AFCI breaker sharing a neutral?

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Dave0101

Joined Jan 24, 2025
3
Odd question. Suppose I have two breakers on two legs, one is AFCI one is standard. Due to how the house is wired, the downstream outlets (on different legs) share a neutral coming back to the panel. Can I plug that neutral into the AFCI breaker and have it work normally, as in not trip up the AFCI function from return currents from the other leg? My understanding is that AFCI electronics are just looking for certain waveforms and aren't like GFCI that looks for imbalances (and definitely would not work configured as such). Presently, the configuration seems to work when tested with loads (AC-DC power pack for charging).

Eaton BR. I've heard it's possible on other manufacturers. I've asked Eaton, but I don't think their CR support reps are EEs capable of understanding the question, and I'm not getting a clear response.

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sghioto

Joined Dec 31, 2017
8,633
There's only one neutral bus bar in the panel so where else would you connect it?
My panel has both type of breakers and they all use the same neutral bus bar.
 
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