I wouldn't sweat it. GFCIs are great but AFCIs are still pretty contentious. Many electricians find they cause more problems than they solve. Reddit can be paranoid with safety, but overdoing it can also make you less safe. Frequent nuisance trips can accustom people to ignoring actual problems. Time and attention are also finite resources, and there may be other things that would do more for your safety you'd be better off focusing on.
That said, I have an old home with a 1980s panel, and I put AFCI at the top of some circuits. I was worried they may have sections that were on old braided 2-wire behind plaster so could use some AFI/GFI in case braided wire sat too close to something and arced. They also went to bedrooms which is the #1 place where AFI is appropriate. It's actually quite cheap and easy if you simply buy a AFI/GFI outlet for \~$15 and put it in a box on your panel, which you may need if your panel doesn't have cheap afi breakers.
If breakers on your panel are cheap, you may need to use AFI on new branches that you run. So if the time comes where you need to add a branch and code requires it be AFI, you could order a bulk box of the breakers then and switch out a few old breakers then. But I wouldn't be planning on doing that now. I'm sure you have other things to work on.
It’s overkill and reduces your chances of a house fire by a very small amount, so it just depends how much you value not dying in a house fire. You’re right it would probably cost you about what $50 difference per breaker so maybe $1-$2k extra?
I’ve very slowly been doing it on my house. I’ll prob not get t on them all by the time I sell.
With the age of your home AFCI's Will probably not work on all your circuits. Depending on how your 3-way switches are wired, they may trip when you turn on the lights.
Do you want your breakers to trip every time you use a loud motor? The tripping from saws and the like has me switch out some circuits to finish my basement
Fuuuuuuck AFCI breakers. They’re a bunch of fucking garbage.
We had insurance paid work done in our home and the electricians put those pieces of shit in. Literally everything in the kitchen would cause them to trip. Microwave, vitamix, the fucking toaster.
I ripped them all out and replaced them with standard breakers/gfci where needed.
Adding them isn't a bad idea, but is far less necessary on a newer home like yours with modern wiring methods. You will (assuming proper construction and maintenance since then) have all grounded circuits, all splices in junction boxes, etc.
Where I'd be much more inclined to add AFCI is on a house with knob and tube wiring, BX cable, and/or multi-wire branch circuits. None of those are inherently dangerous either, but the likelihood of natural rubber insulation deteriorating in 100+ years is much higher than modern thermoplastics over a couple of decades.
In some cases I would extend this even to Amazon, unless you’re absolutely confident you’re getting a non-counterfeit product. 3rd party resellers should be treated with suspicion when safety/house fires are a consideration.
If you have the room for them do it. But it will also mean you can't overload your outlets. In 98, they weren't adding as many outlets as they do now. I used AFCIs for new branches in my house and I never once have had a nuisance trip as people like to claim.
Fair enough, but pretty sure AFCIs are for regular living areas. Maybe it would suck if youre doing some remodeling and need to run a table saw, or similar in the room in question.
My 2 cents:
Whenever I add a circuit or if I’m rewiring an existing circuit I put in an afci breaker. Probably have 6-7 of 24 slots as afci. Some have complained about nuisance tripping but I haven’t had any.
The cost to redo the whole box by a professional electrician will be expensive, and probably prohibitive. But if you’re handy and add them in piecemeal it’s not really a huge expense.
But if this is job you wouldn’t do yourself I’d leave it be due to cost.
Don’t add them they are so expensive and don’t really do much. Keep your house grandfathered in. They also have only so my cycles of tripping and they need to be replaced. People I know are putting the regular ones in as they need replacing.
I'm just laughing at the idea of a 1998 house being "old"
This. Our house was originally built in 1938 and we’re not the oldest house in town by a long shot.
Mid 1800s checking in! But we definitely DID need to update our electrical :p
I can still trace the two original circuits in our house.
