permit live current to flow on a ground wire that should normally never carry current. We've personally seen this condition lead to an electric shock.

- See more at: AFCI guide to arc fault interrupters for home owners and home inspectors: how to buy, install, test, & inspect AFCIs

We had the problem with the vacuum causing the ARC fault breakers to trip. We had the circuits checked by an electrician and all was good. Now we leave a small surge protector plug on the vacuum cord and that solved the problem.

Our breaker in our living room trips when we plug the vacuum into it. We've already had one outlet rewired because WhenI turned it on it Had a sizzling sound. I have a feeling there is more of this to come.....

We owned a home with arc fault breakers in the bedrooms. (I think that is code in most locations now.) Only when I used my Kenmore vacuum would I trip the breakers in the bedrooms. Arc faults can be touchy. I had to get a new vacuum.

Galaxy
 

I had a conversion with the Galaxy foreman about the grounding method in TV. He told me the the Eaton engineer would contact me when they were coming. I guess they lost my information. I would have liked to talk to them. We have the 3rd generation Arc breakers. Myself & the neighbors with the extra ground rods are not having problems. When it comes to electricity, " grounding & connections" are most important.:confused:

At our place in Ahia, we had an AFCI-tripping issue from Day One in the master bedroom of our home (new build in '08). Every time we'd switch on the ceiling fan......BAM! The breaker would trip. I spoke with the electrician who wired the house - he said it could be a number of things (as others have pointed out already in this thread) but said it was most likely the ceiling fan motor. I didn't feel like shelling out money to replace the fan on the supposition that it MIGHT be the culprit so I tried to isolate the problem. I checked all the wiring connections at the breaker and at the wall switch - everything was tight. I swapped out the AFCI breaker with one from another bedroom - same tripping problem. So it was likely not the breaker itself since the ceiling fan in the other bedroom was the same as the one in the master (though in reality it still could have been that particular fan). Next, I removed the existing wall switch and put in just a standard off-on toggle switch for the fan as a test....................no more tripping! So our problem was with the wall switch.

Our wall switch is a multi-function device - toggle to turn on the fan lights, a slide switch along one side of the toggle to brighten/dim the lights, and another slide switch along the other side of the toggle to control the fan off/on and variable speed. I ultimately swapped the original wall switch for an identical one in the den (which was not controlled by an AFCI) and all has been fine ever since with both circuits.

The thing that seems odd to me in TV is that the contractors are using AFCIs for so many types of circuits on the newest homes - lighting circuits, non-bedroom wall receptacle circuits, etc. Our patio villa (built in '07) only has them for the bedrooms wall receptacle circuits. That's the same as what we see on newer homes back in OH.

Bill :)

The other part of the problem comes from the fact that there is no requirement to have a licensed electrician on the jobsite when the homes are being wired. They only have to have a licensed person (usually in the office) to sign permit applications. Most of the time it's not a problem, but if your home was wired by someone that was laying sod the week before, it could be an issue.

Oh my.

You are all having a problem with "ELI the ICE" man, this is not an easy fix for circuit protectors that "fast blow-trip" and it's going to take a engineer to figure it out and come up with a fix. IMHO

we do and I noticed a letter from the electric company offering $25.00 to set up and an additional $5.00 per month for the service to provide additional
services so that this does not happen!!! My question why did they put bad service to begin with?????????

I believe what you are referring to is surge protection. Usually from lightning strikes near your home. Entirely different animal.

///

Don't know if there is a ham radio in the area. Will check with Pike.

I was having this problem in my living room. I replaced the expensive, hi-tech, overly sensitive breaker that came with the house with one of the regular old $5 breakers from HD. Problem solved.

The electrical crew is not EVER the same as the sod crew here!

There is a separate isolated bunch who does each part of the building process. Dozens of crews who do the same thing each time.

It appears to be the new breakers required by CODE aren't working properly.

They all look alike.

You are 100% correct, Gracie, but the point is, the people doing the electrical work in the homes don't have to be licensed, and some of the possible issues would not be addressed during inspections.

I know you must be right because you always are and I respect you very much, but an official inspection is required by either county or state after those things are installed in each home, before they can put up the dry wall. Or is that what you meant?

I truly would never argue with you Mulligan. You are always correct and I mean that from my heart.

That's what I was thinking...."back stabbing" is the same as quick wiring. The speed at which these homes are built lends to this oversight and if it's code, it will be done. Unfortunately.

I was referring to some of the finer points such as overstripping wires or loose connections that may fail. The inspector does not take off cover plates to check, so you must rely on the skill/training of the "electrician".

Inspectors
 

Most inspectors were never electrician. They go by the book they "read". They even had to "color code" the romex wire because they could not tell the wire size by looking at it and faster to do the inspection. They do not check connection, only check "polarity" at outlets. :ohdear:

Reference
 

Reference: AFCI guide to arc fault interrupters for home owners and home inspectors: how to buy, install, test, & inspect AFCIs

http://inspectapedia.com/electric/AF...m#AFCINuisance

There was a whole development in Miami where condos blew right off their mono slabs during hurricane Andrew (Naranja Lakes). No rebar at all in the CBS walls. Inspectors were bought off by the developer.

Think it could happen here?

Probably not. Take a look at a block house under construction, and you will see the patches at the bottom of the walls where the wall steel is tied to the slab dowels. I'll bet they don't miss many, if any.

The situation in Miami may have been caused by an inexperienced inspector. The inspectors in large developments are actually hired by the builder, and the county just signs off on the inspector's report without actually doing an inspection. The inspectors in TV are TV employees, and the county accepts their reports. This is called a threshold inspection, because the inspector from the county doesn't have to cross it (the threshold).