Bruce Breedlove
01-30-2009, 02:38 PM
The title of this thread may not make perfect sense. I will explain in detail below.
On yesterday's inspection I ran across a bedroom that had a couple of odd electrical issues. The 4-bedroom house was built in 2004. Inside the main panel were 5 AFCI breakers and a single GFCI breaker. When I tested the outlets in one particular bedroom I pressed the AFCI test button on my tester and the outlet went dead. When I went to the main panel to reset the AFCI breaker I found the GFCI breaker had tripped. I reset the GFCI breaker and tested the outlet again with the AFCI test button. Same result - it tripped the GFCI breaker. When I tested the outlets with the GFCI test button it would not trip the GFCI breaker. (The AFCI tester tripped AFCI breakers in the other bedrooms.)
Also, I discovered that the lights in an adjacent bathroom were on the same circuit as the bedroom outlets. Maybe this is how this circuit ended up being protected by a GFCI breaker.
My questions are:
1) Why does my AFCI tester trip this GFCI breaker but my GFCI tester does not trip it?
2) Is this bedroom wired improperly? Should the GFCI breaker be replaced with an AFCI breaker?
3) Should the bedroom outlets be on the same circuit as the bathroom lights?
On yesterday's inspection I ran across a bedroom that had a couple of odd electrical issues. The 4-bedroom house was built in 2004. Inside the main panel were 5 AFCI breakers and a single GFCI breaker. When I tested the outlets in one particular bedroom I pressed the AFCI test button on my tester and the outlet went dead. When I went to the main panel to reset the AFCI breaker I found the GFCI breaker had tripped. I reset the GFCI breaker and tested the outlet again with the AFCI test button. Same result - it tripped the GFCI breaker. When I tested the outlets with the GFCI test button it would not trip the GFCI breaker. (The AFCI tester tripped AFCI breakers in the other bedrooms.)
Also, I discovered that the lights in an adjacent bathroom were on the same circuit as the bedroom outlets. Maybe this is how this circuit ended up being protected by a GFCI breaker.
My questions are:
1) Why does my AFCI tester trip this GFCI breaker but my GFCI tester does not trip it?
2) Is this bedroom wired improperly? Should the GFCI breaker be replaced with an AFCI breaker?
3) Should the bedroom outlets be on the same circuit as the bathroom lights?