Thread: 2,100 Sq Ft, 13 Rooms, and 9 Circuit Breakers

These are some specs on the house I looked at today which was built in 1979. In addition to the 13 rooms (4 beds, 3 full baths, kitchen, dining room, living room, family room, laundry room, basement), there is also the attic, 2nd floor hallway, exterior lighting and outlets, and an attached garage. This panel had been rewired and has a generator circuit breaker box that will only engage when all power in the house goes out. But the service panel only has 9 single pole breakers in use for general lighting and outlets. And there were multiple single pole breakers in the service panel that were no longer being used. The panel was never relabeled for the breaker positions either.

Power was on throughout the house in all rooms for the exception of some fixtures that were missing bulbs. The panel interior was a little crowded over the ground/neutral bus bar with the wiring for the generator so trying to make out splices was difficult.

The only thing that makes sense is that they have multiple rooms and areas sharing the same circuits.

The rest of the circuits have been moved to the generator panel. Only the non-critical loads are left in the service panel.

Thanks for the clarification Jim. I think I was always under the mistaken assumption power was only going on in the generator panel with the generator on. But now that I smack my head, I recognize that there is a breaker in the main panel feeding the generator panel.