As you say hard information is sparse. My guess is that the case of the kind that  "fused the cable to the terminal" is about all they'd be able to detect that other devices (e.g. RCDs) wouldn't have anyway.  If money were no object I'd probably have them on the basis that in the game of natural selection every little helps, but in the real world I'd probably think that spending that money on about 101 other things first would probably yield better results. (Personally I'd go for BS 8436 cables, either metal or thermosetting plastic enclosures for accessories, and better terminals - as being a more thorough approach to a wider range of problems.) 

The rather radical change of emphasis in their use BS 7671 between AMD1 (generally in fire vulnerable environments (sleeping accommodation, combustible materials) and AMD2 (just socket outlet circuits in high-rise and high density housing) it does seem to suggest that their emphasis is now more on portable appliances rather than fixed wiring. Not many portable appliances draw more than 2.5A (so unlikely to help with the knock-off hovverboard or electronic cigarette chargers that seem prone to starting fires), the likes of irons and vacuum cleaners are tend to be attended when in use, so likely to be unplugged if they start misbehaving, long before they'd get to the stage of starting a fire. I guess portable room heaters are the most likely candidate, but how often they suffer arc faults rather than just just falling over and overheating the fluff, I'd have my doubts.

I suppose my slight hope in all this is that if we start introducing devices that can very carefully monitor the details of load currents and use some decent intelligence in evaluating them, there might be the possibility of detecting other problems. E.g. the increase in resistance over time of a loose connection or overloaded conductor is likely to be quite different to that of a normal load (comparable with the arcing from motor bushes being distinguishable from arcing from a loose wire) so perhaps the basics of an AFDD could in time be adapted to something that is more generally useful.

   - Andy.

As you say hard information is sparse. My guess is that the case of the kind that  "fused the cable to the terminal" is about all they'd be able to detect that other devices (e.g. RCDs) wouldn't have anyway.  If money were no object I'd probably have them on the basis that in the game of natural selection every little helps, but in the real world I'd probably think that spending that money on about 101 other things first would probably yield better results. (Personally I'd go for BS 8436 cables, either metal or thermosetting plastic enclosures for accessories, and better terminals - as being a more thorough approach to a wider range of problems.) 

The rather radical change of emphasis in their use BS 7671 between AMD1 (generally in fire vulnerable environments (sleeping accommodation, combustible materials) and AMD2 (just socket outlet circuits in high-rise and high density housing) it does seem to suggest that their emphasis is now more on portable appliances rather than fixed wiring. Not many portable appliances draw more than 2.5A (so unlikely to help with the knock-off hovverboard or electronic cigarette chargers that seem prone to starting fires), the likes of irons and vacuum cleaners are tend to be attended when in use, so likely to be unplugged if they start misbehaving, long before they'd get to the stage of starting a fire. I guess portable room heaters are the most likely candidate, but how often they suffer arc faults rather than just just falling over and overheating the fluff, I'd have my doubts.

I suppose my slight hope in all this is that if we start introducing devices that can very carefully monitor the details of load currents and use some decent intelligence in evaluating them, there might be the possibility of detecting other problems. E.g. the increase in resistance over time of a loose connection or overloaded conductor is likely to be quite different to that of a normal load (comparable with the arcing from motor bushes being distinguishable from arcing from a loose wire) so perhaps the basics of an AFDD could in time be adapted to something that is more generally useful.

   - Andy.