> Anyone else have any experience you'd like to share?
I don't. But as an almost-EE, I do have a question. They taught us at
Purdue that an electrical arc is a sort of plasma, with a very low
resistance (lower than copper as I recall). So how exactly does one get an
arc to ground that will not trip a GFCI ?
I can see where a GFCI or a standard breaker would not be able to detect an
in-line arc, like might be created by a bad contact or a broken conductor.
But how often is that really a problem ? Seems to me that it would fairly
quickly burn the wire back (ever tried welding with a pure copper electrode
?) until the arc went out ...
I'd be a lot more convinced if someone could point to an actual fire that
could have been prevented by an AFCI, but not a GFCI. Or even explain how
an AFCI distinguishes between an intentional arc (eg brush sparks on a
universal motor) and an accidental one. From the comments presented, it
appears that they can't reliably tell the difference.
Randall
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