Labeling panel

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nizak

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I've got a large residence that I need to ID the circuits in 3 load centers.

The original contractor was fired by the homeowner before labeling was done and now he asked me to do a few things in order to get the job finaled.

I'm currently a 1 man shop and am looking for suggestions on the easiest and most productive way to do this alone.

I tried using a circuit tracer but found it to be inaccurate on several occasions.

There are a fair amount of tandem breakers and I'm not getting an accurate reading on many of them.

I'm thinking it may be easier just to plug in a radio turned up loud and shut off breakers one at a time.

Use an Edison base 2 prong adapter and do the same for lighting.

Fixtures with LED diodes will be a visual on off thing.

Thanks
 
nizak said:
I've got a large residence that I need to ID the circuits in 3 load centers.

The original contractor was fired by the homeowner before labeling was done and now he asked me to do a few things in order to get the job finaled.

I'm currently a 1 man shop and am looking for suggestions on the easiest and most productive way to do this alone.

I tried using a circuit tracer but found it to be inaccurate on several occasions.

There are a fair amount of tandem breakers and I'm not getting an accurate reading on many of them.

I'm thinking it may be easier just to plug in a radio turned up loud and shut off breakers one at a time.

Use an Edison base 2 prong adapter and do the same for lighting.

Fixtures with LED diodes will be a visual on off thing.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Audible plug in tester

Hey all, wondering if anybody has a link to help me out. I'm looking for an audible circut identifier. Not the typical tracer but just the simple device you plug into a recep that makes a noise until you shut off the right breaker....Yes I know a radio works too but don't feel like lugging a...
forums.mikeholt.com
 
For receptacles I used to either use a light on an extension cord or a drill with the trigger stuck in the on position. You need to be careful of the drill . Using a light is safer
 
I agree I have not found circuit tracer that works all that well. Some kind of noise maker, like others have said, and then painstaking work to ID other outlets on same circuit.

It's a real pain to finish someone else's job
 
There are several models of breaker finders available:

1598660273061.png 1598660304924.png



However, this type is much faster, as you don't have to turn breakers off and on:

1598660398626.png
 
Umm, looks left looks right, just fill in any name.
I tell the customer this is something you can do and I won't charge you for it; then I spot check their work.
 
sameguy said:
Turn on one circuit find all on it then off. Then on to next circuit.
Click to expand...

We recently discussed a puzzle on this topic. If you want to go down the exhaustive search of flipping each breaker and seeing what it controls.....

Create a spreadsheet of every device in the house. Create a second panel schedule sheet.

Go to the panel and flip off half of the breakers. Now go through the house and note what is on and what is off on your spreadsheet.

In your house spreadsheet, every device that has power gets a 1, every device that is off gets a 0. In your panel spreadsheet every breaker that is on gets a 1, every breaker that is off gets a zero.

Go back to the panel and halve things again (half of the ones that are one go off, half of the ones that are off go on). Again note what is on and what us off.

Continue this process of halving until every breaker has a unique binary number. 6 repeats covers 64 breakers, so you won't have to repeat the process many times at all.

Jon
 
winnie said:
We recently discussed a puzzle on this topic. If you want to go down the exhaustive search of flipping each breaker and seeing what it controls.....

Create a spreadsheet of every device in the house. Create a second panel schedule sheet.

Go to the panel and flip off half of the breakers. Now go through the house and note what is on and what is off on your spreadsheet.

In your house spreadsheet, every device that has power gets a 1, every device that is off gets a 0. In your panel spreadsheet every breaker that is on gets a 1, every breaker that is off gets a zero.

Go back to the panel and halve things again (half of the ones that are one go off, half of the ones that are off go on). Again note what is on and what us off.

Continue this process of halving until every breaker has a unique binary number. 6 repeats covers 64 breakers, so you won't have to repeat the process many times at all.

Jon
Click to expand...

In database lingo, that’s called a “binary search”.
 
Plug a lamp/nightlight, fan, something visually on in each outlet of a room or rooms
Borrow your kids’ phones, ipads, tablets.
Create a bunch of dummy email accounts (device01@gmaildotcom, device02@gmail....just have to call the phones, need the emails for the tablets.)
Zoom a meeting with all the devices
Place a device or devices in each room, or in as many rooms as you can cover, so you can see what goes on.
Flip a breaker, see what goes off and on.
Continue till you have identified each outlet and light.
What is left will be the furnace, water heater, dryer.....

This is an extension of what I do when working on a circuit. I place my ipad next to the device and WhatsApp my phone. Then flip the breaker and make sure the device is off.
I use in conjunction with a tracer. While not 100%, they usually get you within a breaker or two.
 
If the homeowner is standing around, ask him to help you. Tell him to yell when your plug-in tester lights up. Flip breakers until it does. One receptacle per room.
 
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