[Amps] Labeling house circuits

[Jim Thomson]

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2017 11:58:39 -0400
From: Ron Youvan <ka4inm at gmail.com>
To: amps <amps at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [Amps] Labeling house circuits


   Catherine N5WVR James wrote:

>> Label the wall outlet with the actual circuit breaker rating.

> Good advice.  How have other hams done the labeling?  I don't want a sloppy masking tape label, but something permanent and good-looking.  Any recommended sources for such good-quality labels that will last?

> I have a dedicated 120V 20A circuit, and a dedicated 240V 30A circuit.  Both should be labeled.

   I use a Brother P-Touch that I bought at Goodwill for $20 you can get
them (computer driven) for $47 from amazon.com.  Common cartridges are
available in black on white or colors or black or white on clear.
-- 
   Ron  KA4INM 

## We used several Brother  P touch labelers at work. The later versions would allow for 2 lines of text or numbers.  We had everything from white on black to ..black on white,  and also red on white. Any font size you want. 
The machine has a built in cutter.  When doing hundreds of various labels over the years,  it was ideal.  Of course the telco I worked for, was paying for it all, so ordered up dozens and dozens of blank tapes, in every
color format you can think of.   We also used black on clear for some applications.... and also red on clear.   Done right, it comes out professional.   And yes, we also labeled every outlet in the building.  But with more than one breaker 
panel being used, we would also have to  include the panel number, along with the breaker number.  Like ... panel A3, breaker # 17, etc.   Nothing worse than wasting time, trying to find which breaker on a 4 floor building, which also has
16 panels strewn all over the place. 

##  Id love to label the various outlets around the home, but the spouse would go beserko.  Plan B is to draw up a detailed  sheet of what outlets and lights are on a given breaker, then leave that info next to the main panel. 
IF a branch circuit goes dead, then its easy to find the single breaker that has popped.    But if you are working on something, like wiring, and want to know which breaker to throw, so you dont kill  yourself, it’s a pita
as usually the typ breaker main panels  dont leave enough space to include much info.   

Jim  VE7RF