When I discussed changing out my circuit breaker box with arc-fault circuit
breakers with a licensed electrician, he suggested installing arc-fault/GFCI
outlets instead. The arc-fault circuit breakers are expensive and may
require an entirely new circuit breaker panel since installation is not
straight forward in an older CB panel. At my local big box store, Leviton
15 Amp AFCI/GFCI outlets are $27 (20 Amp $28) and wired similar to GFCI
outlets so a circuit could be chained to dumb outlets as would be the case
in a normal GFCI wiring scheme. Of course, this may not satisfy the local
building codes but I would grant a waiver if asked. On the other side,
house insurance policies are pushing to have older circuit breaker panels
replaced which would infer installing AFCI/GFCI breakers. I did notice on
new houses in this area, not all circuits are AFCI/GFCI protected and I
don't know which circuits are necessary. I would protect ALL circuits in a
house especially if AFCI were the intended goal. Ken K5RG
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