On 9/6/10 12:58 PM, Steve Turner wrote:
On 9/6/2010 12:09 PM, zzzzzzzzzz wrote:
On Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:46:07 -0500, Steve Turner
wrote:

On 9/5/2010 3:22 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
How many homeowners know what circuits each receptacle is part of?

Speaking of that, why in the hell don't the codes call for some sort of
standard labeling scheme so that a person could read a number off the
front of
the switch or outlet and trace it straight back to the very breaker
in the
panel to which it's connected?

How would that prevent a fire or electrocution?

If you could tear yourself away from the endless and pointless thread
leading up to my minor diversion (which is what I tried to do by
snipping away all the other context), try picturing the situation where
the homeowner is able to TELL (quickly and easily) exactly which breaker
cuts the power to the outlet he wants to fiddle with (without manually
tripping every other friggin breaker in the box and hitting the outlet
with a meter just to find out what SHOULD have been documented at
installation) so that when he sticks the screwdriver in there he doesn't
get zapped? I can't tell you many times I've deferred the reworking of
an outlet because I didn't want to accidentally power down the internet
gateway or reset all the damn clocks in the house...


Every time I work on an outlet or ceiling fan or get in a junction box
anywhere in the house, I try to remember to mark the number of the
breaker on the inside on the cover with a sharpie.

Of course, I also have one of those radio jobbies that plug into the
outlet and beep when you place the receiver over the correct breaker...
but that number on the inside barrows it down much quicker. :-)
In the shop, every outlet, quad, light, junction box) has the breaker
number written in sharpie on the outside, clear as day. In fact, I have
little symbols I write on the romex running overhead, indicating what
it's running to or from: hot, switch, 3-way, etc.

I've rearranged my shop so many times-- after getting better tools or
doing a major reorganization, overhauling the lighting-- all that
labeling *really* sped up any rewiring I had to do.


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

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