Don't be foolish,leave it alone and call an electrician.

I second the motion. There are too many possibilities, and combinations of possibilities to help you systematically troubleshoot these issues, and some of them would require more electrical knowledge than I suspect you have. I'm not trying to insult you; I just want you to stay safe and not get fried. Call an electrician.

Your previous panel (especially if it was more than 8 years old) almost certainly didn't have AFCIs in it.

There are a number of things that could be happening, all take more diagnostic testing than I'm likely to be able to write about here:

1. You've got an actual overload. (Unlikely)

2. You've got an actual arc fault.

3. You've got a ground fault. While AFCI's don't have as low a threshold as GFCI's do, they will trip with ground faults.

4. The breaker is defective (Unlikely).
   
   If you're lucky, #2 or #3 will be visible at some box in the circuit. A loose wire on the device or in a wire nut can cause it. A wire touching a ground (the side of a metal box or the metal housing of a light or other fixture). Other than that it's going to end up being a real divide and conquer approach.

I agree that this should be carefully checked. I've heard of AFIs nuisance tripping, but haven't personally experienced any of it with the Square D QO AFIs that I have.

On your living room light/fan, do you have a wireless remote control for it? Maybe the receiver (which controls both fan and light electronically) has partially failed.

Some AFCIs are definitely less prone to nuisance trips. The first round of GE ones I had were terrible. I ended up replacing them with later versions and it got a lot better. My new construction will have Eaton/CH ones instead. (Was a big SquareD QO guy up north, but CH seems to be the most used down here in the south).

Having had an ancient SIEMENS panel, I can tell you I'd never deal with them again.

All, here is a quick update on this problem:

- When this breaker trips, the LED is 'not' lit up in the panel (these breakers have a spec sheet that shows the cause of the 'trip' with a LED color). According to the Siemens document, this means there is an overload or short circuit.

- In this guest bedroom, the overhead fan / light switch can be off, and turning on the closet CFL can also trip the breaker after a period of time.

As mentioned, in my master bedroom which is on it's own separate circuit, but has the exact same 20A AFCI breaker, turning on either the overhead light / fan combo switch by itself can trip the breaker, or with the overhead light / fan switch off, and turning on one of the closet CFL lights can also trip this breaker.

Now I'm wondering if there is a bigger issue contributing to all these problems I'm seeing, or if each of these issues are still individual problems are not related in any way to each other? The other night I went in the hot tub outside and turned on the jets and noticed one of the outside lights starting to 'flicker' when I turned on the jet.

Thanks!

All, I have an update on this issue after calling an electrician out to my home - he resolved both rooms (guest bedroom and master bedroom) by changing out the 20A AFCIs with a regular 20A breaker. He indicated breakers can / do go faulty after a number of years, particularly in a humid climate. Prior to his arrival, I could reproduce the issue within 30 minutes, and I have yet to see the problem with the new breakers.

When I asked why only the 2 bedroom circuits would have been on AFCIs, he wasn't sure, but did state that the new home code is for all circuits to be installed with AFCIs.

Thanks for the update. AFCIs were required only for bedroom circuits in the early 2000s. IMO, your electrician should have installed new AFCIs, not standard breakers.

I agree with DavidR. Your electrician, in my opinion, fed you a line of bull. Breakers typically do not just "go bad" even in wet climates. As we pointed out, some of the early AFCIs were problematic, but they've improved.

AFCIs are required and for good reason. It became clear that you could start fires with arcing at currents less than that needed to trip the breaker on a circuit. The "bedroom only" compromise was pretty lame for a couple of reasons. The argument was that if you were in some other room you'd be awake enough to notice the fire. Further, just because a circuit doesn't provide power to an outlet IN the bedroom doesn't mean it doesn't pass in close proximity to one.

The modern code requires just about all 15/20A 120V circuits in living area to be AFCI protected. I'm really leary about pulling out AFCI protections.

If it was just a bad breaker, replacing it with another AFCI would solve the problem. But you've still have the LIKELY possibilities as I stated in my post earlier that there is an ARC or a GROUND fault in that circuit. It's real easy to have a ground-neutral fault in a circuit and you'd never know unless you have an AFCI or GFCI protecting it.

breakers do go bad. I have a new panel. some 2 pole 15,s and single pole 15's. one half of a single pole 15 went bad after two years and one single pole 15 went bad in 8 months. All breakers were new installs when the panel was installed. changed out the breakers and now I have constant power to my living room.

FWIW, I've used Square D QO and GE panels for years. I've never had a breaker fail. Even the early QO AFCIs I have still work flawlessly.

The early GE AFCI's were crap. The Mod II and III's were much better with respect to nuisance tripping. But the breakers technically didn't go bad, they weren't that great to begin with :)

I had to replace an old GFCI breaker at my mom's house last month. The house dates to 1978 but I'm not sure whether the breaker was original or not. The darn thing cost $59 but I keep telling myself that at least we didn't have to pay an electrician to put it in. :-D

Theoretically if not practically, unless your name is on the deed or mortgage, you probably broke the law doing that. In most areas, you're allowed to do electrical work on your own home, but not on friends' and relatives' homes.

Thanks, good to know.

It would be rather amusing if my 80-year-old mother who knows nothing about electricity could legally work on her house, but I can't replace a broken breaker or a loose old outlet. What a world. <eyeroll>

I never figured you for a criminal tox. BTW,if you crossed any state lines those subject you to federal charges for each line crossed,,,,,in both directions. I sure hope mom isn't charged as an accessory.

toxcrusadr-

Your secret is safe with us... ;-)

:-P Multiple states. And I talked to her about it on the phone so I'm probably guilty of wire fraud or some such.

Probably...but with what's going on in Wash, DC, these days, you're likely way down on the list!

You got that right.