10 Common Mistakes DIYers Make In Circuit Breaker Boxes

How much do you know about your circuit breaker box or electrical panel? Learn what not to do!

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00:00 Labels Missing Or Incorrect
01:32 Overloading the Panel
02:40 Missing Bushings
03:58 Wrong Wire Gauge or Breaker Amperage
05:18 Improper Grounding
06:37 Overloading Bus Bar Slots
07:24 Wrong Color Wires
08:27 Double Tapping
10:01 Missing Panel Plates
11:20 Under or Over Torquing
12:58 Bonus: Panel Layout

[LTVoyager]

You forgot mistake #11 that you demonstrated in the video: Waving your hands cavalierly around a panel with the cover removed and then tightening the screws on the hot lead of a breaker without switching it off. Even with an insulated screwdriver this is an unnecessary risk, particularly for a nonprofessional. And waving your hands around the lugs where the entrance cable connects is just asking to touch a hot lead by mistake.

[thardyryll]

There are lots of comments here about dangerous DIYers, but the two potentially disastrous wiring problems I have experienced were caused by so-called professionals: utility line workers. For 30-some years I have owned a second home on the Oregon Coast. Twice in that time I have replaced the SEP. The first was to update an obsolete 125-amp panel to a 200-amp Square D. One night I arrived during heavy rain to find the lights flickering or inoperable. Upon inspection in the basement, the entire panel looked and sounded like an arc welder. I didn’t dare touch the thing to flip the main breaker, so I poked at the breaker with a wooden broom handle during arcing (so I could see) until I killed the power. The next day I realized what had happened: wind-driven rain had entered the SEP mast, flowed past the meter and entered the box, where it began destroying its guts, all without tripping the main breaker. And all because the line crew that connected the house to the utility system had pointed the weather head at the nearby ocean, allowing wind-driven rain to reach the SEP. On another occasion when I arrived at the house every light burned out as soon as I tried to turn it on, and the refrigerator was not functioning. I soon determined that every outlet in the house was supplying 240 volts. All because inadequate work by another line crew had allowed the supply lines to short and double the voltage throughout the building. The utility worker who responded to my call shook his head, redid the connections and said something about colleagues who insisted on doing work the old-fashioned way. The blazing hot GE fridge compressor eventually cooled and the thing kept working.
I’m no electrician, but have been doing all my own work for 40 years, starting with the updating of a 100-amp panel in a knob-and-tube system in my first home, built in the 1930s. That panel, itself a presumed upgrade of the original fuse box, was a terrifying rat’s nest of wires, done by a local “electrician” known to my elderly neighbor. I am pretty sure that the electrician’s helper was Jack Daniels. Some years later, when a Realtor friend wanted me to see a mess of a house that had just come on the market, I put it together that the enormous, haphazard jumble of electrical supplies could only have belonged to that same brain-fried electrician.
Yes, plenty of work is done by DIYers who shouldn’t be near electricity. But every professional here has stories like this of jobs done by lazy, incompetent or drunk electricians.

[gastech]

Thank You sir ! As a retired Journeyman Electrician with more than 50 years of experience in the field I saw more than my share of the "rats nest" type of panels, gasoline stations that had been remodeled several times. I couldn't always make them look perfect, but I tried. Any of the new Installations that I worked on, looked like the 3 phase panel you showed. When I upgraded my own residence from 70 amp Zinsco to a 200 amp Homeline all my wires were formed and marked. When the city inspector came for final inspection he was taken aback and had to take a picture of the work. It is sad to say that too many tradesmen do not take pride in their work and only do the minimum.

[PhilLesh]

Decades ago I took a studio engineering and sound reinforcement course at the local community college. The instructor did sound for hotels and arenas and other venues. He said that he always ran into tripping breakers because in most places like banquet halls and hotels, everybody uses the circuit breakers like a wall switch, and every time they manually trip the breaker to turn the power on and off it slightly reduces the friction or resistance necessary to trip it. So over years and years of being flipped open and closed, a 15 amp fuse might only be able to handle 12, or 13 amps. So he always carried a hand full of breakers in case he ran into one that would refuse to stay closed.

[JCWren]

A few points: If you home is pre-2001, you won't see a yellow jacket on 12ga wire. That started becoming available in 2001, and older wire jacketing will be white, or possibly gray. Most new panels come with covers for the primary lugs. If your panel has a master breaker and it's turned off and the covers are in place, it becomes VERY difficult to accidentally ground those out. They're also available as an option for some older panels. It's within NEC code to have two ground wires under a single screw, but NOT for a neutral. The reason you see that in the example panel is because some bus bars don't come with all the screws populated. Of course, you should always check with the jurisdiction having authority. NEC is a top-level thing. A state, county, or city can have more stringent requirements than the NEC. Lastly, it's always wise to remove jewelry when working in a hot panel. If your ring or watch manages to bridge a hot and neutral or ground, it'll turn to molten metal pretty quick.

[gregrobsn]

When you color tape a white conductor to indicate a hot wire you absolutely must tape the other end where it terminates. A hot white wire in a box could be taken as a neutral and used opposite a hot from the opposite side of the panel resulting in a 240 volt feed applied to a 120 volt appliance.

[stevefoote]

Sir, you need to be super, super clear that the mains hardware in the breaker box will be hot even if your breakers are switched off. If newbies follow your example in the video, they would feel safe touching the mains connections and bus bars. You should make it crystal clear that those are no-touch areas unless you are absolutely sure the power is disconnected to those mains (often requiring the power company to remove the electric meter from your service entry).

