IT’S ALL ABOUT SAFETY

Each year home electrical fires kill about 480 people, injure more than 2,000 and destroy more than $868 million in property. While working smoke alarms, fire extinguishers and other safety measures provide some life-saving help only after a fire starts, there is a new technology that prevents dangerous and deadly electrical fires from destroying the home and injuring loved ones.

A new innovative device, an arc fault circuit interrupter, or AFCI for short, is an advanced form of a simple circuit breaker that was developed in response to an electrical problem causing home fires. When dangerous electrical conditions are detected, the AFCI shuts off the circuit before a fire has the chance to ignite.

WHO WE ARE

AFCISafety.org is a one-stop information resource on the Internet for residential arc fault breaker safety information distributed by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) Low Voltage Distribution Equipment Section.

The goals of AFCISafety.org are to:

• Increase the level of awareness of AFCI and its uses in residential applications
• Inform about the differences between branch/feeder AFCIs, combination AFCIs, and GFCI devices
• Provide information related to AFCIs' preventative aspects of arcing faults and its links to fire safety
• Highlight proper installation and operation of AFCI devices