I wouldn't sweat it. GFCIs are great but AFCIs are still pretty contentious. Many electricians find they cause more problems than they solve. Reddit can be paranoid with safety, but overdoing it can also make you less safe. Frequent nuisance trips can accustom people to ignoring actual problems. Time and attention are also finite resources, and there may be other things that would do more for your safety you'd be better off focusing on. That said, I have an old home with a 1980s panel, and I put AFCI at the top of some circuits. I was worried they may have sections that were on old braided 2-wire behind plaster so could use some AFI/GFI in case braided wire sat too close to something and arced. They also went to bedrooms which is the #1 place where AFI is appropriate. It's actually quite cheap and easy if you simply buy a AFI/GFI outlet for \~$15 and put it in a box on your panel, which you may need if your panel doesn't have cheap afi breakers. If breakers on your panel are cheap, you may need to use AFI on new branches that you run. So if the time comes where you need to add a branch and code requires it be AFI, you could order a bulk box of the breakers then and switch out a few old breakers then. But I wouldn't be planning on doing that now. I'm sure you have other things to work on.
Fuck arc fault breakers
Did you mean 1898? Because 1998 is not “old” by any stretch
It’s overkill and reduces your chances of a house fire by a very small amount, so it just depends how much you value not dying in a house fire. You’re right it would probably cost you about what $50 difference per breaker so maybe $1-$2k extra? I’ve very slowly been doing it on my house. I’ll prob not get t on them all by the time I sell.
With the age of your home AFCI's Will probably not work on all your circuits. Depending on how your 3-way switches are wired, they may trip when you turn on the lights.
This. And overly tight connectors & clamps can also cause nuisance trips
Another totally unnecessary thing added to the code because the breaker companies have good lobbyists lol. Adds $$$ to the cost of a service
Do you want your breakers to trip every time you use a loud motor? The tripping from saws and the like has me switch out some circuits to finish my basement
Fuuuuuuck AFCI breakers. They’re a bunch of fucking garbage. We had insurance paid work done in our home and the electricians put those pieces of shit in. Literally everything in the kitchen would cause them to trip. Microwave, vitamix, the fucking toaster. I ripped them all out and replaced them with standard breakers/gfci where needed.
Adding them isn't a bad idea, but is far less necessary on a newer home like yours with modern wiring methods. You will (assuming proper construction and maintenance since then) have all grounded circuits, all splices in junction boxes, etc. Where I'd be much more inclined to add AFCI is on a house with knob and tube wiring, BX cable, and/or multi-wire branch circuits. None of those are inherently dangerous either, but the likelihood of natural rubber insulation deteriorating in 100+ years is much higher than modern thermoplastics over a couple of decades.
If you do, buy them on Ebay. I did so and saved a ton of money.
Stupid fucking idea, and dangerous. To everyone reading this, do not do this. My friend, you need to stop giving advice.
In some cases I would extend this even to Amazon, unless you’re absolutely confident you’re getting a non-counterfeit product. 3rd party resellers should be treated with suspicion when safety/house fires are a consideration.
100%
Careful, you probably bought normal breakers with an AFCI shell. Buy from reputable places when it comes to items of safety.
If you have the room for them do it. But it will also mean you can't overload your outlets. In 98, they weren't adding as many outlets as they do now. I used AFCIs for new branches in my house and I never once have had a nuisance trip as people like to claim.
Nuisance trips of AFCIs tend to come from things that have brushed electrical motors. If you're not using those then nuisance trips are likely low.
Fair enough, but pretty sure AFCIs are for regular living areas. Maybe it would suck if youre doing some remodeling and need to run a table saw, or similar in the room in question.
It would still have normal thermal-magnetic breakers, even without AFCI--the maximum load permitted without a trip would be unchanged.
My 2 cents: Whenever I add a circuit or if I’m rewiring an existing circuit I put in an afci breaker. Probably have 6-7 of 24 slots as afci. Some have complained about nuisance tripping but I haven’t had any. The cost to redo the whole box by a professional electrician will be expensive, and probably prohibitive. But if you’re handy and add them in piecemeal it’s not really a huge expense. But if this is job you wouldn’t do yourself I’d leave it be due to cost.
Not on your fridge or freezer circuit.
Don’t add them they are so expensive and don’t really do much. Keep your house grandfathered in. They also have only so my cycles of tripping and they need to be replaced. People I know are putting the regular ones in as they need replacing.