Am I stupid to replace a AFCI breaker with a regular breaker

[hanish123]

Long story short: I had a electrical problem on a circuit that powers our backyard lights and outlets a few months ago that fried the circuit breaker too. Electrical problem was fixed and I had an electrician swap out the breaker for a new one. At the time, he offered to replace it with an AFCI/GFCI breaker for a bit more money and I thought "what the hell" but I'm beginning to regret it.

We basically get a phantom/nuiscance trip that only occurs after hours of the lights being on in the backyard. The breaker in question actually protects two subcircuits: a first that powers two outdoor outlets that are rarely ever used and a second that powers out entire backyard lighting, with a smart switch that is inaccessible to human fingers. I've tried everything I can think of to eliminate the phantom trips, including recutting the wire ends and reconnecting every single light, adding waterproof connectors, and even rerunning some of the wires in conduit where I thought problems might be originating.

The trips are all AFCI related, as the breaker displays some LED lights indicating that there is an ARC fault instead of a standard overload situation, so I'm thinking I might have been better off with just a standard breaker. I'm thinking of swapping the AFCI breaker with a standard breaker and just replacing the first outlet in the outlet subcircuit with a GFCI outlet to make sure the outdoor outlets themselves are to code, but leaving the light circuit without AFIC/GFCI protection (which I believe is also to code).

Am I stupid to do this though? Is there some reason why I should be paying strong attention to these ARC faults that could cause some sort of big problem down the line, or is this likely what I think it is: a small amount of moisture getting into a light fixture somewhere in the yard that most people wouldn't ever care about or even notice?

 

[Megawatt]

Long story short: I had a electrical problem on a circuit that powers our backyard lights and outlets a few months ago that fried the circuit breaker too. Electrical problem was fixed and I had an electrician swap out the breaker for a new one. At the time, he offered to replace it with an AFCI/GFCI breaker for a bit more money and I thought "what the hell" but I'm beginning to regret it.

We basically get a phantom/nuiscance trip that only occurs after hours of the lights being on in the backyard. The breaker in question actually protects two subcircuits: a first that powers two outdoor outlets that are rarely ever used and a second that powers out entire backyard lighting, with a smart switch that is inaccessible to human fingers. I've tried everything I can think of to eliminate the phantom trips, including recutting the wire ends and reconnecting every single light, adding waterproof connectors, and even rerunning some of the wires in conduit where I thought problems might be originating.

The trips are all AFCI related, as the breaker displays some LED lights indicating that there is an ARC fault instead of a standard overload situation, so I'm thinking I might have been better off with just a standard breaker. I'm thinking of swapping the AFCI breaker with a standard breaker and just replacing the first outlet in the outlet subcircuit with a GFCI outlet to make sure the outdoor outlets themselves are to code, but leaving the light circuit without AFIC/GFCI protection (which I believe is also to code).

Am I stupid to do this though? Is there some reason why I should be paying strong attention to these ARC faults that could cause some sort of big problem down the line, or is this likely what I think it is: a small amount of moisture getting into a light fixture somewhere in the yard that most people wouldn't ever care about or even notice?

I know that by code on a new built home that they are required for bedrooms hallways and living room. If in fact those two circuits or probably one circuit. Lighting and outdoor receptacle are supposed to be GFCI protected. Ever since they come out with AFCI breakers they have always tripped for no apparent reason. Most electricians replace them with regular breakers.

 

[norcal]

In later NEC editions AFCI's are just about required on all residential 120V circuits, with a few exceptions, so it violates code to do so, for that reason I hesitate say that it's OK to do so. There used to be certain things that would cause them trip, Dyson vacuum cleaners was one item, but are getting better, and different manufacturers behave differently, the proprietary innards of each brand of AFCI can react differently.