I had read that such cable was to be available. I , but did not know it
was already on the market. This is good info for the future, but
unfortunately the horse is out of this barn. After running the cable
(this one and others) up to the attic, I filled the chase with blown
insulation and foam so there is no longer any way to run cable easily.

What i really need now is AFCIs that go into the outlet box. Are they
on the near horizon that you know of?

emichael

Tom Horne, Electrician wrote:
e michael brandt wrote:
I appreciate your comments. Understand though that all this started
due to misdirection from the electrical inspector! He was surely
correct that AFCIs are required in bedrooms, but failed to put that
fact together with the common ground issue. He should either have
told me a) I must bite the bullet and re-run a circuit to one room,
abandoning one leg of my 12/3 OR acknowledge that the first inspector
passed my 220v ganged breaker and left things as they were. Instead
he told me to install AFCIs where it seems they can not physically work.

emichael


Tom The Great wrote:
On 16 Sep 2006 14:53:09 -0700, "emichael" wrote:

I had run a 12/3 w.g 220v circuit to my attic, and then branched into
two 12/2 w.g to run 110v to each of two separate GFCI-protected wall
outlets. Originally I had a ganged double pole 20a 220v breaker
supplying this paired circuit, and all was well. And the electrical
inspector was content.

But then a different electrical inspector told me that instead i needed
to have AFCI breakers in the breaker box, since these outlets are in
bedrooms. So, I bought two 20a AFCIs (I could find no double pole 220v
AFCIs and the guy at HomeDepot said with this situation they should
have been on two separate breakers anyway.)

Well, now the AFCIs trip (both of them simultaneously) whenever there
is any load on either circuit. My guess is that because there is a
shared neutral, the AFCIs are getting confused. But I am also
wondering if the problem might be because there are GFCIs at each
outlet. Can GFCIs and AFCIs cooexist okay? If so, then is there a way
to use AFCIs in this situation?

Thanks for your help.

emichaelb


No offense, but reading some of the replies, you need to leave this
group, and get yourself a licensed and insured electrician, before you
kill someone. Or worse, void your home insurance policy!

later,

tom

You can buy 12/2+2 with ground cable for the purpose of supplying two
AFCI protected circuits in one cable run. Both Square D and Cutler
Hammer offer two pole common neutral AFCIs but the price is very high.
You will only find them through an electrical supply house. General
Electric's version can be seen at http://www.arcadvisor.com/afci.html.