Re: arc fault breaker with x-10 problem

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

AFCIs do some rather sophisticated analysis in order to distinguish "working
arcs" (e.g. motors, switches making/breaking) from arcs due to wiring
defects. One of the things they look for are certain frequencies. If your
fluorescents have electronic ballasts with switch mode power supplies, they
might be putting noise on the line at frequencies which the AFCIs interpret
as arcing. The following page gives a brief description of the arc signature
AFCIs look for.

     http://www.iaei.org/subscriber/magazine/00_d/gregory.htm

Try removing the fluorescents from the mix. If that cures the problem, it
may (or may not) be possible to add filters like others find necessary to
get X-10 to work with CFLs. Whether such filters might defeat the purpose of
the AFCIs is another question - one I cannot answer but think merits further
exploration.

AFCIs have been required for bedrooms (in new construction) for a few years
so I would think there would be numerous reports if they commonly interfered
with or were themselves interfered with by X-10. CFLs would be my "usual
suspect".

"Dennis" <dennis@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>I have just got the electricity connected to a new house.  There are three
>bedroom circuits that code required to have arc fault breakers.  Those
>circuits have x-10 sockets, dimmer switches, and flourescent-controlling
>relay switches.
>
>The breakers on all three circuits trip immediately when they are closed.
>To test the wiring I swapped out the arc fault breakers with "regular"
>breakers.  Everything worked.
>
>I must not be the first person to have experienced this problem, but I
>couldn't find anything on previous posts (nor elsewhere on the web) that
>dealt with it.
>
>Any information will be appreciated, even if it's "yeah, you're screwed,
>X-10 won't work with arc-fault".
>
>Thanks,
>
>Dennis
>
>