Detecting microarcs

Have there been any thoughts about using the Sense to monitor microarcs in home wiring? Is it even capable of this? This would be a great safety feature.

Please humor me as I am not familiar with the term “microarc.” What do you mean by that?

The web page linked above has symptoms you might see in a home about electrical arcing. Is that different or the same as what you refer to?

Certainly such arcs would be in the realm of my question. But a micro arc would be generally smaller than what that article mentioned.

What prompted the question was finding untightened screws on the switches in my house that still allowed the lights to work, but surely weren’t making good contact.

In addition older houses before the newer plastic insulations came out could have deteriotlated rubber insulation that would lead to arcing. Sense should be able to catch this one would think.

I’m not sure that a sense meter could detect an micro arcing since the sense meter doesn’t have the load going thru it. It’s measuring amps thru the CT’s and voltage in L1 and L2. Every electrical device that has a motor with brushes in it also creates an arc. If you rock a light switch too slow, you will also have arcing

If your house has rubber insulated wiring, I would highly recommend replacing the wiring or at least installing arc fault breakers on those circuits. They will still work on 2-wire systems with no ground wire. Many insurance companies will not insure a home with rubber insulated wiring due to arcing causing fires.

I’m sure sense has looked into listening for arcing, but I think it requires someone listening for the sounds (pop/ buzz/ hissing) while it’s actually arching or lights flickering. Electricians use oscilloscopes to try to pin point electrical flow issues and damaged wires.

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