Arc Flash Circuit Breaker

The arc fault circuit interrupter is designed to turn off an electrical circuit when an arc is detected that can lead to a fire or other hazardous conditions within the range of the protection that the afci is able to detect.

Arc flash circuit breaker.

Although current sensing circuitry enables afcis to detect arcing conditions unintended trickles of current may also cause the breaker to shut off afcis are very sensitive. When a severe enough arc flash occurs the overcurrent protective device fuse or circuit breaker upstream of the fault interrupts the current. The engineers who have designed these afci breakers found that motors like the ones found in the power drill vacuums and treadmills produce a rhythmic mechanical arc pattern. The term arc flash is used to describe low impedance connections in an electrical system which allows movement of unwanted electric discharge through the air from one voltage phase to another or to ground.

Afcis are designed to sense an arc which is an electrical leak caused when a hot wire touches a neutral or ground but doesn t trigger the circuit breaker. Sparking and arcing are exactly what the afci breaker is looking for and so it will interrupt the circuit power. An arc fault circuit interrupter afci also known as an arc fault detection device afdd is a circuit breaker that breaks the circuit when it detects an electric arc in the circuit it protects to prevent electrical fires. Both the circuit breaker and receptacle are installed similar to the gfci circuit breakers and receptacles that are present in many homes already.