Has anybody had any experience installing X-10 on circuit with an arc fault breaker? I moved into a new condo just last year, and apparently it is now code that arc-fault breakers be installed for all circuits wired to a bedroom. I am having some signal issues going between the two circuits which are on the arc-fault breakers, which also happen to be on different phases. The transmitter is installed on one of the arc fault breakers, and some receivers are on the other arc fault breaker. Circuits which are on the other phase, but normal breaker seem to work fine, so I think the arc fault breakers are causing additional signal attenuation. I have a passive coupler installed currently, but I just ordered a coupler/repeater which will hopefully solve this problem.

Very interesting. Your issue prompted me to study up on these breakers as I had not heard of them before. I am sorry that I cannot offer any direct experience. Hopefully some of the x-10 experts will have an answer for you.

From what I read these devices have to be fairly intelligent to be able to determine the difference between normal arcing that occurs when plugging and unplugging inductive loads and inrush currents from an actual fault. They are supposed to be looking for irregular currents near the zero cross point of the sine wave as well and this is where x-10 transmits. I could not find anything about whether or not they might filter the line with a capacitor or anything that might suppress an x-10 signal. Since these breakers are also looking for a "noisy line" that might indicate an arc-fault I would think that they would not filter the line much. They may include a filter it to attempt to make it less likely to nuisance tripping.

Good luck with the repeater as that seems like possible solution. I hope you will post your results so we can all learn from you.

Regards,
Ela

It seems that the repeater has solved the problem with the signals getting between the two circuits with arc-fault breakers, although one of my 23885's is on occasion mis-interpreting a signal addressed at another switch and turning on or off when it shouldn't be. I still need to do some more experimenting to see how frequent a problem this is.

I believe an arc-fault breaker is sensitive to harmonics (which are present to a significant level during an arc fault). I don't know what electronics are inviolved, but I could see them causing trouble with X-10.

I have not had issues with X-10 on Arc faults. At least not so far.

Is your controller plugged into a circuit on an arc fault breaker? The signal seems to be able to survive passing through 1 arc fault breaker OK, but 2 is another story.

I have had 2 distinct experiences in two different homes where X-10 did not work for me. In both cases I ended up using UPB components, which are more expensive, but much more robust than X-10. I originally suspected that my X-10 troubles were due to excessive noise in the electrical system (computers and fluorescent lighting).

Just recently I realized that both failed installations were in bedrooms and in checking further, sure enough, both bedroom circuits were on arc fault breakers. As several others have pointed out, it appears that the X-10 signalling is filtered out by these breakers. In both cases, I found that UPB components (which use an entirely different signalling methodology) worked fine without the use of filters or couplers.

The same X-10 components that failed to work at all on arc fault breaker circuits seem to work fine in other areas of the home that are on standard circuit breakers.