Mapping Electrical Circuits

[JB]

I live in a 30 yr old home and I am getting ready to remodel the kitchen. New cabinets, counter, lights, etc. I will be replacing a single overhead fluorescent with lots of recessed ceiling lights and adding undercab halogens. I may move or add more sockets. A few walls with sockets and 3-way light switches will be moved.

I will probably add one or more new lines to the panel to handle the additional lights but I need to map the existing circuit(s) so I know what I'm removing and moving. I think some of the switches are "middle of the run" to the rest of the room (and even other rooms in the house) so I'm not sure where the circuit begins and ends. Other than trial and error (disconnect something and see what happens in the rest of the room/house), is there a logical way to trace and map the beginning, middle, and end of the circuit?

--Jeff

[RayV]

[RickH]

I use the Fluke injector/receiver trace tone kit. I do a lot of side jobs for home automation pre-wiring, networks, security, coax, intercoms, video, home theater, whole-house sound, phone, etc. sometimes I only have a day before the drywallers come so I just home- run every room to the basement, then use the tracer to come back and label the wires later. It also works on live powerline wires with no contact necessary, it's basically an RF injection with a detector for the other end. Home Despot sells the Fluke, there is a better one (the one with the small gray boxes) name escapes me. Then there is a real cheap small red one that is a piece of crap, dont buy that one (name escapes me). HD has them all.

[Terry]

Gee, I just mark the cables with a sharpy as I do them.

[Terry]

The cheapest way is to turn off one circuit at a time and mark as much stuff as you can. I use post'ems. You might miss one or two, but you can find them pretty easy after you elimate the bulk.

ie turn off circuit 1. Label everything that is off 1. Turn 1 back on and turn off 2.

If you can find a similar floor plan online, you can use it to roughly mark the locations and circuit numbers.

The double pole breakers will almost always control 1 thing only.

[sym]

wait till tear out then when stuff is exposed you can lbael the wires with a sharpie (feed,sw leg, etc). and then rewire as needed. i wouldnt worry where it starts and ends just as long as everything gets picked back up.