Just purchased a new house and have been doing some electrical work, and I've been surprised at how many things have been crammed into single circuits.
For example, one circuit seems to serve four light fixtures and five outlets across three rooms. That feels super overcrowded! I'm considering my options with re-wiring some of them as well as strategic use of GFCI/AFCI/DFCI breakers/outlets. But I'd like to really understand what is happening before I do all that.
Is there a way to determine the order of items on a circuit? And if a circuit branches into multiple branches, is there a way to determine that?
Best Answer
To figure out the order of items on a circuit:
(warning, tedious and laborious, but accurate)
First, sort out which items are on the circuit - i.e. what turns off/on with the breaker.
Turn the breaker off.
Pick any device on the circuit, open it up. If there's only one cable coming into the box, close it up again, noting that it's an end.
If there are two or more cables coming into the box, note exactly what is connected to exactly where, and disconnect one cable. Turn the breaker on and see what no longer works. Note that those things are "downstream" of the item in question. Turn breaker off and repeat if there are more than two cables. Reassemble everything as it was, move to the next device location, repeat.
If you find any "backwired" connections, remove them and move that wire to the associated "side screw" when reconnecting.