AFCI and the code

[Phillip]

Last week I did a new small 4-bedroom home. The electrical panel had two AFCI beakers in it. One shut down the front two bedrooms and the other did the back two bedrooms.

The AHJ came in while I was there to do his finally and said this is wrong. Each bedroom is to have its own breaker; the electrician said no it didn't.

The way I read the code the set up was ok. Am I wrong?

[hausdok]

Huh,

If that's true, there're a few million homes that are wrong. That AHJ needs to get out there and straighten out the rest of those building inspectors and all of those uneducated electricians, I guess.

OT - OF!!!

M.

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by Phillip

Last week I did a new small 4-bedroom home. The electrical panel had two AFCI beakers in it. One shut down the front two bedrooms and the other did the back two bedrooms.

The AHJ came in while I was there to do his finally and said this is wrong. Each bedroom is to have its own breaker; the electrician said no it didn't.

The way I read the code the set up was ok. Am I wrong?

You and the electrician are right. The municipal inspector is wrong. Ask him to show you the code section that backs up his opinion.

BTW, the fellow you saw might not be the authority having juristiction. He was probably just an electrical inspector. The AHJ is his boss.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Phillip]

This little town only has one inspector that does it all.

I do not know what training the town requires of him.

There was about a year that the town did not have an AHJ after the town fired the last one.

Of course this AHJ says screws in a attic access is OK.

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by Phillip

This little town only has one inspector that does it all.

I stand corrected. He is the AHJ.

I do not know what training the town requires of him.

There was about a year that the town did not have an AHJ after the town fired the last one.

I live in a tiny town. When I moved here 17 years ago, the big scandal was that the chief of police (the town's only police officer) had just been arrested on a DUI charge. The town searched & searched but couldn't find anyone willing to take his place. So they re-hired him under the stipulation that he "promise not to do it again."

Of course this AHJ says screws in a attic access is OK.

I'm trying to guess why the screws would be a problem?

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Jim Baird]

Tiny town near here had scandal where local jefe de policia's WIFE took road gang inmates home and to other locations for "trysts."

File it under "local color".

[Darren]

Jim,

I could be wrong, but I think he was trying to say screws (not 16d nails or bolts) were used to install a set of pull down steps.

Darren

www.aboutthehouseinspections.com

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by Darren

Jim,

I could be wrong, but I think he was trying to say screws (not 16d nails or bolts) were used to install a set of pull down steps.

Darren

www.aboutthehouseinspections.com

Oh, of course. Now I understand.

-Jim Katen, Oregon

[kurt]

Originally posted by Jim Katen

I live in a tiny town. When I moved here 17 years ago, the big scandal was that the chief of police (the town's only police officer) had just been arrested on a DUI charge. The town searched & searched but couldn't find anyone willing to take his place. So they re-hired him under the stipulation that he "promise not to do it again."

- Jim Katen, Oregon

That's not just small town stuff; I think that's how they do it in Congress, isn't it?

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by kurt

Originally posted by Jim Katen

I live in a tiny town. When I moved here 17 years ago, the big scandal was that the chief of police (the town's only police officer) had just been arrested on a DUI charge. The town searched & searched but couldn't find anyone willing to take his place. So they re-hired him under the stipulation that he "promise not to do it again."

- Jim Katen, Oregon

That's not just small town stuff; I think that's how they do it in Congress, isn't it?

Disgraced congressmen come back as lobbyists.

At least that's how we do it here in Bob Packwood's home state.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[msteger]

Originally posted by Phillip

Last week I did a new small 4-bedroom home. The electrical panel had two AFCI beakers in it. One shut down the front two bedrooms and the other did the back two bedrooms.

The AHJ came in while I was there to do his finally and said this is wrong. Each bedroom is to have its own breaker; the electrician said no it didn't.

The way I read the code the set up was ok. Am I wrong?

The AHJ of full of it. NEC simply says the bedroom circuits have to be AFCI protected, not that each has to have separate AFCIs. Same idea with GFCIs.. having GFCI protected receptacles is different than having GFCI receptacles in each of the areas code requires.

Heck, in my area, most builders don't connect the bedroom hardwires smokies onto the AFCI circuits.