# light bulb 1 ---- arc fault breaker 0



## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

EJPHI said:


> This morning I turned on a light and the bulb blew.
> 
> The new bulb would not come on.
> 
> ...


So shouldn't the score be *light bulb 0 ----- Arc Fault Breaker 1*?


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## TOOL_5150 (Aug 27, 2007)

It was just doing its job; protecting you from a very hazardous house fire!!!

 Stupid AFCIs

~Matt


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

A regular breaker can trip, on occasion, when an incandescent lamp blows. I don't think what happened had anything to do with the fact that this was an AFCI breaker. This has been a phenomenon reported by electricians for a long time. It seems that I looked this up one time, and it was reported that an incandescent lamp can often draw an obscene amount of current for a very brief period when it's blowing. If the breaker was already loaded pretty heavily (ie, trip point is already close to the trip curve), the breaker will trip when the lamp blows. I've been on a few service calls for this, and the customer always seems suspicious when I tell them that. I haven't found a real good way to put that into layman's terms, yet. I still check everything over good for them, though.


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## BuzzKill (Oct 27, 2008)

MDShunk said:


> A regular breaker can trip, on occasion, when an incandescent lamp blows. I don't think what happened had anything to do with the fact that this was an AFCI breaker. This has been a phenomenon reported by electricians for a long time. It seems that I looked this up one time, and it was reported that an incandescent lamp can often draw an obscene amount of current for a very brief period when it's blowing. If the breaker was already loaded pretty heavily (ie, trip point is already close to the trip curve), the breaker will trip when the lamp blows. I've been on a few service calls for this, and the customer always seems suspicious when I tell them that. I haven't found a real good way to put that into layman's terms, yet. I still check everything over good for them, though.


 I just had a serve call about such thing, a burnt lamp casuing the breaker to trip, and the cutomer was indeed suspicious of my story.


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## Dennis Alwon (May 9, 2009)

I have never seen a bulb blow out cause a reg. breaker to trip. I have seen it blow out dimmer switches and I am not surprised it can cause an arc fault to trip.


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

MDShunk said:


> ........and it was reported that an incandescent lamp can often draw an obscene amount of current for a very brief period when it's blowing. ............


They also draw an obscene amount when turned on as well.


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## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

How much longer before Incandescent lights are illegal? I wonder if the AFCI will trip when a CFL burns out.


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## BuzzKill (Oct 27, 2008)

that's my new money maker: running a black market operation selling incandescents!


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## I_get_shocked (Apr 6, 2009)

I went on this exact service call 2 weeks ago. Customer had no power in bedroom receptacles after light bulb burned out. 

He checked out the breakers and they were fine. $100.00 Later We found a subpanel in the garage harry homeowner had no idea existed with a tripped AFCI


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## RIVETER (Sep 26, 2009)

*arc*



BuzzKill said:


> I just had a serve call about such thing, a burnt lamp casuing the breaker to trip, and the cutomer was indeed suspicious of my story.


Did you check the current draw at the breaker without the lamp screwed in?


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## nrp3 (Jan 24, 2009)

I replaced the service on my aunts house. I put in arc faults in all the required places as you would on a new house. A couple of weeks later, the basement circuit started tripping. I took apart all the switches, looked for the usual stuff but couldn't find the problem. Its a small basement with 4 or 5 porcelains with cfls in them. I rewired the whole thing and the only thing I reused were the porcelains and the cfls. Same problem. Change the porcelains and cfls for new, problem solved. Never could find which one it was. They all still worked.


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## TOOL_5150 (Aug 27, 2007)

nrp3 said:


> I replaced the service on my aunts house. I put in arc faults in all the required places as you would on a new house. A couple of weeks later, the basement circuit started tripping. I took apart all the switches, looked for the usual stuff but couldn't find the problem. Its a small basement with 4 or 5 porcelains with cfls in them. I rewired the whole thing and the only thing I reused were the porcelains and the cfls. Same problem. Change the porcelains and cfls for new, problem solved. Never could find which one it was. They all still worked.


One of the sockets were probably on the verge of being too loose, and once it heated up, it arced just enough to set the breaker into trip mode.

~Matt


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## nrp3 (Jan 24, 2009)

Thats kind of what I figured. Maybe one of the rivets was loose. Who knows.


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## zen (Jun 15, 2009)

nolabama said:


> How much longer before Incandescent lights are illegal? I wonder if the AFCI will trip when a CFL burns out.


 and then the day will come when electricity will be illegal.


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## LGLS (Nov 10, 2007)

zen said:


> and then the day will come when electricity will be illegal.


 
:thumbup: From your lips to god's ears... :thumbup:

I'm getting really fed up with these save the world types and I don't know how much more people can take before it all backfires on them and everyone starts lighting tires on fire just out of spite...


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## Forgery (Mar 6, 2010)

LawnGuyLandSparky said:


> :thumbup: From your lips to god's ears... :thumbup:
> 
> I'm getting really fed up with these save the world types and I don't know how much more people can take before it all backfires on them and everyone starts lighting tires on fire just out of spite...


I resent that statement. There is *nothing* wrong with trying to save the planet, as long as it doesn't get in the way of my leisure and enjoyment.


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