09-03-2025 — Waiting for power

Howdy all. Weather, no change — but may rain tomorrow. Only day with rain on the 2 week forecast as of this morning. Temperatures will fall, and highs will be in low 60s. And winds are to pick up later tonight. We will see if it really rains.

After another AFCI breaker hit yesterday, I stopped trying to finish up getting the CO2 laser tested. At first, I was going to call the electrician. But decided to do some internet searching first.

Started by getting pictures of the AFCI breakers in the existing panel.

I flipped this photo around so the labels could easily be read. See the line that says C2008181332? 2020 is the year of manufacture. Both of these AFCI breakers were made in August of 2020. The one with the embossed 6 (upside down) at the bottom of the picture is for the laser room. The embossed 2 is the 3D printer room.

Those are not the original AFCI breakers installed in the house when I moved in around March 2020. I had all of them replaced. Oh, by the way, the printer room one has also tripped maybe twice in the last year or two.

It is code that AFCI breakers be on circuits where people sleep to protect them. Just like you have GFCI where water might touch electric. AFCI is Arc Fault, GFCI is Ground Fault.

With GFCI, if you are wet, and your feet are “grounded”, and you touch a live wire, the electricity will take the easiest route to ground, and likely kill you on the way. So the breaker detects that, and stops it almost immediately, saving your life.

With Arc Fault, the breaker is supposed to catch bad wiring, where the electricity jumps from positive to ground or negative, and thus saving you from having something catch on fire. But it seems these breakers are also “hearing” frequencies that may or may not exist, and tripping when you plug in a vacuum or an older electronic device.

Seimens is fighting a class action lawsuit, filed in 2022, about these breakers and nuisance tripping (no apparent cause). It happens mostly with their older models, and the later ones have different firmware that seems to be “smarter” and trip less often. They claim no problem with the breakers exist. ““““Siemens QA120AFC 20-Amp Single Pole 120-volt Plug-On Combination AFCI Breaker””” is the model. A lot of electricians online seem to believe the new models are better. But, finding “new stock” is tough sometimes.

When I moved into this house in March 2020, I had many instances of the AFCI tripping in the Master bedroom. I had all of the AFCI breakers replaced multiple times trying to “fix” the issue. Also had every plug and every switch replaced in the room. And replaced the vacuum I was using.

Notice the C210208#### They were manufactured in February of 2021. I think the one on the right is the Master Bedroom.

The issue persisted well into 2022. I thought I found the problem then. I noticed that housekeeping would leave the ceiling fan wall switch on, and the fan not spinning, sometimes when they left. If I tried my portable AC with that on, the breaker flipped. So that switch was replace too. Still failed sometimes.

Oh, and did I mention that in 2020-2021, having the breakers and wall outlets replaced cost close to $600? Getting those breakers during COVID pandemic times was next to impossible. None in stock anywhere.

So, late in 2022 I took another route. I asked the electrician to run a separate circuit to the Master Bedroom for my portable AC unit. Because of the complexity to do this, it was around $1000. He had to run from the panel into the garage attic, out the side wall to outside, more conduit up the side of the house to the house attic, into the attic, across the entire house, then down the wall, and create an outlet box for it. But, since it was an add-on, it didn’t have to have an AFCI breaker by code. I leave the portable AC plugged in there, and sometimes plug other things in that 20amp circuit too. Hey, the AC only uses about 12amps at maximum.

Now, could I have the Electric contractors back to add 20 amp “clean” circuits to each of those front bedrooms that I use for my toys? Yes. If there were open slots on the panel. There are not. And I imagine it would cost maybe $1500 now. Maybe able to use same outside conduit to house attic. And the run would be shorter up there since these are on the same side of the house as the conduit instead of 30 foot away.

And getting this scheduled and done might take a month or so. Or I could try to have the AFCI breakers replaced with the newest generation of Siemens AFCI/GFCI dual breakers. Supposedly they have smarter smarts and may not trip. That would likely be a $500 electrician invoice.

Instead, I’m going the ugly method. Right next to the laser room is a bathroom that is barely used. It has its own GFCI outlet and 20 amp circuit. Right now I have a humidifier plugged into it, and the humidifier in the hallway to help with the upstairs being dry.

I also have a small air purifier up in the rooms to help pick up the residue for my toys running. I will run an extension cord in a cord cover wall box, from the hallway outlet that is around the corner, and plug the humidifier and purifier into it. Of course there are a couple USB power gizmos already plugged into the outlet around the corner. So, I will add a power protect wall unit with 8 outlets and USB over the existing outlet.

This frees up the 20amps in the bathroom. I’ll run a long 15 amp extension cord through more cord cover down to the floor, and under the door around the corner. The extension cord will be under floor cord cover (on the carpet) in the hallway, at the edge of the wall, until, it goes under the laser room door, and to the common wall. Now under more floor cord cover over and under the laser’s table. I can then plug the water chiller and the fume extraction equipment into it. Leaving just the laser on the circuit in that room -- well, also laptop and other stuff will be on the circuit too. But no where near 20 amps.

The floor cord covers are so the Roomba can navigate the rooms and hallway with getting stuck, and so I do trip on the cords either.

Everything I need costs less than $100 and should arrive by 8 pm today. I hope.

I’ll let the world know if this works and if I once again can Enjoy Life