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?

I met an old electrician one time who used to short out the socket, and then
go look and see which one tripped. I'm not sure I like that idea.

I usually plug in a radio and turn it up to max. Then when the radio goes
silent, I know I've got the breaker.

--

Christopher A. Young
You can't shout down a troll.
You have to starve them.
..

"Ken" wrote in message
...
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?

"Ken" wrote in message
...
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?

I went thru this exercise a few months ago myself. It's a pain, but the
trial/error method is the way to go. You'll spend an hour or so, but you'll
be done with it.

g

If you have a really long extension cord and a drop light, plug it into
socket for testing, then run the cord to area near circuit breaker and
keep trying breakers until you find the right one.

wrote:
If you have a really long extension cord and a drop light, plug it into
socket for testing, then run the cord to area near circuit breaker and
keep trying breakers until you find the right one.
I use a really noisey hair dryer to do this. It also vibrates a lot so
when you lay it on the floor you can hear the vibration throughout the
whole house. I also put it on the end of an extension cord as mentioned
above and only had a problem with it one time. I heard it go off and it
wouldn't go back on when I reset the breaker. I had the outlet apart
and was checking the exterior conduit that the circuit ran down in when
the neighbor lady yelled out the window "You know your hair dryer fell
out the window so I turned it off". The window was on the 3rd floor and
it was on a 50' extension cord.
Richard

I just did the same exercise in my house. I picked up a circuot tester
at Home Depot. It only works with outlets, but it works great. You plug
a device into the outlet you want to identify. Then you go to the
breaker panel and run a wand down the circuits. When you hit the right
one, it the wand starts beeping. This is SO much better than the old
way! Saved hours, and did a much more thorough job. My old house had a
number of funky wiring combinations (never knew the master bath was on
the same cicuit as the garage lights) that would have taken a while to
figure out without this device.

They have also updated it since I bought mine to make it easier to use.
Here's the link:
http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS...l.0& MID=9876

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?



You certainly have to do testing, but you need to
do it logically. Start with the large breakers
first and work to the smaller ones. You do not
turn one breaker off and then look for the
circuit, you start with all breakers off and then
turn one breaker on and test. The largest
breakers will generally be a single appliance,
such as electric furnace, A/C, electric stove,
electric clothes dryer, dish washer, etc. When
you get to the 15A breakers, you will likely be
dealing with lights and outlets and these will
usually be grouped in an area, e.g., bedroom, or
bedrooms, bathroom, outside, etc.

So. Flip the biggest breaker to on and go look for
the biggest appliance and turn it on to see if
that is the appliance until you find the appliance
that goes on. When you get to the 15A breakers
outlets, all you need is a small lamp, flip the
breaker and then insert the plug in every socket
until you find one and then try all the sockets in
the general area, and flip switches for lights.
Flip that breaker off, turn another on, and
proceed with testing. Depending on the size of
the house, it won't take that long.

"Ken" wrote in message
...
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?

Turn on all your appliances - lamps, TV's, etc.

Flip all the breakers off in your house.

Then flip one on. See what comes back on and label the breaker. Repeat until
finished.

Seems to be a quicker solution than trial and error.

Dunno why.

I use a vacuum sweeper or a radio turned up loud so I can hear it from
the circuit breaker box to tell when I flip that particular outlet circuit.

jim

Kyle Boatright wrote:

"Ken" wrote in message
...


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?



Turn on all your appliances - lamps, TV's, etc.

Flip all the breakers off in your house.

Then flip one on. See what comes back on and label the breaker. Repeat until
finished.

Seems to be a quicker solution than trial and error.

Dunno why.

"mm" wrote in message
...
On 4 Mar 2006 20:32:26 -0800, "spudnuty" wrote:


(snip)
ROTFL I got a phone call a few weeks ago that my machine answered.
My next door neighbor was leaving for wrok in the morning and he saw
my passenger door ajar about an inch. He was afraid to close it, but
I didn't answer the phone, and he was afraid NOT to close it. So he
closed. it. Which was fine with me. I tried to imagine why I might
not want it closed, and I coudln't think of one, and I guess he
couldn't either.

Oh, I quite understand your neighbor's reluctance. Some people are as touchy
about their cars as cowboys were about their horse, and don't want anyone
touching them. Get hollered at a few times, and you get gunshy. Not to
mention, some car alarms aren't smart enough to NOT arm with door open, and
can still go off.

