I have a very unusual set of electrical issues that have proven difficult to troubleshoot.
I live in a newly constructed house. Each bedroom has AFCI breakers.
In the past 3 years living there, the AFCI breaker to my bedroom has tripped about a dozen times. All occur sometime in the middle of the night. Each time, resetting the breaker has resolved the problem. Sometimes the breaker will trip when the 1000W Lutron Dummer is turned on. Sometimes it trips while we are asleep.
I have noticed that when the breaker trips the "Arc" light is not activated which I believe means the AFCI breaker tripped due to a ground fault?
Interestingly, almost every time this has occured, two GFCI outlets, one in our kitchen and one in our garage has also tripped, but with much less frequency. In our case this has happened 4 times in 3 years (1-2 times a year). Each GFCI outlet is on a different circuit in this case. The GFCI outlets do not trip if the AFCI breaker doesn't trip.
Also, one GFCI circuit is in a different panel than the other one.
I could replace the AFCI breaker and the 2 offending outlets. Is there something else I should be looking for?
The only thing that I can think of that would cause this problem is something temperature related or perhaps some kind of surge? is that possible?
Things I have heard that can cause an AFCI breaker to trip:
- Stack of AFCI breakers in the electrical panel over heating (I
have 4 in a row, with Master Bedroom in the middle - Dimmer (something about Lutron)
- Pinched or stapled electrical wire(would this just cause it to trip
consistently though) - Charging electrical gizmos
Things I have heard that can cause a GFCI breaker to trip
- Variations in supply voltage
- Unbalanced, intermitant loads (I don't have any)
- Cheap surge protectors
Things I have heard that can cause an AFCI and a GFCI breaker to trip
- Cheap surge protectors (I have a few surge protectors on each AFCI
and GFCI outlets that are tripping). I'm not sure I'd consider them
"cheap".
Could any of this be upstream from me?
Best Answer
Some surge protectors work by "redirecting" surges to the equipment ground, which is pretty much the definition of a ground fault. In this case, it's definitely possible that surge suppressors could be tripping GFCI receptacles/breakers (given a large enough surge).
As for the AFCIs... When electrical contacts separate, they often create an arc between the contacts. This arc spans the gap until the contacts are too far apart, and the arc can no longer be sustained. It's possible (in theory) that the GFCI tripping could create a large enough arc, for long enough to cause the AFCI to trip. It's not likely that a properly functioning GFCI would do this, but if the GFCI was old and worn it could be opening the contacts slow enough that a detectable arc is being produced.
Determining if the GFCI tripping is causing the AFCI to trip, is a simple test. Simply press the test button on the GFCI. If the AFCI trips, you'll have figured out half the problem. If the ACFI does not trip, you could repeat the test using a receptacle tester with a GFCI test function.
If it's determined that the GFCI is causing the AFCI breaker to trip, replacing the GFCI receptacle may resolve that part of the issue.
Figuring out if the surge suppressor is tripping the GFCI, is a more difficult proposition. It will likely require you to monitor the supply voltage over some time, to identify and document possible surges.