Dual function circuit breakers

[Jim Becker]

I believe the original incentive for the adoption of Arc Fault devices was to guard against frayed wires, such as extension cords and the like...a common problem in rooms like bedrooms and other home locations where people do things like put cords under the rug or have pets that are prone to gnawing. A lot of fires have resulted. Arc Fault detects this kind of thing and generally shuts it down before a fire can be sparked.

[John K Jordan]

Sometimes the GFCI and AFCI breakers don't do well with electric motors, especially something like an air compressor that draws a lot at startup. It won't hurt anything except perhaps many trips to the breaker box to reset a breaker.

I have GFCI circuits in my shop. I had to remove the one powering a Jet 1642 EVS lathe. Powering it on would trip the GFCI every time.

JKJ

[Jim Becker]

I wonder if in some jurisdictions that are pretty strict on this if one might have to do dedicated circuits for specific machines to address the issue?