Just out of curiosity, is there a way to tell if two wall outlets are on the same circuit breaker without tripping the breaker or turning breakers on and off? I'm pretty sure it's not possible but maybe there's a way I hadn't thought of.
TIA
They have fox and hound style tracers, where you plug a small widget in the receptacle, it generates a signal and then you use the sniffing wand part at the panel to trace it down to the particular breaker. I've never used one, IDK how well they work. Even if it narrows it down to one of say two breakers, it would be a big help.
Rip open the walls and follow the wires. What's the problem with opening a breaker ? The old-fashioned way to do it, by yourself, is to plug in a loud radio and listen as you trip the breaker<s>
John T.
Another thing, IDK why in all my years I never just put a piece of paper and a pencil by the panel. That way each time you track one down, you could write it down. By now the list would be complete, instead I still hunt and peck.
I have one, they work pretty well but you are only sure when you trip the breaker.
Legally the panel directory should have been filled out on the original install and modified as things changed along the way but I bet the majority of panel directories are missing, incomplete or just wrong. It is an inspection point and the inspector should have made sure it doesn't just say "lights" or "receptacles" on a bunch of breakers. (I have seen that). I have never seen an inspector actually check them all to see if the directory is right. Commercial is generally a whole lot better than residential tho.
If you do not mind opening the breaker panel, very easy.
PUt a clamp on amp meter on all the breakers and write down the current. Then plug a hair dryer or some other device that draws a lot of current and go down the breakers again and look for a large increase in current. You may have to do this a few times as the refrigerator or other device in the house could turm on. It may be even quicker to do it backwards and just look for the circuit that is drawing the most current. Then cut off the hair dryer.
Trader mentioned the fox and hound. They usually work well enough. I have used one a few times in the past. They work very well for what you want provided the breakers are not side by side.
You might not have to trace a receptacle back to the breaker. Perhaps you can also detect the tone at the other outlet that Ken is thinking of.
But you'd want to do some verifying, like checking other outlets probably not on the same circuit, and yes, evenually tripping the breaker to be 100% sure.
My breakers were all labeled by the original electrician. He doesn't go into detail all the time, and the one circuit I added isn't marked. I plan to write a long letter for the new owner about all the not-so-noticeable things about the house.
I have only worked at 2 comercial places. A hospital and a large industrial plant. The hospital was built way before 1960 and almost nothing was labled. The comercial plant was buit around 1965 and not much labled, as new parts were built,sometims whole new buildings, still not much labled.
The last one was built around 2005 and still not labled very well for the 120/240 and the 277 lights.
Most of the 480 volt 3 phase circuits were labled fairly well. I kept a marking pen with me and wrote on them what they went to as I worked on the circuits.
Get a "circuit tracer". One part plugs into the powered outlet. It injrcts a signal onto the wire. The other part "sniffs" the signal at the breaker panel. The good quality ones can differentiate between adjacentbreakers.
The breaker testers are not true fox and hound (tone) testers. They set up a resonance in the overload winding of the breaker that the detector can detect. You won't see anything at other outlets on the circuit. A wall wart in the receptacle might create enough magnetic field to tickle the detector but I never tried.
Maybe I spent too much time in computer rooms where every outlet was labeled with panel and breaker number but I also inspected lots of commercial and the directories were very pretty. As I said I didn't test each one tho.
Mabee some - but mine will actually trace a circuit in a FUSE panel
- which would shoot that theory down.
Then it is a circuit tracer, not a breaker tester. I bet you can find other outlets on the circuit with it too.
Likely. I'd consider a "breaker tester" something to actually TEST the breaker
Breaker Tracer? I am not sure what they call it. The label came off mine years ago but I do know all it really does is find a breaker. It can't see a fuse.
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