I have no idea what my neighbor's names or phone numbers even are. A wave
while taking evening walks is the extent of our interaction.

aem sends...

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

A breaker usually will serve more than one light/outlet.
Turn on all the lights. Plug something into as many outlets as
you can; nightlights, the like, radio, whatever.
Make a sketch of the whole house showing lights/outlets.
Turn off a breaker. Go see what's not working, mark it on the
sktech. If an outlet doesn't have something plugged into it,
find something to test it with to see if it's off.
Usually lights and outlets aren't on the same breaker, but you
never know. Now you can eliminate those lights/outlets from the
next search.
Turn that breaker back on, turn the next one off.
Repeat. You'll quickly see a pattern to what's being turned off
and after a few breakers the job gets pretty easy.


"Ken" wrote in message
...
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?

On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 03:27:23 GMT, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

I met an old electrician one time who used to short out the socket, and then
go look and see which one tripped. I'm not sure I like that idea.

I usually plug in a radio and turn it up to max. Then when the radio goes
silent, I know I've got the breaker.
==============
My Dad was an electrician and also used the method of just shorting
out the circuit... no big deal., its quick and foolproof....

BUT honestly the last time I needed to find the correct breaker I went
downstairs and the wife YELLED down the steps what light went out !

Bob G.

On Sat, 4 Mar 2006 21:17:00 -0500, "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?


I tested all the lights and receptacles, then flipped one breaker and
checked again to see what isn't working.
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what
to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb
contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin

On 4 Mar 2006 19:42:58 -0800, wrote:

If you have a really long extension cord and a drop light, plug it into
socket for testing, then run the cord to area near circuit breaker and
keep trying breakers until you find the right one.

My method involves one walkaround per breaker, rather than one for
every receptacle or light,
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what
to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb
contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin

On 4 Mar 2006 21:00:44 -0800, "WirelessNut" wrote:

I just did the same exercise in my house. I picked up a circuot tester
at Home Depot. It only works with outlets, but it works great. You plug
a device into the outlet you want to identify. Then you go to the
breaker panel and run a wand down the circuits. When you hit the right
one, it the wand starts beeping.

Then you walk back and move the device to the next outlet. Repeat for
EACH outlet. For mapping the whole panel, it'd be more walking than
turning off each breaker (1 at a time) and checking the outlets.

This is SO much better than the old
way! Saved hours, and did a much more thorough job. My old house had a
number of funky wiring combinations (never knew the master bath was on
the same cicuit as the garage lights) that would have taken a while to
figure out without this device.


In my house, the receptacle behind the refrigerator is on the same
circuit as the main bathroom light. I never expected that.

They have also updated it since I bought mine to make it easier to use.
Here's the link:
http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS...l.0& MID=9876
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what
to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb
contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin

On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 05:19:48 GMT, "George E. Cawthon"
wrote:

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?



You certainly have to do testing, but you need to
do it logically. Start with the large breakers
first and work to the smaller ones. You do not
turn one breaker off and then look for the
circuit, you start with all breakers off and then
turn one breaker on and test.

Either way would work. Starting with all on would leave things working
most of the time.

The largest
breakers will generally be a single appliance,
such as electric furnace, A/C, electric stove,
electric clothes dryer, dish washer, etc. When
you get to the 15A breakers, you will likely be
dealing with lights and outlets and these will
usually be grouped in an area, e.g., bedroom, or
bedrooms, bathroom, outside, etc.


I've seen 15A breakers, but this house doesn't have any. All the 120V
breakers are 20A. Then there's the 240V breakers, 3 30A and 1 50A.

So. Flip the biggest breaker to on and go look for
the biggest appliance and turn it on to see if
that is the appliance until you find the appliance
that goes on. When you get to the 15A breakers
outlets, all you need is a small lamp,

You may have receptacles and lights on the same breaker.

flip the
breaker and then insert the plug in every socket
until you find one and then try all the sockets in
the general area, and flip switches for lights.
Flip that breaker off, turn another on, and
proceed with testing. Depending on the size of
the house, it won't take that long.
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what
to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb
contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin

On Sun, 5 Mar 2006 07:56:25 -0500, "Kyle Boatright"
wrote:


"Ken" wrote in message
...
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?

Turn on all your appliances - lamps, TV's, etc.


And have a tester or small, portable appliance ready for testing
receptacles not normally used.

