volt
February 27th, 2007, 05:08 AM
If you find yourself in a situation where you have poorly identified circuits in a panel, and you cannot turn off the 120 volt circuits indiscriminately to find a circuit that needs to be de-energized for repairs, if you don't have a circuit tracer, use a button light flasher (sold at most hardware stores for about $3). Take a pigtailed light socket, slip the button flasher into it, followed by a 60 watt light bulb. Insert the pigtailed wires into the 120 volt receptacle, or connect it otherwise to the circuit. Once the light is flashing, go to the first suspected panel and use an amprobe on the low scale (either digital or analog will work) on each wire coming off a breaker until you see an approx. 1 amp fluctuation in the reading. That's the circuit.