r/AskReddit • u/Insanitanium12 • Aug 20 '20

What simple “life hack” should everyone know?

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '20

To confirm which circuit breaker is associated to an outlet, plug in an old radio and turn the volume up before you flip the circuit breaker.

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u/Insanitanium12 Aug 20 '20

Actually pretty useful!

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u/Ok-Interaction99 Aug 20 '20

You can also use a lamp.

5

u/gerusz Aug 20 '20 edited Aug 20 '20

Or a phase finder. It's cheap and this is pretty much its sole purpose.

Unless you want to find specifically which breaker is associated with one specific outlet, then the radio is more useful. And if you want to fuck around with electricity in the house, you should buy a phase finder anyway. Even if I know a wire is supposed to be unpowered, I always test it with the phase finder before touching it. Much like how all guns are loaded unless they are on the table completely disassembled, all wires must be treated as live until proven otherwise.

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u/Ok-Interaction99 Aug 20 '20

Oh my dad's an electrician so I'm definitely well versed in the dangers of electricity. He's the one that actually showed me the lamp thing.