I recently had my basement remodeled by a general contractor. This included a bathroom, family room, wet bar, and home theater. The electrician added 4 circuits in total, all of them using arc fault breakers from GE. I've had lots of trouble with the breakers tripping, seemingly unrelated to the circuit's load. Replacing one of the AFCI breakers with an older style GFCI breaker makes the problem go away, though this isn't a long term solution since the electrical code where I live says we need AFCI breakers for remodeling work.
My electrician has contacted GE and says they are aware of problems with their AFCI breakers and are working on a revised design. Has anyone else had trouble with GE breakers? These breakers are installed in a GE panel.
Best Answer
Your electrician could add a SquareD sub panel that would have the four SquareD AFCI breakers, fed from the GE panel with a standard two pole breaker.
AFCI breakers can be sensitive to certain loads. I've experienced problems with florescent lighting, power tools, and vacuum cleaners tripping the breaker.