Hi everyone-
Thanks to all who have contributed to this forum -- I have used your threads to help me along with my basement finishing project. I have run into a problem now that I have not been able to solve through any reading - hope there is help out there - here goes!
I just finished wiring 7 different circuits (it's a big basement) and hooked up the new breakers yesterday (I have a Siemens panel, btw). I am required to use AFCI breakers on all except the bathroom. Fine, did that (wired properly with circuit neutral and hot into the breaker, breaker pigtail into the neutral bus bar). Powered it on and tested my lighting circuits. For a few minutes, things worked great, all switches and lights worked as planned (several three-way switches). Then my pride turned sour as the breakers kept on tripping after a few seconds to minutes. A little searching and reading taught me that my problem is almost certainly using single-pole AFCI breakers on circuits with three-wire configurations.
Here is a representative example of one of my problem circuits:
AFCI Breaker -- 14/2 wire -- Single pole switch -- 14/3 wire -- 4 consecutive lights -- 14/2 wire -- Three-way switch -- 14/3 wire -- 1 Light (with 5 additional lights wired with 14/2 off of this) -- 14/3 wire -- Three-way switch
(In the box housing the first three-way switch I have 14/2 wire branching off to power 3 different single lights with single pole switches)
I understand how AFCI breakers work and why the one on this circuit is tripping -- the neutral wire is sometimes not neutral at all and the breaker thinks there is an arc. I also understand that there are double pole AFCI breakers out there, but I'm not sure how that would work, or if that is even the answer. Wouldn't connecting a red wire into one of the 2 neutral ports on the breaker would just cause the breaker to trip as this wire would sometimes just as hot as the black (just like the sometimes-neutral white wire)?
Is my wiring schematic bad? It would seem like this would otherwise be a VERY common situation (given the 2008 NEC requirements for AFCIs) and it seems like I should have found either a huge row of double pole AFCIs at the home store, or lots of talk about this situation online (code requires three-way light switch applications, and thus 14/3 in certain - common - places) How could you wire circuits with multiples sets of independently controlled lights and three-way switches without using 14/3? Or am I just not understanding how to wire AFCI breakers...
Any help is appreciated!
Thanks-
Michael
Thanks to all who have contributed to this forum -- I have used your threads to help me along with my basement finishing project. I have run into a problem now that I have not been able to solve through any reading - hope there is help out there - here goes!
I just finished wiring 7 different circuits (it's a big basement) and hooked up the new breakers yesterday (I have a Siemens panel, btw). I am required to use AFCI breakers on all except the bathroom. Fine, did that (wired properly with circuit neutral and hot into the breaker, breaker pigtail into the neutral bus bar). Powered it on and tested my lighting circuits. For a few minutes, things worked great, all switches and lights worked as planned (several three-way switches). Then my pride turned sour as the breakers kept on tripping after a few seconds to minutes. A little searching and reading taught me that my problem is almost certainly using single-pole AFCI breakers on circuits with three-wire configurations.
Here is a representative example of one of my problem circuits:
AFCI Breaker -- 14/2 wire -- Single pole switch -- 14/3 wire -- 4 consecutive lights -- 14/2 wire -- Three-way switch -- 14/3 wire -- 1 Light (with 5 additional lights wired with 14/2 off of this) -- 14/3 wire -- Three-way switch
(In the box housing the first three-way switch I have 14/2 wire branching off to power 3 different single lights with single pole switches)
I understand how AFCI breakers work and why the one on this circuit is tripping -- the neutral wire is sometimes not neutral at all and the breaker thinks there is an arc. I also understand that there are double pole AFCI breakers out there, but I'm not sure how that would work, or if that is even the answer. Wouldn't connecting a red wire into one of the 2 neutral ports on the breaker would just cause the breaker to trip as this wire would sometimes just as hot as the black (just like the sometimes-neutral white wire)?
Is my wiring schematic bad? It would seem like this would otherwise be a VERY common situation (given the 2008 NEC requirements for AFCIs) and it seems like I should have found either a huge row of double pole AFCIs at the home store, or lots of talk about this situation online (code requires three-way light switch applications, and thus 14/3 in certain - common - places) How could you wire circuits with multiples sets of independently controlled lights and three-way switches without using 14/3? Or am I just not understanding how to wire AFCI breakers...
Any help is appreciated!
Thanks-
Michael