On Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:37:36 +0000 (UTC), (Dave
Martindale) wrote:

You might want to wait a while yet. As I understand it, current AFCI's
only protect against parallel arcs, where there is an arc between hot
and neutral (or ground), without the load being in series, and the
current spikes are high.

You're teh first one to explain this to me. Of course I never asked
anyone, but still, thank you.

The arcs you get from deteriorating aluminum connections are series
arcs, in series with the load. Even with a high load like a toaster or
a microwave oven, the arc current spikes can't exceed the full load
current of that appliance. So these arcs are harder to detect, and
current AFCIs are not designed to do so. And so you won't get any
protection from arcing connections.

Future AFCIs are supposed to detect series arcs too. I'd wait until
they appear if you don't have to install AFCIs now.

Dave