Are your breakers labeled?

[Elkins45]

Our breaker box is unlabeled. Our house was built sometime between 1998-2000 so this hardly a legacy install in a pre-industrial home. As the years have passed all the 220 breakers have gotten figured out as we’ve replaced the AC and water heater, but today I needed to replace an outlet. Of course I had to shut off almost all of them before finding the correct one so then we had to reset a whole bunch of electronic devices that had lost their memory.

That breaker box is unlabeled because the electrician was lazy and because the contractor and inspector allowed it to be. A contractor who allows a shortcut that can be seen like an unlabeled breaker box will probably allow many more in places where they can’t.

So here’s a tip: an unlabeled breaker box should be a negotiating tool when home shopping for the reasons above. At the least it should be a red flag to make an extra effort to look for hidden things.

 

[Ausfahrt]

It's not that big of a deal to spend 10 minutes flipping breakers to figure out what goes where.

But yes, you should do that before you buy the house.

 

[supton]

Mine are labeled… mostly. Have thought about labeling each outlet with breaker number. Or at least make a map.

 

[Mechanician]

If you sell your house, an inspector will probably red flag that.
It needs to be labeled.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Mine are labeled, but then we switched some around. I think.

 

[GSCJR]

Yes

 

[eljefino]

Mine are labelled with "so and so's room" from two owners ago.

There's also a breaker labelled "pool." There's no pool.

Real pros label each fixture with what breaker feeds them.

My 6-gang generator transfer switch is well labelled.

If you decline to buy a house in this market because the breakers aren't labelled you're setting yourself up for "van life." Give the kids a roll of masking tape, radio, and walkie talkies and they'll figure it out.

 

[walterjay]

Early on in my career I almost got killed by a 240V circuit that was mislabeled. Never trust the labeling. Verify.

 

[Pablo]

First house in 8 the breakers are somewhat labeled, before never marked or just 3-4 marked. I say this for this house because the crazy way they did the circuit layout is straight up amateur

I had to add more to each label to make any sense. Things like, "north side of hall to laundry, first 3 outlets" "south side of laundry hall 2nd and 4th outlet" "Master bedroom closet and 4th bedroom east wall outlets" FAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Elkins45]

If you decline to buy a house in this market because the breakers aren't labelled you're setting yourself up for "van life." Give the kids a roll of masking tape, radio, and walkie talkies and they'll figure it out.

If I ever buy another house it will be because something in my life went very, very wrong.

Or I win the lottery, and in that case I’ll pay my assistant to label them.

 

[Chris142]

Yes. We had to upgrade the box a few years ago. I hand wrote what each breaker does.

Was nice getting rid of the old screw in fuses. My dad used to put a penny under a blown one to get the power back on.

 

[UncleDave]

Yes. The pony panel in the garage is also labelled.

 

[nomas]

You can get a circuit breaker tracer . About $50 .

 

[jhellwig]

You are supposed to label them?

 

[kschachn]

Mine are labeled… mostly. Have thought about labeling each outlet with breaker number. Or at least make a map.

I did that a few years ago when I bought a new labeler and was looking for things to label.

 

[93regalcustom]

When I bought my house I took my Aiwa boombox, cranked it up, plugged it in to various outlets and labeled all the breakers by listening to when the music stopped. It proved over the years to be a worthwhile endeavor.

 

[Dave Sherman]

The electricians who replaced my box labelled the breakers, but not very well. About half of it is correct. I drew a map of the basement, ground floor, and second floor, and marked all the outlets and lights. Wife and I spent about an hour with an outlet tester and our phones and identified all the breakers.

 

[TimeFlies]

Mine are all clearly labeled.
Bought this house about 6 months ago, and the previous owners were very conscientious.

 

[John105]

Yes, and our house was built 1952. Whenever it was upgraded, likely 1996 or so, that was done. Kinda weird how here we are in 2025 and so much doesn't seem to be progressive.

 

[Pablo]

Mine are all clearly labeled.
Bought this house about 6 months ago, and the previous owners were very conscientious.

I honestly think previous people here didn’t care. That’s probably a good thing seeing some of their other work!