A few years ago we had wood floor professionals extending power cables underneath the floor as part of an overall floor renovation.
We only recently learned that they used screw terminals which could be problematic when placed in inaccessible locations (such as under a wooden floor).
Our main concern is the fire hazard and it seems like we have two options:
- Open the floor and re-wire everything – that would require re-finishing the entire floor to achieve a consistent look.
- Install AFDD switches as mean to protect against fires.
I understand that option #1 is the best option. My question is how reliable AFDD switches are in this case? is option #2 good enough (realistically)?
Best Answer
In my opinion AFCI / AFDD are not nearly as good as they ought to be, but that's another matter.
I also do not know what codes would apply in your locale but in many, even if the AFDD reduces the hazard, it does not bring you up to code, leading to problems with insurance, sale of the house, etc.
But aside from those problems, I don't believe it's a sufficient remediation. AFDDs are intended to detect the "signature" of arcing faults, that is, to recognize electrical activity in the circuit that indicates arcing is occurring. With a bad screw terminal connection, you can get a high resistance non-arcing fault, where the connection will heat up and possibly start a fire, without ever causing an arc and without ever triggering an arc detecting device.