Electrical Work

I spent a good part of Saturday finally mapping out all the plugs and lights and their panel correlation. Since I’m working on the house, replacing carpet, I want to replace the painted over plugs with newer ones, replace the painted over covers with plain ones (for the plugs), and fancy ones (for the switches). Of course the panel was old and some of the writing was too faded to read.

1 – Might have said refer, very faded.
2 – MBR Plugs (I wrote that)
3 – Blank
4 –
5 – no switch
6 –
7 – Range, very faded.
8 –
9 – AC(r)/Dryer(l)*
10 – Kitchen
11 – AC(r)/Dryer(l)*
12 – Kitchen
13 – Furnace**
14 – Blank
15 – Unreadable
16 – Blank
17 – no switch
18 – no switch
19 – no switch
20 – no switch

* Double switches with the two (r) and two (l) connected.
** Double switch

I figured out last weekend that 14 was the front set of plugs plus the bathroom light and the center rec room light in the basement and 16 was the back set. Because I needed to replace the switches and covers in the basement, I was hunting the light switch downstairs. I figured as I went through the switches on the panel, I’d try to identify exactly what each panel switch connected to.

1 – Refrigerator (1 plug behind)
2 – Master Bathroom, Bedroom, and two other bedroom plugs (14) plus the roof fan and the ceiling fan in the Master Bedroom.
3 – Dishwasher and Garbage disposal (1 plug under the sink)
4 – Every upstairs light fixture plus the Master Bathroom ceiling fan.
5 – no switch
6 – Living room (5), kitchen plug next to stove (1), garage (1), and pantry plug (1).
7 – Range
8 – Keeping room plugs (3) and maybe the gas fireplace starter (didn’t test that).
9 – AC(r)/Dryer(l)
10 – Kitchen plugs (left of sink) (2)
11 – AC(r)/Dryer(l)
12 – Kitchen plugs (right of sink) (2) and dining room plug on the kitchen wall (1)
13 – Furnace(r)/basement lights(l)
14 – Front half of basement plugs (9), bathroom light, rec room center light (always on; no switch)
15 – Outside sump pump
16 – Back half of basement plugs (14)

I didn’t check the outside plug but I did make an effort to check every other plug with a night light to be sure.

When I put the master bedroom fan in last year, I discovered the roof fan electrical was just twisted and capped and hanging hanging in the air like a big old cobweb. I put in a junction box and put the wires there plus a second junction box for the fan.

A couple of years back, I replaced the can light in the Keeping Room (west of Kitchen) with a fan, replacing the can with an over-sized junction box. The can had the wires that continued on to the wall switches next to the sliding glass doors so there were 4 wires; 2 in (switch and power) and 2 out power and switch.

This weekend I’m replacing the can light in the dining room with a nice chandelier. I may make a couple of ceiling repairs at the same time.

I’ve already replaced plugs and the switches in the Master Bedroom and Bathroom. I planned on replacing all the water plugs with GFCI. But when I did that in the Master Bathroom, turning on the ceiling fan popped the GFCI so there must be a fault somewhere. I do have the two remaining bedrooms to replace so when I put new plugs in, I’ll be careful.