We put a new circuit breaker in our apartment last year after many electricians told us our old model was defunct and dangerous. And we still haven't labeled it. Any on/off of the swithes still leads to guesswork, even in a tiny apartment. So, we finally plan to follow through with the simple task of labeling thanks this friendly reminder from Charles and Hudson.
Has everyone else an impeccably-labeled box? With the high rate of turnover in the city's apartments, it sure would prove helpful for us all to stay on top of our breakers' labels. For those of you with quaint old fuse boxes (we had one once), check out this about.com page of Fuses 101.
Oh, and that photo up top is unfortunately not our new breaker. It's a beautiful old fuse box from the The John Rylands Library at Manchester University.
Copyright © 2007 Apartment Therapy
Hmmm. Whenever I read C&H I always end up wanting more. They only scratch the surface of most subjects.
What they should have added is that the best way to actually find which breaker goes with which outlet is to buy a circuit breaker finder/tracer (google and you'll see what I mean) so that you can do it on your own without having to have someone else yell over at you when the appliance goes off while you trip every breaker until you hit it.
Plug one end into an outlet and then go to the breaker and pass the receiver over each breaker. It will light up when it gets to the breaker that corresponds to the outlet that the sender unit is plugged into.
view jamie pup's profile
Actually I guess I have an issue with the AT title:
How to... Label your circuit breaker
This is not a how to and, to be fair to C&H, they did not title it as such. They simply say that you should.
view jamie pup's profile
Merely a suggestiment for visualization of the electrifying: if you to buying of many inexpensif little blue night-lightses from nearby hardware store. You may place them in electrecepticals and for looking at them see if switch make them on or off. Because many people have not so many lamps and HiFi set to plug to every switch-pot. Also remember for turning on all other lightses and device for to know if they come from other switches. Then throw switch one at time and run around apartment with pen and paper-bloc and note-take who on and who off. Night-lightses makes for easier visual.
view Max Othermoxx's profile
Just a tip for checking which outlets are on which breakers without having to buy a circuit tester -- plug a radio (or other noise making apparatus) into the outlet ... when it goes off, that is the right breaker.
view robyn's profile
take this grain of sand, cause it is all i have to want.
view ion/?/'s profile
Yes, I have mine marked. When I restored this house, we went room to room turning off the electricity. As in many old houses, we have electric plugs in one room on two different fuses. So I painted a map inside the door of what goes to which fuse. It will be there for the next generation.
I also painted a list of the paint specs, so anyone can reproduce the paint in years to come.
As I write, I realize I forgot to 'post' the recipe for the floor stain. I'm going to do that now.
view Team Decor's profile
I recently moved out of a big old house that had three big circuit breaker boxes in the basement,one on the second floor, and one on the third. My terror regarding all things electric led me to a labeling solution that worked out really well! I took a digital photo of each circuit panel, blew it up to a conveniently large size, and mounted each panel's photo next to it. Then, as the electrician went over the circuits with me, I labeled each one on its picture in LARGE, LEGIBLE print. This helped avoid much squinting by flashlight if things fell dark. It also looked kind of cool.
view Aulaire's profile