do we need arc fault protection or nah
so for those of you in the Stone Age that don't know what our fault protection is
afci arc fault circuit interrupter protection it is a way to interrupt the circuit if there
is a arc fault so what is an arc vault there's two different kinds of Arc faults there's series
arcs and there's parallel arcs so a series Arc is if you have a wire and that wire breaks now
in series in the circuit you have a arcing point and there's certain characteristics of this arcing
that they've been able to figure out an algorithm and stuck a circuit board inside of a breaker and
it can figure out what's happening in a circuit based off of the signature of this Behavior
parallel Arc is a little bit different that's when you have a hot and a neutral instead of shorting
out to each other they're arcing between each other and arcing can create heat it can cause
fires it can cause electrocution it can cause a lot of different things but there's Breakers that
are smart enough now that can tell whether or not there is a series Arc or a parallel Arc and
but in both cases it can trip a breaker so that is what afci protection is afci protection comes
in the same forms as GFCI protection so you'll either have a receptacle that says afci instead
of GFCI on it or you'll have a breaker and a panel that says uh afci sometimes it might say C afci or
combination afci combination afci means that it does series and parallel arcs which all Breakers
should do now don't get that Twisted with dual function Breakers just because it says combination
does not mean it's dual function dual function is where there is GFCI protection and afci
protection in the same breaker so a dual function breaker is even like more on steroids essentially
because it'll protect if there's ground faults or both series and parallel Arc vaults foreign
actually say about it where are we required to put afci devices in this is really interesting
because with gfcis we're specifically talking about receptacles where we plug a receptacle in
somebody could be standing in water so it's to protect people Personnel there's places where
equipment has to be protected too you might have this massive switch gear like 2000 amp
switch gear and when you energize that you don't want a ground fault if there's a ground fault
you could send Fireballs through a room so you have to actually have GFCI protection on some
equipment as well to protect that equipment but most of the time we're talking gfcis you know
in for receptacles we're talking about just like Personnel protection so when we talk about gfcis
in the last video I did I mentioned that it's receptacles only there's one instance in which
they they do mention lighting outlets in crawl spaces specifically that's the only place but
other than that it's for specifically receptacles so with arc fault protection what does it say it's
a little bit different than so we're in 210.12 arc fault circuit interrupted protection arc fault
circuit interrupter protection shall be installed in accordance with 210.12b through e by any of
the means described in 210.12 A1 through A6 the afci shall be listed and installed in a readily
accessible location readily accessible meaning you don't have to like move anything climb up
on ladders to like uncover this receptacle or gain access to it it's readily accessible meaning like
easily just right there now in part A it shows all of the different means of protection so it
lists the different types I'm not going to read all of these but number one a listed combination
type afci installed to provide protection of the entire branch circuit so like a breaker style that
protects the entire circuit a listed Branch or feeder type afci installed at the origin of the
branch circuit in combination with a listed Outlet branch circuit type afci so so there
are actual Outlets that go in your wall that can provide afci protection so from the first point
through the rest of the circuit you're protecting it so there's a bunch of different like ways in
which you can do this and depending on what kind of conduit you're running conductors in stuff
like that they might you might be able to get away with doing it one of these different ways in a one
through six but B is what I wanted to talk about B is the dwelling units section of this so there's
basically anything that's habitable habitable habitable is it habitable or is it habitable
uh in B it talks about specifically with dwelling units C talks about dormitory units and D talks
about other occupancies so it's still all things where people are going to be sleeping
in essentially even when they're talking about other occupancies so in dwelling units this is
what most people are watching for right now so we're going to talk about just normal dwelling
units it says all 120 volt single phase 10 15 and 20 amp Branch circuits not receptacles not
lights not equipment not uh switches the entire circuit so all 10 15 and 20 amp Branch circuits
120 volt that are supplying Outlets or devices installed in the following locations shall be
protected by any of the means described in 210.12 A1 through A6 which we were just talking about
it's specifically the location that they care about making sure that anything in that area
whether it's a hardwired appliance whether it's a receptacle whether it's a switch and
a light lighting Outlet doesn't matter it's the entire branch circuit in these areas kitchens
everything in the kitchen expanded to whatever a kitchen means to you again we had the GFCI
language changed to say kitchens and then it says areas with sinks and permanent Provisions for food
preparation beverage preparation or cooking they kind of like split that up so this might allow
them a little bit of leeway to like get away with not having to do some of the part that you might
