Amateur electrician here, but lots of experience wiring/re-wiring residences.
I'm doing a fairly major reno/upgrade to an older home (built 1960), adding lots of circuits...etc. I'm trying to pull all new circuits in compliance w/the new (2014) NEC, which means lots of arc fault and GFCI breakers. I've been using the combination AFCI/GFCI QO Square D breakers for almost all new circuits, and w/ 10+ installed already, I have yet to have a problem.
Problem: I added a new AFCI/GFCI circuit to an existing 4 gang switch box that also has an original circuit fed to the box to serve other lights/recpts. When I energized the new circuit all was well, and everything worked properly. When I re-energized the original circuit, the ACFI/GFCI breaker immediately tripped. The only way I can get everything to work correctly is to separate the neutrals, keeping all the old circuit neutrals together, and keeping all the new circuit neutrals together, but not tied to the old neutrals.
I think this is the first time I've combined old and new circuits in one box, and just normally connected all the neutrals together.
So.... Is this normal w/ these new ACFI/GCFI circuits... to have to keep the neutrals separate from original wiring ?
Thanks for any light you can shed............ Gary
I'm doing a fairly major reno/upgrade to an older home (built 1960), adding lots of circuits...etc. I'm trying to pull all new circuits in compliance w/the new (2014) NEC, which means lots of arc fault and GFCI breakers. I've been using the combination AFCI/GFCI QO Square D breakers for almost all new circuits, and w/ 10+ installed already, I have yet to have a problem.
Problem: I added a new AFCI/GFCI circuit to an existing 4 gang switch box that also has an original circuit fed to the box to serve other lights/recpts. When I energized the new circuit all was well, and everything worked properly. When I re-energized the original circuit, the ACFI/GFCI breaker immediately tripped. The only way I can get everything to work correctly is to separate the neutrals, keeping all the old circuit neutrals together, and keeping all the new circuit neutrals together, but not tied to the old neutrals.
I think this is the first time I've combined old and new circuits in one box, and just normally connected all the neutrals together.
So.... Is this normal w/ these new ACFI/GCFI circuits... to have to keep the neutrals separate from original wiring ?
Thanks for any light you can shed............ Gary
