Customer in Oak Park taught me a labeling trick for old panels

I was troubleshooting a buzzing breaker in a 1950s house last month. The panel was a mess with no labels on anything. The homeowner was this retired electrician who watched me for a minute and then just said 'start at the bottom, not the top.' He explained that old panels get wired in order over time, not by design. So I traced from the bottom up and found the bad connection in 15 minutes flat. Any of you guys ever try working a panel backwards like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

rivera.jesse17d ago

Ngl, I kind of disagree with that approach. Starting from the bottom works sometimes but newer circuits get added at the bottom too in a lot of the old panels I've seen. Honestly, I just trace the wire back from the problem and that's always faster than guessing the order.

white.grant16d ago

My old foreman used to tell me about this one panel in a warehouse from the 70s where they literally stapled the new circuits right on top of the old ones. That image stuck with me. He said tracing the wire back was the only reliable way in those old buildings because the labels were faded or just plain wrong. So I am with you on that method, it saves a ton of time compared to trying to guess the order. Have you ever run into a panel where the wires were just completely jammed in there with no room to even see the labels?