Ark fault breakers, magnetic transformers and dimmer issues

[Matt M]

Is anyone having issues with magnetic transformers for LV lighting (LED & Halogen) randomly tripping AFCI breakers. As well as making the dimmers flash red? 
I have installed approx 60 dimmers and am having issues with 10 of them. These dimmers have all been installed for a year and are now starting to act up. 

[mstafford388]

It doesn't take much to trip arc fault breakers, it happens all the time.   Generally speaking I've found ELV transformers play much, much nicer with C4 lighting than MLV.  How big are the loads on the dimmers that are flashing red?  Also, are you sure those loads are dimmable?  

[Cyknight]

15 hours ago, mstafford388 said:

Also, are you sure those loads are dimmable?  

That, and what "C4 lighting" - there isn't just one options....APD FPD, Panel, Essential line vs Gen3 line

[Matt Lowe]

might be a loose connection. might worth while to go in and re - terminate the connections on each of those devices.

 

[brantlmcdonald]

On 4/27/2021 at 5:14 PM, Matt M said:

Is anyone having issues with magnetic transformers for LV lighting (LED & Halogen) randomly tripping AFCI breakers. As well as making the dimmers flash red? 
I have installed approx 60 dimmers and am having issues with 10 of them. These dimmers have all been installed for a year and are now starting to act up. 

 The circuit breakers won’t cause an issue with your lighting controls; that sounds like a power quality issue. 
 

what is the brand of circuit breaker? The first thing to do is find out why it’s tripping; could be an arc fault, could be a ground fault, could be an overload. Some breakers have an indicating light, some have specific ways of re-setting to determine what caused the trip. Get back to me with the type, preferably a pic, and I’ll try to help you. 
 

My first thought in reaction to what you describe is that there’s likely an issue with the neutral wire from your incoming service, or possibly some induced current on the grounding system. 
 

how many breakers are tripping? And what are the breaker space numbers in your panel?