Arc Fault GFCI confusion

Nick, I have experienced that GFI breakers tend to have a much lower incidence of nuisance trips than GFI receptacle. The price however tends to be much higher, and since most new homes require 2-4 GFI circuits depending on configuration the cost will add up, so being the ever wise masters of all things with wire the electricians don't seem to use them.

You guys just love those wall warts, dont'cha?? We hard wire our transformers. We use the Frost double pig-tail units. The high voltage end gets mounted to an 1110 box (or extenstion ring), and the other end mounts to the lower knock-out of the can. No fuss. No muss.

On that note: Should it be "required" to have the dedicated single purpose receptacle it would be best for all to specify that the receptacle be a "duplex" with the bridge tabs removed and only the bottom outlet be connected. In this way you will have a screw to hold the txfmr so it won't fall out at 2:45AM.

Just one more thing to do to make someone happy.

Have a good weekend all.

Les

Here in our town the AHJ Chief electrical inspector. will allow you to have a single duplex grounded non-GFI receptacle in the basement for your alarm transform.

But because you need the mounting screw of a duplex and not a single receptacle to mount the transformer. He makes you cut off the taps to the top half and silicone it shut.

In Connecticut GFCI protection was only required if the outlet was below grade or in a wet location (kitchen, bath, laundry, etc). Our solution was to mount either a single quad or two duplex outlets on the alarm backboard above grade level. That gave me room for more than one transformer plus power for light and tools next to the panel.

BTW, if the job entails multiple power supplies and other wall-mounted stuff, I like to have a shelf for tools, manuals and stuff. When doing integrated systems consider installing a half or even full sheet of 1" exterior grade plywood on the basement wall. You can mount a multi-outlet power strip near the top and plug in all your wall warts there. I sometimes used to nail studs to the basement wall (nail gun) and mount the plywood to them, leaving a hollow chase behind to drop my cables. Then I'd use the large knockouts on the backs of the panels to bring the wires in through the plywood. The effect is nice and clean -- no wires visible outside the boxes -- but you have to fuss with them a bit more to make everything stay neat inside the boxes. You also need to leave a gap hear the ceiling so you can easily fish new cables in later if needed.

Borrowing from a tip in one of the trade rags many years ago, I used to buy ACX (waterproof and very smooth on the good side) plywood and either shellac it or paint it gray before mounting. If I had some spare time I would pre-cut the cable holes and mount the cans on the back board at the office, run interconnect cables as needed, then bring it over in the van and hang the whole thing at once.

snipped bullshit story

Yeah, sure fat boy.

js