Posts: 1,590
Threads: 0
Joined: Aug 2009
Location: Manassas, VA
(05-05-2017, 09:12 AM)Cdshakes Wrote: Well, I guess this is a time where you're thankful for the AFCI doin its job and not burnin your house down!
It was a hard short, so a regular breaker would have worked the same, wouldn't it?
Posts: 16,604
Threads: 0
Joined: Oct 2002
Location: Ra-cha-cha, NY
(05-05-2017, 10:10 AM)FS7 Wrote: It was a hard short, so a regular breaker would have worked the same, wouldn't it?
It would, but the arc would have chewed away some metal, and resetting the breaker may allow small movement with temperature and subsequent arcing.
Not that I'm a big fan of AFCIs, especially in their present incarnations, but I don't disagree with the concept at least. Like GFCIs, they'll likely improve with future refinement, as most things do.
I was going to guess a staple was overdriven when the house was built, but what you found is worse. For the sparky >
Tom
“This place smells like that odd combination of flop sweat, hopelessness, aaaand feet"
Posts: 64,849
Threads: 3
Joined: Feb 2007
Location: Merryland
(05-05-2017, 08:23 AM)FS7 Wrote: We have a winner.
Behind the access panel (which was screwed, caulked, and painted into place), there was a switch and an overhead light. The switch wiring was never pushed back into the box and I guess over time what was a millimeter between hot and ground turned into contact.
No mice, at least, so no worries in the future.
I am a home inspector and in many homes there is a light switch in the hallway that seems to control nothing. If I can see the attic hatch in the same hall, it's almost always the switch for the attic light. Glad you found it. Sometimes we forget they're there..... now, write it down in the breaker panel.
Posts: 31,194
Threads: 2
Joined: Mar 2003
Location: Athens, TN
Glad to see you found it.
Rocket Science is more fun when you actually have rockets.
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government." -- Patrick Henry