Re: arc fault breaker with x-10 problem

[ddl@danlan.*com (Dan Lanciani)]

In article <PYOdnSMKd6naHbbbnZ2dnUVZ_hKdnZ2d@xxxxxxx>, dennis@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dennis) writes:
| 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".

I don't have any information that would help you, but I would be interested
to know the brand of the arc fault breakers.  It would also be interesting
if you could isolate which X10 device(s) make this happen, though I guess
this could take a bit of work.  Yet another possible test would be to
replace the arc fault breakers with GFCI breakers to see if the problem has
anything to do with the arc detection functionality.  (I assume at this
point that any GFCI breaker you are likely to get would have a more
sensitive trigger level than the GFCI function of the arc fault breaker,
at least if you didn't go out of your way to make it otherwise...)  Is there
any possibility of a more mundane explanation like interconnected or grounded
neutrals?

				Dan Lanciani
				ddl@danlan.*com