not consider a kitchen but it's kind of a prep cooking area but the actual kitchen which on the
plan just says Kitchen on it you know what I mean they probably should have changed this as well
whatever you think a kitchen is actually really whatever your inspector thinks a kitchen is
because ultimately they're going to be the ones giving you the thumbs up or the thumbs down so
anything in a kitchen family rooms so family rooms you can consider that a place where family
spends time I suppose it's like a living room but they're going to specifically say living
rooms family room dining room living rooms those could all be the same room typically dining room
has a table and chairs but mine doesn't mine has a drum set and a weight bench so uh but yeah it's
a dining room nonetheless living rooms parlors libraries dens uh then we've got bedrooms all
bedrooms sun rooms Recreation rooms so I mean that could be like a weight room or something
like that in the house closets hallways laundry areas and my favorite of them all similar areas
why not just say every room in the house why
why branch circuit supplying the entire house every circuit in the entire house
but no no where are the no's the nose are bathrooms there's nothing about bathrooms on here
there's nothing about garages on here I get there's some things in the garage that you
might plug in that you know you don't want tripping so like they kind of give leeway on
that because there's some manufacturers that have nuisance tripping if you plug their stuff in and
constantly trips Breakers I get that Outdoors is also another thing that's not listed so anything
is basically only indoors and not bathrooms and garages everything else needs to be arc
fault protected and I see that changing in the coming years I actually think in the not
so distant future panels are going to be a lot smarter and they're going to be able to detect
ground faults and Arc faults and they're going to be able to give you a lot more Diagnostics so I
can kind of see in the future just if expanding to every circuit needs to be GFCI protected and afci
protected and manufacturers are going to have to start manufacturing their equipment to make sure
that it it can be on those circuits that it can it's not going to interfere with the running of
a breaker because it's just doing weird stuff I can see that happening so that's pretty much it
for the dwelling unit so it's basically everything in your house except for bathrooms and garages the
exception afci protection shall not be required for individual Branch circuits applying a fire
alarm system installed in accordance with 760.41b or 760.121b the branch circuit shall be installed
in a metal Raceway metal auxiliary gutter steel armored cable or type m MC or type AC cable
meeting if the applicable requirements of 250.118 with metal boxes condo bodies and enclosures
exception number two afci protection shall not be required for the individual branch circuit
supplying an outlet for arc welding equipment and a dwelling until January 1st of 2025. a
breaker detects arcs an arc fault breaker an arc welder is an arc throwing machine laughs
how are they gonna have arc fault breakers that don't trip when you have an arcing welder
in 2025 by 2025
it senses arcs that's its whole purpose how are you gonna make you're gonna change the way the
nature of welders or are you going to make Breakers oh God I can't wait to see this one
wait to see this one all right so that's it then we've got dormitory units if you want
to go into that and look it's pretty much the same thing just there's a lot less stuff in
dormitory units so they don't it's kind of like not as expanded of a list all other occupancies
covers guest rooms of hotels and motels and stuff like that so it's still places people are going
to be like being inhibitable habitable all right then we've got e which is important to cover too
branch circuit wiring extensions modifications or Replacements if you take out a panel do you
really have to make sure all of the arc fault breakers are put in what it says is if you're
extending the circuits then you do but if you're just directly changing a panel out probably not
but here in Austin kind of depends on uh the inspector it depends on which city around the
town that you're actually working in whether or not they want you to do it sometimes they'll say
we don't care you changed out a service so we want you to upgrade every single one of the breakers
and put all our faults in it's like we didn't extend any circuits we didn't add any new wire
they're like we don't care let's add our faults everywhere this is what code specifically says
it says if branch circuit wiring for any of the areas specified in 210.12 BC or D is modified
replaced or extended the branch circuit shall be protected by one of the following by any of
those means in 210.12a by a listed Outlet branch circuit type afci located at the first receptacle
Outlet of the existing branch circuit and then the exception to it says afci protection shall not be
required where the extension of the existing branch circuit conductors is not more than
six feet and does not include any additional Outlets or devices other than splicing devices
this measurement shall not include the conductors inside of an enclosure cabinet or junction box so
there you go if you're not extending the circuit then this book says that you don't have to worry
about making sure that it's upgraded to afci protection but I would check with your inspectors
on that first so if you want to watch a little bit more about ground fault circuit interrupter
protection GFCI protection click this video here I did a very similar thing where I go
through the code and talk about it in depth and if you want to learn more about ground fault arc
fault and dual function I have a video right here love you crazy people see in the next one