Powerline Adapters & AFCI's

[Jagger100]

I bought some powerline adapters and learned about the situation where some brands of AFCI's can impair throughput significantly. Figures I would want to put the adapter between two rooms that both have AFCI's. And I checked they are the bad type of AFCI.

Anyway, I have a different problem. For a couple of weeks I had the adapters setup. And for a couple of weeks I was plagued with the AFCI's tripping off. I thought it could be the builder's suspect outlet wiring job and moving plugs around to accommodate the powerline adapter disturbed the outlets. I also noticed it would only happen when a computer and TV were on on that circuit and the blower was running for the house. Somehow the household load seems to be important.

But after some debugging I have pulled the powerline adapters and no more tripped breakers. So although load is a factor and maybe some noise as well, its the adapters which are primarily at fault.

Anyone run across this before?

My next debugging step is to move the adapters between two rooms that don't have AFCI's.

My biggest concern is if there's actually arcing in the PL adapter itself.

Ultimately to get decent throughput I would need to replace the AFCI's with a different brand. Which is worse than it sounds because somehow my builder got away without installing a main breaker. I'm assuming because I'm part of a condo and there's probably some master breaker for my run of units where the meters are consolidated.

 

[dandragonrage]

What brand of distribution panel do you have, and what brand (if different) were the AFCI breakers? And could you just use an alternate technology such as MoCA (though if you can't return the PLN adapters that'd suck)?

PLN can't cause arcs (unless you have extremely defective equipment) but it's not like the circuits to detect arcs (and ground faults in the case of GFCIs) are perfect. I'd say it's quite likely that your equipment is not causing arcing, but causing the detection circuitry to fail by putting unexpected "noise" into your power circuit. Arcing can only be caused by high voltage relative to the insulation between the hot and neutral/ground. Not sure if moving to a different brand would fix it or not and either way unless you replace the distribution panel itself, you probably won't have many options for alternate AFCI breakers.

 

[wizdum]

Get rid of the AFCIs. They're fucking useless, and the number one complaint we get on every new house. Everything trips them. I'm surprised they don't go off when you have too many people standing in one room.

If you're comfortable working in the panel yourself, you can have your power company pull the meter for you.

 

[Jagger100]

Get rid of the AFCIs. They're fucking useless, and the number one complaint we get on every new house. Everything trips them. I'm surprised they don't go off when you have too many people standing in one room.

If you're comfortable working in the panel yourself, you can have your power company pull the meter for you.

A little more difficult for me in the condo situation. I would have to verify who owned the wiring before I removed the afci's wholesale.

I have another problem. The Builder didn't install a main breaker since code didn't require it. I have to assume there's an external shutoff that he was able to get away with it.

Which means swapping out those breakers is a big deal whether I switch types or just brands.

 

[Jagger100]

What brand of distribution panel do you have, and what brand (if different) were the AFCI breakers? And could you just use an alternate technology such as MoCA (though if you can't return the PLN adapters that'd suck)?

PLN can't cause arcs (unless you have extremely defective equipment) but it's not like the circuits to detect arcs (and ground faults in the case of GFCIs) are perfect. I'd say it's quite likely that your equipment is not causing arcing, but causing the detection circuitry to fail by putting unexpected "noise" into your power circuit. Arcing can only be caused by high voltage relative to the insulation between the hot and neutral/ground. Not sure if moving to a different brand would fix it or not and either way unless you replace the distribution panel itself, you probably won't have many options for alternate AFCI breakers.

I assume its noise. The type is the Siemens style which are suppose to be bad for throughput. Ironically they way they interfere with transmission could also make them either more sensitive to the PL noise but also possibly less sensitive. Swapping breakers would be a big deal for nothing.

If I had a do-over, MoCA would be the way to go. Unfortunately I misled myself about the adapters early on and haven't had much time to mess with them so its too late to return them.

I'm basically screwed. MoCA's would be cheaper than what it would cost to fix the issue. But one of the reasons I avoided the MoCA's was that I am already splitting the coax in the room with the router between a hdhr tuner and the cable modem. I don't want another split.