How AC Breakers Have Changed

After participating in another thread I found out I put my whole-house surge protector in the exact wrong spot on the panel, so this past weekend I went ahead and moved it next to the master breaker, shifting about 10 other breakers down two slots. Not a big deal, but one of the AFCI breakers was buzzing, and the noise has been bothering me for a while.

To make a long story short, it’s old and probably fine, but modern NEC standards have progressed so very far since I first installed a panel in the late 1990s. It was an old house with over-loaded boxes that had been expanded at least 3 times since thee original. It was time to go, especially since I also wanted to run a workshop in the basement.

I had no idea how much the NEC had progressed since then when it comes to residential breaker standards.

Roughly, and probably anachronistically, the following has changed:

• Requirement for Arc-Fault (AFCI) breakers in bedrooms (this was superceeded by the next bullet).
• Combined AFCI (CAFCI) becomes required almost everywhere in the home for 120V circuits.
• Requirement for whole house surge protectors
• Expanded GFCI rerquirements beyond just kitchen/bathroom and outside outlets.

The original AFCI breakers have been replaced by CAFCI, which detect more, and possibly the most dangerous, types of arc faults.. The house I’m living in was built in 2005, AFCI for the bedrooms, but no surge protection before I moved in. THat was one of the first things I did, given the thunderstorms here in SC. This weekend I’ll be replacing most of the 15/20A breakers with CAFCI. Wish me luck. The breaker installation is easy. The problem comes when they start to trip, and I have to troubleshoot the reasons for it.

Fortunately, if you aren’t remodeling, there’s no requirement I know of which FORCES you to upgrade to the latest NEC standards. I personally find the argument and evidence for whole house surge supressors and CAFCI breakers compelling enough. Given the age of my home, and the liberal use of back stabbed outlets and other weird issues I have decided that at least on these two items it’s worth upgrading.

Another area that's changed is the requirement for wired fire alarms.  It's no longer good enough to use 9V powered fire alarms.  They must be AC powered and connected to each other, which is a segue to just how many devices we have that are directly plugged into the panel with no chance for a surge suppressor otherwise.

Besides our big appliances, like AC, house fans and dishwashers many of us are using a lot of home automation gear besides our stereo.  Everything from Wifi enabled fire alarms to Google Nest thermostats and phone connected lighting. All of these will be better protecgted with a whole house protectgor.