Map every circuit in your house with a helper

A two-person plan for finding which breaker controls what: one person stays at the panel, one walks the house, and the app keeps them in step.

Updated: September 2026

Two people, two jobs

The slow part of mapping a house alone is not tapping names into an app. It is walking back to the panel after every breaker. With two people, that part goes away. One person stays at the panel and flips breakers. The other walks the house, checks what lost power, and records the answers.

Keep those jobs separate. The person walking the house holds the map because they can see the outlet, light or appliance in front of them. The person at the panel does not need the map, an account or any electrical knowledge. Their screen gives them one instruction at a time and waits for them to confirm it.

The helper makes the last part of the job faster. It does not remove the setup, and it does not make an outlet show whether it has power. This guide covers the whole process, including both.

No second person available? The solo guide covers the complete job with one phone and fewer unnecessary trips to the panel.

What you need

• Two phones. The person walking uses Circuit Mapper. The helper opens a temporary link on their phone. There is nothing to install and the helper does not need an account.
• Masking tape and a marker. You will use these to number the physical panel before the helper touches a breaker. Painter’s tape peels too easily to trust for years on a panel door.
• Your charger. Plug the phone in at each outlet: if it starts charging, that socket is still live. You already have both. A nightlight or a small lamp does the same job if you would rather not keep unplugging the phone.
• Optional: an outlet tester, sometimes called a receptacle tester. Its lights tell you when power is off and can also show common wiring problems. Useful, not required.

You do not need a ladder, a screwdriver or a voltage pen. You do not need to open anything.

No electrical experience is needed. Mapping is turning breakers off and recording what stopped working.

You do not need to remove the panel cover to use Circuit Mapper. Turn off one breaker at a time. If anything looks wrong, stop and call an electrician. Outlet testers and voltage testers are useful checks, not proof that work is safe.

Do the setup before the helper arrives

Most of the work has nothing to do with having two people. Do it ahead of time so the helper is not standing beside the panel while you name every outlet in the house.

Walk room by room and add the outlets, lights, switches and permanently wired loads: the dishwasher, furnace, range hood, garage door opener and anything else worth finding later. Name each thing by where it is, not by the order you found it. “West wall by the desk” survives two years better than “outlet 2,” and it is clear enough that someone else could find it.

Then add the electrical panel and its breakers. Record the amperage, pole type and protection where you know them. Unknown is fine. The app lays the branch breakers out with odd numbers down the left and even numbers down the right, the way a physical panel is arranged.

Number the physical panel

Do not skip this. Run a strip of tape beside each column of switches and copy the number from the app layout onto the tape beside the matching breaker.

Do not copy the numbers from the card on the panel door. Its rows often do not sit beside the switches they describe, especially where a main breaker takes up space. Counting down from the top is not reliable either.

The test is simple: could somebody who has never seen the panel flip breaker 5 on the first try? If not, fix the numbers before you start. The helper’s job is deliberately simple, but it only works when the breaker named on their phone is easy to find.

Send the helper link

In the app, choose the area and the kind of device you are going to map, answer “Who flips the breakers?” with the helper, and start the pass. Share the helper link with the person staying at the panel. They open it in their browser, with nothing to install and no account. It shows only the current instruction for this session, not the rest of your house or your account.

The two screens now keep the same sequence:

1. The helper’s phone names the breaker to turn off.
2. The helper finds that number on the physical panel, turns it off and confirms.
3. You walk the selected area and record each device as Unpowered, Powered, Unsure or No access.
4. When the walk is done, the helper is told to restore that breaker before the next one is turned off.

Do not improvise the order at the panel. If the screen says breaker 5, flip breaker 5. If the number is unclear or the screens stop agreeing, pause the session and sort it out before touching another switch.

Map the lights first

Lights give the clearest answers, and one person can often see several of them from the same place. Pick an area such as one floor or a few adjoining rooms.

Before the first breaker is turned off, switch on every light in that area. A light that was already off looks exactly like one with no power, so this is part of the test rather than preparation you can skip.

Once the helper confirms the breaker is off, walk the area. You can see most of the answers from across the room, and for most lights that is enough. Where you are standing at one, work the wall switch rather than trusting what you saw from the doorway. If it does nothing, mark the light Unpowered. If it still works, mark it Powered. If the bulb may be dead or the answer is not clear, mark it Unsure and keep moving.

Finish the whole area before asking for the next breaker. The helper waits at the panel; there is no reason to rush the walk or leave half the lights unchecked. When you finish, the app moves both of you through restoring the current breaker and turning off the next one.

Then map the outlets

An outlet does not visibly change when its breaker turns off. The helper saves you the walk to the panel, but you still need to test each socket.

Carry one indicator you know works. Plug it into an outlet, look, unplug it and move to the next one. The phone on its charger is enough. An outlet tester makes the same power check and can record its wiring-light pattern while you are already down at the socket.

Finish every outlet you can reach in the chosen area while the current breaker is off. The testing takes time; changing breakers too often only adds confusion.

Test both plugs of a kitchen counter outlet. The top and bottom halves are often fed by different breakers, so a result from one half does not prove the other. Circuit Mapper records a split outlet as two circuits sharing one box.

Anything already plugged in and lit can save a stop: a TV standby light, a microwave clock, a router or a coffee maker display. Confirm that it was working before the breaker went off. Otherwise you are testing the appliance, not the circuit.

Hardwired appliances need a visible answer

A dishwasher, furnace, water heater or range hood has no socket to test. Watch the appliance itself when it can be running safely: a fan stopping or a display going dark is a useful answer. If you cannot get a clear answer without opening anything, mark it Unsure and come back later.

Do not turn off every breaker at once to make the job feel orderly. That drops the refrigerator, freezer, heating, networking and anything else that depends on continuous power. One breaker at a time keeps each result attributable and the disruption contained.

When an answer disagrees with the map

You may find something going off on a different breaker than the one recorded earlier. Do not silently replace the old answer. Circuit Mapper shows both and lets you keep the previous breaker, change to the new one or leave it for now.

The helper should not decide this from the panel. The person looking at the device decides what they actually tested and records it. If neither answer feels reliable, leave it unresolved and repeat that device later.

Finish with a list inside the panel door

Review the devices marked unsure or never seen going off. Check switches and bulbs, make sure the indicator works at a live outlet, then repeat only the parts that need another look.

Print the breaker list, also called a panel schedule, and put it inside the panel door. That is the copy for whoever stands at the panel next. Keep Circuit Mapper as the searchable record and print a new copy whenever the map changes.

A partial map is still useful. If you stop after the lights or one floor, you have already replaced guesses with things you checked. Continue another day with the same map and another helper link.