Thank you Jim! 
Dave, you posted the appropriate article. The photo posted by KL is wrong because the cables are not in a raceway.
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Probably not seeing them at older houses when they werent required at time of installation / construction? Check the age of house that will tell you if it should be there or not.
That’s overselling the benefit, sounding more like an advertisement than objective advice.
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Here’s a cheap whole house alternative to AFCI’s on every circuit:
Ting - Electrical Fire Safety, Simplified - Smart+Proactive=Prevention
Because of problems, and not a small number of them, that lead to workarounds that are worse than the problem that was originally meant to be solved.
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Interesting. It would be great if it were a one-time purchase for the device instead of an annual service charge ($99/year).
A bunch of insurance companies are giving the device for free (e.g. they pay the costs).
Honest…LOL
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People have never really come to terms with the idea that businesses pay for nothing. I mean, I suppose it happens when the business is about to grenade into nothingness with pouncing lawyers waiting in the wings. Otherwise, they just pass the costs on.
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Don’t confuse a dual purpose breaker with a combination AFCI breaker. Combination doesn’t refer to the breaker being both AFCI and GFCI. It means that the breaker protects against both parallel and series faults. A Dual Purpose breaker is one that protects against both arc faults and ground faults.
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The age of the house alone isn’t sufficient to determine whether there should be AFCIs. Local building codes are not all the same.
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SoCal: AFCI’s introduced 2003, So if we have a 1999 it was not required at time of construction. Age counts in our area/
If you inspect 2 homes side by side of each other and neither home has AFCI’s.
One is a 2003 build and one is a 1999 build.
What is the report narrative for each home?
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Larry when were building plans pulled? if plans have stamped prior to 2003 that gives them a little out. But when I do inspections, I would say AFCI required in bedrooms in 2003, none present, it is recommended to upgrade outlets to meet current requirements for safety enhancement, consult with an electrician for further assistance. – Reviewing the plans and Building sign off sheets will reveal more information. But I let the client know to check when plans were approved and consider upgrade for safety. In 2003 the state gave a break but really started jumping on the AFCI requirements in 2004, now if 2004, "AFCI safety breakers serving bedrooms was required at time of construction, none present, recommend consulting with Electrician for upgrading outlets to AFCI for safety and to meet requirements at time of construction. 2003 in our area was a grace period because of the newness and a lot of faulty AFCI breakers. Kind of a nice way to break it to the client and their Realtor.
Thanks, William.
If the AFCIs were not present, I used to just recommend them for enhanced safety without consideration for when plans were stamped code wise, or such. Made it easier on me.
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There weren’t many areas that required AFCIs in 1999, so that’s a safe enough bet. However, after 1999 is another matter and depends on where you are in Southern California. Not all areas began requiring AFCIs, or in the same areas, at the same time.
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