Are your breakers labeled?

[mrsilv04]

I wired my own house. The panel is labeled... and dated.

 

[Hall]

Ours is roughly labeled but I have a spreadsheet that's more detailed:

If you remove an outlet or switch cover, I have labeled many of the wires with the circuit # as well.

 

[Cropduster172]

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

Doubtful. I've sold homes where the buyer's inspector never noted that. You'd be lucky is 20% of home inspectors ever do that.

 

[Mechanician]

Doubtful. I've sold homes where the buyer's inspector never noted that. You'd be lucky is 20% of home inspectors ever do that.

Funny how experiences differ.
Of friends and family buying, and selling homes, I've already seen it noted a couple of times.
Just one additional thing on the list presented.
Which inspector you get, probably makes all the difference in the world.

 

[Cropduster172]

Funny how experiences differ.
Of friends and family buying, and selling homes, I've already seen it noted a couple of times.
Just one additional thing on the list presented.
Which inspector you get, probably makes all the difference in the world.

It's an easy entry, low capital outlay, mostly unregulated industry...all the ingredients for many fly-by-nighters and incompetent clowns.

 

[Donald]

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.

You could label all outlets with the breaker number also. I would do that but assume wife would hate it.

 

[nomas]

You could label all outlets with the breaker number also. I would do that but assume wife would hate it.

Do it on the backside of the cover plate .

 

[Hermann]

Mine was labeled by a shall we say, someone who was enjoying the herb. Names like "Great Room" and "Closet Bathroom" should say it all.

 

[JHZR2]

Partially. But unless it’s broken so far out that there is a breaker allocated to each bedroom receptacles and lights, I suspect you still may be doing some switching… and should always check regardless.

 

[KGMtech]

Yes. We just finished an addition to the house and added a Heat Pump for the air conditioning and heat for new area, so to get the final sign off on the permit, the city inspector had to have a copy of the electrical permit which required a completely labelled breaker.

 

[KevinMalone]

Back during lockdown, I went through the house with a circuit breaker finder and labelled all of the breakers on a spreadsheet. Haven't quite figured out how to make it printable to place at the panel though.

 

[oil pan 4]

Circuits I put in are labled.

 

[dlundblad]

My panel is somewhat labeled. I bought a circuit tracer that I plan to use to see what is what.

I definitely recommend labeling the cover plates.

 

[nomas]

I need to redo my panel schedule . Apparently over the years some things got changed and others were incorrect or missing . I've been putting it off but I did a little project this week that would have been quicker if I didn't have to play " Find the breaker " .

 

[mr_boring]

When I bought my house it was labeled. About 3 of them were right. Like mentioned above, mine isn't some pre color TV hovel, but built in 2000. I know it's original wiring, and it irritated the everloving snot out of me.

 

[HICKORY11595]

Had this house built in 2023. Rick and Sons labeled the house and barn with "textbook" accuracy. We are lucky to have them as our electricians.

 

[Jetronic]

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.

there should be an electrical plan that has all the labelling

 

[z71bill]

I lived in the house for about 19 years - no labels.

Lost power during a hurricane and I went to generator power -
I started a list and now have most identified.

Far as quality construction - not electrical but just as an example.

I had to replace a few pieces of siding that were on the chimney. I remove the ones that were bad and looked down the inside of my chimney.

I noticed a couple boards that looked sort of odd - so I took a closer look.

They were boards off a pallet - the ones that are cut out so the fork lift can put its forks under it.

I looked still closer and I could see a few other boards that were the top of a pallet.

I was able to get inside the chimney and add some reinforcement - but who inspects inside a chimney?

 

[nomas]

I started my labelling job yesterday and found that most of the existing labels were wrong .