Controls and monitors for heating, cooling, power and other systems are crammed into cluttered dashboards in cars. In houses, they’re spread all over, sometimes in plain sight, often tucked away where you wouldn’t expect them or have a clue what they regulate.
There are dozens of kill switches and cutoff valves, but no map showing where they are and no manual explaining what they control and how to use them. That’s a problem in the dark, in a flood or other emergency when you need to isolate a problem in the house. Is this the right handle, the right valve? Turn it left or right, push it up or down? Pop the breaker, but which one?
Mains. Power comes into the service panel to doubled breakers, called the mains. They feed power to the rows of breakers below. Normally, if a single breaker trips, the mains stay engaged and power still flows to most of the home. Tripping the mains cuts off power everywhere.
Circuits. Each one has a breaker. It may protect several outlets or one high-use appliance like an electric stove. Labeling breakers so you know what they control ought to be part of every installation. But you may have to make your own labels. Otherwise, to check a minor problem at one outlet, you have to trip the mains. You can use circuit-tracing tools (check sperryinstruments.com) to discover what each breaker controls. In renovated homes it may be an illogical hodgepodge. Or you can take the tedious route, work with a partner room by room, turn everything on, then trip one breaker at a time to see what goes off.
Read more at:http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/home/sc-home-diy-home-control-20121101,0,2457008.story
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Green Real Estate Appraiser 