Patent ID: 6876204

Claim:
A tester for an arc fault circuit interrupter in a branch circuit of an AC electrical system, the branch circuit having hot, neutral and ground lines, the tester comprising: a full wave bridge rectifier having inputs connected to the hot and neutral lines of the branch circuit and having positive and negative outputs; a load resistor and a switch connected in series between the positive and negative outputs of the rectifier; and a controller for generating control pulses during between eight and twelve consecutive half cycles of the AC signal, the control pulses occurring at a selected number of electrical degrees in the AC signal and for a selected duration, the controller being connected to the switch such that the control pulses turn said switch on to generate a simulated arc fault current in the branch circuit, the load resistor having a value which will cause the simulated arc fault current to be high enough to trip a properly functioning arc fault circuit interrupter; the full wave bridge rectifier having a rating of between 5% to 20% of the simulated arc fault current, the switch having a rating of between 15% to 65% of the simulated arc fault current, and the load resistor having a watt rating which is less than about 15 watts.