Patent ID: 7940055

Claim:
An arc fault monitoring system comprising: a monitoring unit associated with a power supply; a number of sensor units associated with a number of loads connected to the power supply by a number of power lines and capable of making measurements for the number of power lines associated with the number of loads and transmitting the measurements to the monitoring unit; a number of optical cables connecting the monitoring unit to the number of sensor units, wherein the number of optical cables is integrated with a number of sheaths covering the number of power lines; and a number of thermoelectric generators capable of generating power to operate the monitoring unit and the number of sensor units, wherein an electric generator in the plurality of thermoelectric generators is with the monitoring unit and each of the number of sensor units, wherein the monitoring unit is capable of controlling measurements made by the number of sensor units, receiving the measurements through the number of optical cables, and determining whether an arc fault has occurred from the measurements received through the number of optical cables.