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How a circuit breaker finder helped me map my home's wiring (and why that matters)

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ZDNET's key takeaways The Klein Tools 80016 Circuit Breaker Finder effectively maps circuits throughout your home.

It's a useful tool with clear discovery indicators and improved safety features.

It's somewhat pricey at $65, with minimal directions for beginners. $64.98 at Amazon

Do you ever wonder what wall socket corresponds to which circuit breaker or circuit in your main electrical panel? Do you ever wonder how much current a particular socket can handle? I did. I found a cool tool in the Klein 80016 Circuit Breaker Finder that helped me answer those questions. It can help you, too.

Also: I powered my smartphone off-grid with this portable wind generator. Here's how

Here's my story. It starts with a mystery, grows into a bafflement, and eventually results in something better than I could have possibly hoped for. But that's the luck of the draw. Going in, I had no idea.

This is the Fab Lab. It's a narrow 8x14-foot room that contains my non-messy desktop fabrication gear. I divide up my fabrication gear into messy (the CNC, resin 3D printers, cutters and saws, etc.) and non-messy (servers, 3D printers, the Glowforge, microscope, etc).

David Gewirtz/ZDNET

The messy stuff lives in my workshop, which I can also vent to the outside by opening the garage door. The non-messy stuff lives in the Fab Lab, which does have a vent for the Glowforge but is otherwise nicely climate-controlled. Both servers and 3D printers like climate control.

The problem with the Fab Lab

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