I may have a situation here, perh. you can help - I really didn't understand the workings of AFCI's and I think I need help here.
I ran a 12/3 romex (perfectly legal and code so far), with of course, a red, black, white and bare wire. As it turns out, I used the black wire to power all the plugs in a bedroom, and the red wire to handle the lights.
Now, the code is to have an AFCI for all plugs in a bedroom. BUT, an AFCI breaker is a different beast; instead of taking one wire, it has the common (white) wire pass through it as well, with that coiled white wire going to the common bus from the breaker itself.
OK, so for my remaining red wire, I hook that up to a standard 20A GE breaker, but what happens is that when I turn on the red wire circuit, the AFCI trips due - I guess - to an unbalance which the AFCI is detecting.
Is there any way to run an AFCI on a shared (2-wire) system like this, or must I run an AFCI on it's own circuit with a unique common? What is the way to solve this situation?
Thanks,
Samuel
I ran a 12/3 romex (perfectly legal and code so far), with of course, a red, black, white and bare wire. As it turns out, I used the black wire to power all the plugs in a bedroom, and the red wire to handle the lights.
Now, the code is to have an AFCI for all plugs in a bedroom. BUT, an AFCI breaker is a different beast; instead of taking one wire, it has the common (white) wire pass through it as well, with that coiled white wire going to the common bus from the breaker itself.
OK, so for my remaining red wire, I hook that up to a standard 20A GE breaker, but what happens is that when I turn on the red wire circuit, the AFCI trips due - I guess - to an unbalance which the AFCI is detecting.
Is there any way to run an AFCI on a shared (2-wire) system like this, or must I run an AFCI on it's own circuit with a unique common? What is the way to solve this situation?
Thanks,
Samuel