# How many Breakers in a panel



## robertc65 (Apr 16, 2005)

Like every house I have ever seen the lights and recepticals are wired such that there is really no accurate way to label each breaker. I have a long term term goal to have each room in my house on it's own breaker of course some rooms like the kitchen will get additional breakers as needed. My question is as does it matter how many breakers are in the Panel? Most of my current breakers are single and I have been replacing them with duplex breakers as I instal new lighting and recepticals. This will result in many more breakers in the panel but should not affect the overall load.

Why are houses allowed to be wired this way. Would it make more sense to have each bedroom for example on it's own breaker. Most panels I have seen have way more breakers than rooms in the house but turning off one breaker turns off outlets and lights in many rooms it seems. It never makes any sense. Like I mentioned before it does not allow for the panel to be labeled correctly even if you could read the chicken scratch some electrician scribbled in the panel with a pen that was out of ink 5 years ago. I guess the NEC code does not care about breaker labels.

Rob


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## ATS (Jun 28, 2005)

The nec is not a design guide, it's for the proection of people and property. I agree with you though, somewhat.


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## Atricaudatus (Apr 11, 2005)

robertc65 said:


> Like every house I have ever seen the lights and recepticals are wired such that there is really no accurate way to label each breaker. I have a long term term goal to have each room in my house on it's own breaker of course some rooms like the kitchen will get additional breakers as needed. My question is as does it matter how many breakers are in the Panel? Most of my current breakers are single and I have been replacing them with duplex breakers as I instal new lighting and recepticals. This will result in many more breakers in the panel but should not affect the overall load.
> 
> Why are houses allowed to be wired this way. Would it make more sense to have each bedroom for example on it's own breaker. Most panels I have seen have way more breakers than rooms in the house but turning off one breaker turns off outlets and lights in many rooms it seems. It never makes any sense. Like I mentioned before it does not allow for the panel to be labeled correctly even if you could read the chicken scratch some electrician scribbled in the panel with a pen that was out of ink 5 years ago. I guess the NEC code does not care about breaker labels.
> 
> Rob



Rob,
I think the NEC limits the number of breakers in a single panelboard to 42. MD will straighten me out if I'm wrong here.

As for putting every room on it's own circuit: I doubt there are many electricians who do that. I know I don't. It's not usually practical or necessary, and adds unjustified cost to the job. Of course, if a customer wants it that way, and is willing to pay for having it that way, then sure. Otherwise, there are certain general lighting and receptacle loads that are combined. I do however attempt to lay out the circuits with some sort of sensible design. For instance "upstairs lighting" or living room/den/foyer" etc.

About labeling, yes the NEC does require the branch circuits be labeled. It is permissible though, at least in this area, to use "general lighting" as a label for a lot of circuits that arent load specific. Personally I avoid this whenever I can.


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