Hello all,

Thanks for your excellent inputs. I had an electrician visit today,
and [of course] everything worked fine after he arrived. [Kind of like
when you visit the doctor and your symptoms vanish for the duration of
the visit...] He did not have the correct breaker type with him - so
he couldn't replace the breaker. We agreed that if it happens again,
he will replace the breaker.

In the mean-time, I might try that heavy load test. I'll keep you all
posted. Thanks again!

-JJ


w_tom wrote:
Arc fault breakers are also ground fault breakers. Rarely does a
breaker go bad. Far more common are wiring problems. For example,
with higher humidity, a partially conducting wire could be enough to
trip a breaker. A white wire pressed against a safety ground short can
cause strange failures. Only an arc-fault or GFCI breaker would detect
this miswire. If neutral for an arc-faulted circuit was somehow
connected to neutral wire for another circuit, then larger current draw
on that other circuit could trip the arc-fault breaker.

Generally, such tripping is due to a wiring fault. Some of these
faults can be made obvious by applying a large load to each receptacle
to discover where load causes a breaker trip.

wrote:
...
I have a spare bedroom that is serviced throughan arc fault breaker.
Over the past several months, the breaker would [once in a great while]
trip. Nothing was running in the room when the breaker would trip.
Typically, the breaker would allow me to reset it. Recently, the
breaker tripped and will not reset. I used an ohm meter and checked
all connections in the bedroom - 6 outlets, light switch and light -
and all seem fine. I even flicked the light switch "on" and measured
17 Ohms at each outlet, indicated no shorts or opens [the lightbulb was
connected across the circuit]. In addition, I measured the resistance
between each neutral and ground, and the resistance is low [less than 1
ohm].

I am not an electrician and I am at a loss. Is it common to have
problems with the breaker itself or is this more likely something I
missed in the wiring?
...