Daily Home Renovation Tips

Today’s tip is one of my pet peeves of contractors; more particularly, electricians.

Label the gosh darn on-off switches that are in the main electrical panel, will ya! You know, those things called circuit breakers.

There is nothing more frustrating when one needs to turn the power off for a certain electrical outlet / light switch. You know what is going to happen, right?

The light switch you need to turn off the power will be the one that is the furthest away from the electrical panel. And, of course there is no label on any of the on-off switches which lead you to even guess which one of them provide the power for the area of the house containing the light switch.

Why are the on-off switches in the electrical panel never labeled?

Are electricians lazy? Well, to be honest, there is something to that, IMO. There are building codes and electrical codes and laws of physics which electricians need to adhere. But, none of those codes indicates that the wiring or rewiring job is not finished until the switch box is properly and accurately labeled. Or, do they?

So, today’s waste of 1/2 an hour with a dozen trips up and down the stairs from one end of the house on the main floor to the electrical panel room at the opposite end of the house in the basement was not enjoyable. Of course, not all contractors, electricians and the like are plain lazy and do just enough to get paid and then leave.  I am sure any electrical contractor you would use would never do that. I will always be your neighbour who encounters this situation, right? :-) 

And, if you are the home owner, for gosh sakes, when you actually do find the on-off switch on the electrical panel that is the one you want, label it yourself! No, you will not remember the next time you need to find it again.