[jameshodge]

I love turning chaos panels into art! I done a panel during COVID shutdown when I was on layoff from my 9-5 and let me tell you it was the worst I'd seen, made the rats nest panel showed in this video look like a work of art. Well 2 days later a fully upgraded panel that looked beautiful, a fully rewired basement, and several changes in the main part of the house were complete and I was totally satisfied with my work. More so impressed was my buddy who hired me to do the work, he knew I had an electrical background but didn't realize I was that good. I just wish I could share the pictures here so you too could see what I walked into and how great it looked when I left. Oh and I didn't mention this place had more junction boxes than any 25 houses I've seen. I done away with as many as I could but to save money most of the old wiring stayed but I got it up to par as best I could with the budget he gave me to work with. Sparky for life.

[jamesbarca]

The panel at 13:09 is beautiful. Personally, I always leave extra length on the hot wires, because you never know when in the distant future things may have to be rearranged, or a panel upgraded. I usually run the wire down to near the bottom of the enclosure and back up to the breaker. I still make it nice and pretty, but that extra length can be a life saver in the future. I've personally thanked quite a few electricians who came before me for doing this, as I'm sure some electricians in the future will thank me long after I'm dead.

[datsuntoyy]

I was trying to change an outlet a while back, upgrading to the deco style and couldn't find the right breaker. I kept turning off the breakers one at a time but it never lost power. Turns out one 15a breaker was connected to the top, and one 15a was connected to the bottom but the previous installer forgot to break the jumper lug. Gotta love the pros the new home builders use now a days.
It should be noted I'm a DIYer who has done lots of electrical work but I won't touch a panel. Don't do flooring either, lol.

[Bigfoot]

It's worth mentioning that back in olden in the old days (say 25 years ago), All NM Romex style cable had the same white color sheathing, regardless of its gage. When checking for over fusing of circuits what appears to be an over fused 15 amp (14 gage) circuit may actually be correctly fused 20 amp circuit with white sheathed 12 gage wire.

[murray]

I would add one more important one: turning off the main breaker with all the branch circuits left in the on position. The branch circuits should be turned off first and turned on last when shutting off and turning back on the main breaker to avoid damage to the breaker due to arcing.

[kevinmorris]

5:51 if you are going to use a wire nut to combine grounds, consider using a green "grounding wire nut" that has a hole on the end allowing one of the wires to continue at full lenght to land on the grounding bar. This way you don't have an unnecessary extra wire in a "pig tail" to make the final connection to the grounding bar.

[fzgtg]

Although wiring a residential main panel to look like a machine tool panel with tight bends and labeling each conductor looks sharp I have always thought of the person that might have to work in the panel down the road. For this reason I forgo the form for function and provide a service loop when landing the hot/feed conductors! When done correctly it will look nice and allow for moving a circuit’s location without having to break out the cumbersome wire stretcher tool 😋

[ianbelletti]

A couple of tips for updating your panel schedule.
1) make a layout drawing for your house marking the locations of all outlets and all light fixtures. A drawing thats not to scale is fine. You will turn off all curcuits and only have one circuit on at a time. You will mark on your drawing the circuit number at each location that you detect power. This drawing will be used to help you write a more accurate panel schedule. Any unused spaces with breakers in them can be marked as spare on the panel schedule. Keep in mind that you can have outlets and lights in crawl spaces, attics, and closets. Sometimes you'll find equipment (water heater, dehumidifier, air handler, etc) in these locations. If you have a hardwired doorbell, don't forget to check what circuit that is on.
2) they make printer paper that is a sticker. You can print off your own schedule. Alternately, you can print on regular printer paper and use packaging tape to secure it to the panel.

One common mistake many homeowners make is storing items in front of the panel or not having a clear path to the panel. You're supposed to keep the work area and access path clear. The work space extends 3 feet from the face of the panel and is 30 inches wide. The safe access path is supposed to be 3 feet wide. All this is so that you have ready access to the panel in an emergency.

[allanlindsay]

Just had a new 200A panel installed. The inspector checked the torque on every fastener in the panel and also checked the backing nuts were tight on all the connectors. Checked wire size matched the breaker size. Then outside the panel, he checked the set screws were tight on on every EMT connector in sight. Very thorough inspection, glad I had an electrician who knew the inspector and what he would be looking for so that there weren't any rejections.

[jabrow]

I must admit that I had some bad experiences as a teen working with high voltage and was terrified to do anything in my box for years. Even something as simple as replacing a receptacle made me cringe. But when I realized the cost of adding a circuit for my shed, I decided it was time to get over my fear. I watched a number of YouTube tutorials but yours was the best. Your videos gave me the confidence to do the job and the knowledge to do it right. I’m now working on replacing all the old wiring from the 1950s when the house was built and upgrading my box. I’m nearly done and will have an electrician check my work in a few days before the electric company turns everything back on.

Thank you so much for being so informative and straight to the point in all your videos.

[brianpartridge]

Good video. One point- Neutral lines can never be double tapped to the bus bar. Grounds can often be double tapped or even triple tapped in some panels. The panel will say how many grounds can be inserted in a single lug. The risk of heating/cooling ( expansion/contraction) is minimal with grounds since they rarely carry current, unlike the neutrals which carry current whenever the circuit is used.

[randyduncan]

I'm an EE and a gearhead. I torque nearly everything on a car. Thank you for pointing out that there's a torque spec on breakers. Never even thought of it. So far using a little sense has kept me from burning any houses down but I will buy the proper tool for the job. Great channel!

[justsomeguy]

A good tip for some, whileyou have the breaker off, write the breaker number in the back of the switch and outlet plates. That way if you or someone needs to do work in the future, it will be easier to get the right breaker off.