Flip all the breakers off in your house.

Then flip one on. See what comes back on and label the breaker. Repeat until
finished.


Remember that modern electronic appliances (like that TV?) might not
come on until you use THEIR controls.

I did it the other way - start with all on, then turn one off. Either
would seem to work. The above could be an advantage of doing so.

Seems to be a quicker solution than trial and error.


I tried the "trial and error" method once. It was mostly error since
the other person wasn't cooperative.

Dunno why.




--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what
to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb
contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin

On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 08:29:08 -0600, Bill Gill
wrote:

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.


I used such a map. One reason is to make sure I checked EVERY outlet.

The Living Room may be on 2 or 3 different circuits. It doesn't work
to test one outlet, and assume the others are on the same circuit.

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
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what
to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb
contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin

On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 15:38:31 GMT, "Pop"
wrote:

A breaker usually will serve more than one light/outlet.
Turn on all the lights. Plug something into as many outlets as
you can; nightlights, the like, radio, whatever.
Make a sketch of the whole house showing lights/outlets.
Turn off a breaker. Go see what's not working, mark it on the
sktech. If an outlet doesn't have something plugged into it,
find something to test it with to see if it's off.
Usually lights and outlets aren't on the same breaker, but you
never know. Now you can eliminate those lights/outlets from the
next search.
Turn that breaker back on, turn the next one off.
Repeat. You'll quickly see a pattern to what's being turned off
and after a few breakers the job gets pretty easy.


The walk-through (for each breaker) gets easier, since you can
eliminate the outlets you've already identified. Remember to check for
receptacles where each side is wired separately.


"Ken" wrote in message
...
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?


--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what
to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb
contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin

You can buy a circuit breaker tracer at a hardware store for about $30.
It has two parts. One part plugs into the wall socket. The other
part you place along the side of each circuit breaker until it indicates
the breaker which controls that wall socket. For light fixtures which
use screw-in bulbs, you can use an adapter.

If you're selling the house, why bother? Let the new owner do it.

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?

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?



There are several different brands of tester which do what you describe.
In fact your local borg probably has at least one of them hanging on the
peg right now. This unit is one of the best but is rather expensive IIRC
but I'll include the page for reference anyway:

http://www.greenlee.textron.com/archive/MA4762.pdf

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com

On 4 Mar 2006 20:51:48 -0800, "Sev" wrote:

Right, and the labels usually can't be trusted- as the service gets
updated over time, only a conscientious few bother to update the
labels. I've often thought there's got to be a better way.

Label the recepticals.

On Mon, 06 Mar 2006 12:47:28 -0500, Goedjn wrote:

On 4 Mar 2006 20:51:48 -0800, "Sev" wrote:

Right, and the labels usually can't be trusted- as the service gets
updated over time, only a conscientious few bother to update the
labels. I've often thought there's got to be a better way.

Label the recepticals.


With labels that don't fall off easily. Of course, you still have to
figure out which labels to use where.
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what
to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb
contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin

On Sat, 4 Mar 2006 21:17:00 -0500, "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?

You're doing it backwards. You don't need to find out which breaker
serves a specific fixture, you need to find out which fixtures are
served by each breaker. Turn off all the breakers except one. Walk
around the house and see what's on. Repeat for each breaker.

Now, how do you test each fixture? First leave everything on that can
be, like lights. For outlets, get one of those "pen" type testers that
you don't need to plug in. HD has a cheap Greenlee device. It senses
AC line voltage when its tip comes close to a live connection. I had
to map out a junction box with about two dozen wires in it. I don't
think I would have survived the experience if I'd had to disconnect
(or *cut*) each wire to see which ones were live.

Greg Guarino

On Tue, 07 Mar 2006 02:33:10 GMT, Greg G
wrote:

On Sat, 4 Mar 2006 21:17:00 -0500, "Ken" wrote:
For outlets, get one of those "pen" type testers that
you don't need to plug in. HD has a cheap Greenlee device.
Greg Guarino
Here it is:

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/tmt/grgtnovode.html

On Sat, 4 Mar 2006 21:17:00 -0500, "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?


A radio is your friend. Plug it into each outlet in the house and
find out which breaker turns it off. To check lights you need a
helper to hollar when the light goes off. (unless you want to unscrew
lightbulbs and put a screw in outlet in the socket to plug the radio).