Nuisance trip?

[ptonsparky]

We had company over Thanksgiving weekend that brought a new MAC laptop with him. 5 days old to him. He plugged in to an AFCI protected circuit. CH BR style combination type, about 5 years old. They have a magnetically held connection for charging. It tripped the AFCI twice. He is savvy enough to understand that the position he had the laptop resting during the charge caused the connection to be intermittent and he told me about it. It was his first experience with an AFCI. I do not know what the current draw of the power supply is but I would think less than the 6-8 amp level we hear is required for the AFCI to work.

We moved it to a proper position and another location that was not AFCI protected.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

... I do not know what the current draw of the power supply is but I would think less than the 6-8 amp level we hear is required for the AFCI to work. ...

That is for the AFCI to work correctly and detect the arcing connection. There have been issues with "electronic" interference tripping AFCIs at current levels far below where they are actively looking for arcs.

It is my understanding the the AFCI does not look for a series arc unless the current exceeds 5 and and does not look for a parallel arc unless the current exceeds 75 amps. There is also the issue of the ground fault protection part of the AFCI, if your AFCI has that (two manufacturers no longer have GFP on all of their AFCIs), but I would expect that the power supply is a two wire device making a ground fault trip unlikely.

 

[ptonsparky]

That is for the AFCI to work correctly and detect the arcing connection. There have been issues with "electronic" interference tripping AFCIs at current levels far below where they are actively looking for arcs.

It is my understanding the the AFCI does not look for a series arc unless the current exceeds 5 and and does not look for a parallel arc unless the current exceeds 75 amps. There is also the issue of the ground fault protection part of the AFCI, if your AFCI has that (two manufacturers no longer have GFP on all of their AFCIs), but I would expect that the power supply is a two wire device making a ground fault trip unlikely.

The device we plugged the laptop into after moving it, was a GFCI, but I do not remember if it had a two or three wire power supply.

 

[donaldelectrician]

We had company over Thanksgiving weekend that brought a new MAC laptop with him. 5 days old to him. He plugged in to an AFCI protected circuit. CH BR style combination type, about 5 years old. They have a magnetically held connection for charging. It tripped the AFCI twice. He is savvy enough to understand that the position he had the laptop resting during the charge caused the connection to be intermittent and he told me about it. It was his first experience with an AFCI. I do not know what the current draw of the power supply is but I would think less than the 6-8 amp level we hear is required for the AFCI to work.

We moved it to a proper position and another location that was not AFCI protected.

Mac Chargers are very good quality , if he used a chinese charger , could create problems .

AFCI,s are for ...t .




Don

 

[Timbert]

I have heard of problems with MacBooks and AFCI's before. Typically during power on and wake from sleep.

Computer switching power supplies have very non-linear current characteristics that can appear to be an arc fault condition. The typical fix is to replace the AFCI, either newer ones have better discrimination or the older ones deteriorate after a while.