Electrical circuit tracer

[Willl]

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/AM...nstruments-_-Electrical Power Testing-_-1WXG1

Wow, they're pretty proud of those things. :ashamed:

 

[Obed]

Here's an interesting article that applies to this topic.

Circuit Tracers and Breaker Finders Do they really work?

 

[orezok]

Kudos to the electrician who did my house
Lots of outlets
Empty breaker slots
Very neat and labeled panel

Two things
Switch that seems to do nothing
Bedroom switch controls porch light

But those things could have been in the SOW.

I too had the switchs that "did nothing" until I discovered that the electrician wired one exterior outlet front and rear to an inside switch. He said they were for christmas light etc. Kinda cool feature to be able to control an exterior circuit from inside.

 

[2manyrocks]

I had one switch that I never figured out in the 20+ years I lived in one house until a few years ago.

A friend of mine recently tried to explain how to trace circuits at a different place by shutting off the power, putting a wire across the hot and neutral in the outlet, and then testing for continuity at the circuit box.

Since I had to replace the meter and the power was completely disconnected at the weatherhead, I bought a HF cable tester and labeled the circuits that way instead. The cable tester is a different gizmo not intended for use on powered lines from the tester that they sell to trace powered lines. It worked pretty well and I was pleased. Seems like I got it on sale, too, for about $20.

 

[PILOON]

Shucks, every box store sells tracers that look like a fat pencil with a small flat screwdriver head. Use a 1.5 V cell and beeps when close to a live wire or when you poke the end into an outlet, (hot side of plug)
Greatest little tool, beats the electric drill or loud radio method. $20. max!

LOL, the other day we wanted to isolate 10 circuits in a 36 breaker pannel and wished to totally cisconnect from the pannel.
The circuits were in an underground conduit that a backhoe damaged and naturally unmarked.
My KISS solution was to short each hot lead (black) to ground.
The 10 popped breakers very quickly identified the pannel locations and we then pulled out all the defective wiring and breakers leaving a clean tidy pannel and uncluttered conduit..

 

[chopped]

Great article i like ''''At this point, I run the receiver over the wires and not the circuit breakers. Once I narrow down the few breakers it may be, I concentrate harder on the receiver. '''
It does take some patience to narrow it to one breaker, but Ive found the el cheapo to work well...