# Testing Tools Question for New Homeowner



## NewRehabber (Feb 1, 2017)

I recently purchased a new home and will be doing a lot of electrical work myself. I have enough knowledge and comfort with the subject to do most of the work myself. I'm educating myself along the way and am trying to get the right tools for what I'm doing. I have a basic set already, but one purchase I'm trying to figure out is the testing side of things.

The house was built in the 1960's and it seems like it went through quite a bit of electrical changes, upgrades, etc. Its difficult to know what's what, so my first plan is just to sort of map it all out and see what is on each circuit breaker, etc.

I know there are a variety of wire tracers/tone generators and circuit breaker finders, but I'm trying to figure out if I should get multiple tools or if one tool will do the trick. The only electrical tester I have at the moment is a multimeter - which is great for some things, but not so much for mapping out a whole bunch of outlets and sockets in the house.


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## slownsteady (Feb 1, 2017)

Sure, new tools are great. But for mapping out the circuits in the house all you need is a plug-in radio with loud volume. Plug it into an outlet, start flipping breakers. When the noise stops, you have found the circuit. :trophy:


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## joecaption (Feb 1, 2017)

And never assume all the outlets in the room are on the same circuit.
Often times there is no rhyme or reason the way things were done.
We had one house that lost power to all the outside lights and outlets.
Come to find out it was a GFI in a bathroom on the second floor on the other side of the house.
Same house only had one GFI protected outlet in the whole kitchen and that was to the fridge, nothing over the counters.
And that's just a few of the hundreds of things we found wrong.
Funny thing is the builder of the development built this to be his own home.


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## afjes_2016 (Feb 1, 2017)

slownsteady said:


> Sure, new tools are great. But for mapping out the circuits in the house all you need is a plug-in radio with loud volume. Plug it into an outlet, start flipping breakers. When the noise stops, you have found the circuit. :trophy:



Yes, this method is the best for home owners :agree: but even better yet for home owner's is called the "Buddy System". Have a buddy putting the plug in and out of each receptacle as he marks them off so you don't have to keep running up and down the stairs to move the radio and then back down the stairs to start flipping breakers. Phone a "Buddy" and say; "hey, give me a hand will ya?" :help: . After that, the next time you call him he will be like: :hide:. ReallyNewRehabber what slownsteady suggested for mapping it the best for a home owner. As you figure out what other things you want to do in the way of electrical then we will see what other testing tools etc you may need.


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## nealtw (Feb 1, 2017)

You guys have it backwards:hide:

Make sure everything is working. leave things plugged in and turned one
turn off all breakers except #1 and see what is working. Having lights or other things start up narrows the search time.
And go thru all breakers that way.
Two people does make it easier.


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## Snoonyb (Feb 1, 2017)

Your VOM will answer most of your questions, deductive reasoning and common sense also helps.

As already mentioned, tone/signal tracers are end too end tracers and circuit tracers will follow things underground and within wall cavities, however, the latter is an expensive investment for casual use.


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## joecaption (Feb 1, 2017)

Use a radio, make sure it does not have a battery backup.


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## afjes_2016 (Feb 1, 2017)

nealtw said:


> You guys have it backwards:hide:
> 
> *Make sure everything is working. leave things plugged in and turned one
> turn off all breakers except #1 and see what is working. *Having lights or other things start up narrows the search time.
> ...



:nono: I believe Neal if you do it this way you will be running around the house checking receptacles over and over again that you have before. Doing a quick sketch of the rooms by floor, marking where all receptacles are and lights then having a buddy with you with a cell phone makes it the easiest. You or your buddy takes the sketch while the other is at the breaker panel. The one with the sketch goes to one receptacle, plugs in a lamp. The one at the breaker turns off each breaker until the one at the receptacle says "it's dead". The one at the breaker panel tells the one at the receptacle the number breaker and the one at the receptacle marks it on the sketch. Then you go to the next receptacle. Doing your way the person is running round the house testing receptacles over and over again; well at least until you get to towards the end where you don't test receptacles on the sketch that have a breaker number next to them. Then you do the same thing with the lights in the house.


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## bud16415 (Feb 1, 2017)

Write the breaker number on the back of the outlet or switch plate as well.


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## nealtw (Feb 1, 2017)

afjes_2016 said:


> :nono: I believe Neal if you do it this way you will be running around the house checking receptacles over and over again that you have before. Doing a quick sketch of the rooms by floor, marking where all receptacles are and lights then having a buddy with you with a cell phone makes it the easiest. You or your buddy takes the sketch while the other is at the breaker panel. The one with the sketch goes to one receptacle, plugs in a lamp. The one at the breaker turns off each breaker until the one at the receptacle says "it's dead". The one at the breaker panel tells the one at the receptacle the number breaker and the one at the receptacle marks it on the sketch. Then you go to the next receptacle. Doing your way the person is running round the house testing receptacles over and over again; well at least until you get to towards the end where you don't test receptacles on the sketch that have a breaker number next to them. Then you do the same thing with the lights in the house.



