Vent, Valve & Volt
Volt: Electrical

What to tell the electrician

Fill this in before you call. Electricians diagnose faster when they know which circuit is affected, what the breaker did, and what you noticed. Do not open the panel cover or any outlet to find the answers; just note what you can see from the hinged panel door and the room.

What is affected?

Walk the house with a lamp you know works.

What did the breaker do?

Reset a breaker only once. Open only the hinged panel door.

Note its position and label, whether it has a TEST button (AFCI or GFCI breaker), and take a photo of its front. Panels are often mislabeled.

Some AFCI breakers show the cause of the last trip with a light and keep that memory for 30 days. Note the color and whether it blinks before anyone resets it.

Did you find a tripped GFCI?

Check bathrooms, the kitchen, the garage, the basement and outdoor outlets.

Anything you smelled, felt, heard or saw

If you noticed a burning smell, heat or sparks, keep that breaker off until the electrician arrives.

A storm, a power outage, a new appliance, new fixtures or bulbs, renovation work, or water from rain or a leak.

CPSC says homes built before 1965 are unlikely to have aluminum branch wiring, while cable installed from 1965 to the mid-1970s may be aluminum.

Printing on visible cable jackets

Look only at cable already exposed in an unfinished basement, attic or garage. Do not open any box.

Read it from the label on the inside of the hinged panel door.

Utility and neighbors

If half the house is out with no tripped breaker, call the utility first.

List appliances, light fixtures and electronics, with make and model if you can see them.

Always worth mentioning

  • Which circuit or area is affected, and what the breaker controls. Panels are often mislabeled, so say what actually lost power.
  • What tripped: the type of breaker (standard, AFCI or GFCI), how many breakers trip, whether it trips at random or every time something specific runs, and a photo of the breaker front.
  • What any AFCI indicator light showed before it was reset. Siemens says the light tells the electrician why it tripped, and it keeps that memory for 30 days.
  • The make and model of devices on the circuit, and whether the problem involves an appliance or the lighting.
  • Any smell, heat, sound or sparks, any scorch marks, and whether anything felt warm.
  • The age of the house, and whether you have seen AL or Aluminum printed on cable jackets. If you cannot tell, the electrician can determine it.
  • Whether you called the utility and whether neighbors were affected.
References (every fact above comes from one of these pages)
  1. Family Handyman: What to do if an outlet isn't working and it's not the circuit breaker
  2. Siemens: AFCI and GFCI homeowner brochure (PDF)
  3. Siemens: AFCI troubleshooting (PDF)
  4. CPSC Publication 516: aluminum wiring (PDF)
  5. ESFI: Electrical warning signs
  6. Jefferson County PUD: Why is half of the power out to my house?
  7. Leviton: GFCI instruction sheet (PDF)
  8. Family Handyman: Troubleshooting dead outlets
  9. ESFI: Ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCI)
  10. InspectApedia: Electric panel cover removal