Ken wrote:
The previous (original) owner of my house never labeled the circuit breakers
in the breaker panel. Every time I go to change a light fixture or a
receptacle, I have to go thru this trial/error process to find the breaker
to shut off. Now that I'm selling the house, I'd like to have all the
breakers labeled so the new owner won't have the same problems. Is there a
better way to figure out what breaker serves what outlet/light/fixture/etc
other than just flipping each breaker, one-at-a-time until the right circuit
goes dead?


The trial and error way is about the only way. There
are some good suggestions about ways to do it in the
other responses.

One thing you might want to do is to make a sketch plan
of your house, and mark all the outlets, lights and such
on the sketch, with the breaker for each one. That way
when you see a breaker labeled "Living Room" you can
tell that it is the outlets on the East wall, not the
lights.

Post the sketch in or adjacent to the breaker box and
you can glance at it and know which breaker to turn off.

After that check to make sure it is dead before you
start working on it.

Bill Gill