I did leave out the map and numbers but the OP did say he was doing that..
And I did state that a little wrong. 
With one or more radios plugged in , in different rooms with all the breakers off, you do a breaker hunt for the radio. Then you check with the radio the outlets close by.
Move the radio to another dead outlets and do another breaker search.
If the lights are turned on any lights that come on with an outlet breaker will be identified at the same time.
When I did that I found real quickly there was a bank of breakers that went to the basement and another that went to the top floor, that speed-ed it up.

In an 8000 sq foot house communications with second person is a must.


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## nealtw (Feb 1, 2017)

http://www.emfs.com/article/how-to-label-the-outlets-in-your-home


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## afjes_2016 (Feb 1, 2017)

Sorry Neal, could not resist in replying to this. Did you see the warning posted in this?

"_Warning: Please note you will be near live electrical wires during  this procedure and will be exposed to high EMF, especially at the  circuit breaker panel. Anyone that is highly sensitive to electricity /  EMF should avoid doing this procedure themselves and should get  assistance from others who do not have such sensitivities. In our home,  the more EMF sensitive person took the role of the Outlet Watcher and  was very careful not to come in contact with any live circuits."

_The OP may be allergic to EMF - Ouch!!, Scratch._:hide: _anaphylactic shock- ok, now I am embarrassed. Just could not resist this one folks!!  Sorry, I will just go back to my easy chair now and :hide:


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## nealtw (Feb 1, 2017)

afjes_2016 said:


> Sorry Neal, could not resist in replying to this. Did you see the warning posted in this?
> 
> "_Warning: Please note you will be near live electrical wires during  this procedure and will be exposed to high EMF, especially at the  circuit breaker panel. Anyone that is highly sensitive to electricity /  EMF should avoid doing this procedure themselves and should get  assistance from others who do not have such sensitivities. In our home,  the more EMF sensitive person took the role of the Outlet Watcher and  was very careful not to come in contact with any live circuits."
> 
> _The OP may be allergic to EMF - Ouch!!, Scratch._:hide: _anaphylactic shock- ok, now I am embarrassed. Just could not resist this one folks!!  Sorry, I will just go back to my easy chair now and :hide:



:thbup: I can't say I have ever felt better when the power went out.


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## kok328 (Feb 1, 2017)

Sometimes things just don't make sense or you find that the builder was well "cheap". 
For example my breaker box is in the garage. The bathroom is at the opposite end of the house but the builder protects the garage outlets using the gfic in the bathroom. 
Gotta wonder how much he save by double dipping the gfic only to double back with wiring to the garage. 
Saved $10 bucks on a gfic but used $15 bucks of wire doing so.


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## bud16415 (Feb 1, 2017)

afjes_2016 said:


> Sorry Neal, could not resist in replying to this. Did you see the warning posted in this?
> 
> "_Warning: Please note you will be near live electrical wires during  this procedure and will be exposed to high EMF, especially at the  circuit breaker panel. Anyone that is highly sensitive to electricity /  EMF should avoid doing this procedure themselves and should get  assistance from others who do not have such sensitivities. In our home,  the more EMF sensitive person took the role of the Outlet Watcher and  was very careful not to come in contact with any live circuits."
> 
> _The OP may be allergic to EMF - Ouch!!, Scratch._:hide: _anaphylactic shock- ok, now I am embarrassed. Just could not resist this one folks!!  Sorry, I will just go back to my easy chair now and :hide:




Electro motive force is a powerful thing. If you have ever watched the series Better call Saul, his brother is allergic to EMF. 

E=IR, P=IE


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## nealtw (Feb 1, 2017)

kok328 said:


> Sometimes things just don't make sense or you find that the builder was well "cheap".
> For example my breaker box is in the garage. The bathroom is at the opposite end of the house but the builder protects the garage outlets using the gfic in the bathroom.
> Gotta wonder how much he save by double dipping the gfic only to double back with wiring to the garage.
> Saved $10 bucks on a gfic but used $15 bucks of wire doing so.



That happens when the house is built, they hook up power as soon as they can.
Up here they are allowed 2 temp gfci outlets  so they run outlets to areas that need gfci anyway. Then later the trade ask for an outlet somewhere where it can used like the garage. The electrician sends a flunky over to wire one in, he never carries breaker so he just runs a wire from one of the other outlets.

Yes that should be changed later but you know how that works.
I made the mistake of not looking at the one in the center of my living wall in my suite, turns out to be with the gfci in the upstairs bath.


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## slownsteady (Feb 2, 2017)

So we have two working definitions of EMF. I got the impression the above article was talking about electromagnetic fields......hmmm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromotive_force

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_field


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## slownsteady (Feb 2, 2017)

bud16415 said:


> Write the breaker number on the back of the outlet or switch plate as well.


I find it's handy to do the same for J-boxes also.


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