I have a question for the electricians here please. I recently purchased an abandoned gas station / car wash. It has been empty for at least 10 years. I am going to convert it to a different use, and I want to strip out all of the fixtures in wiring related to the gas pumping operation and convenience store coolers and equipment. But I want to keep the lighting and outlets and furnace, well pump, and the essential wiring in place. There is four or five different panels, and wires everywhere. The electrical power lines from the pole to the building have been cut off, so there is absolutely no power to the building at this point.

So what kind of apparatus can I use to most easily identify the circuit breakers and wires that lead to the essential fixtures, and which ones lead to the stuff that I want to rip out?

My plan is to get the demo done without the use of the electrician, then get a licensed electrician in to make any needed reconnections before getting the power hooked up again. I can run a generator or something to have some temporary lighting in there, but I'm looking for something, possibly battery-powered, that can allow me to trace circuits. Thanks, Joel

How about a Fox & Hound (or other cable tracer)? https://www.amazon.com/fox-hound-wire-tracer/s?k=fox+and+hound+wire+tracer

" I recently purchased an abandoned gas station" ............

I HOPE ? There are NO in-ground fuel tanks ?

Damn HJ ... kidMop ain’t KIDDING !!

You are now IN DA LOOP if there are tanks that have been or ARE leaking

Most of the wires are in EMT. I would need a tool that works well in that instance.

Doc, do you want to buy some large used storage tanks? Just pay the removal fee, and the shipping and they're yours!

I bought the property from the county. It was a tax foreclosure. They have been sitting on it for at least 10 years while they have pollution tested it in every way possible. They had every phase of environmental study done, drilled a bunch of test wells and monitored them, had the tanks emptied and cleaned, and the MPCA recommend no environmental remediation. I have all the paperwork from that. so I have a choice of either filling the tanks in with sand, or getting them yanked out of there. All of that is factored into the purchase price. The only reason I bought it is because it's two and a half acres adjacent to my roofing company parcel. It's hard not to buy adjoining land on a major state highway when it becomes available cheap.

I would try one of the tracers. You need one with pretty decent power - I would think. I have not used one. Because of the conduit, you would need to get to the fixtures/devices to tell or get to actual wires. Hook the tracer to the incoming lines. If 3 phase, you probably need to short the 3 phases together and hook up the tracer phase to ground.

If not obvious, you shut all the breakers off and turn them on one by one till the tracer beeps. Alternatively, you can short out each fixture/device and measure resistance on the incoming lines, but I would try a tracer.

It is very doable but will take some time.

Good luck!

GOOD you covered yur @$$ !


HJ ... you got me thimking... I could sure save somjue big $$$ buying resin and gel coat that way !

Me thimks SAND is the best option !

Is there anything on file at the City/County level from electrical permit(s) ?
Or is that electrician still in business ?
I assume nobody labeled anything in the boxes, or it's illegible at this point ?

Sounds like it could be a really cool toy shop...

It's in a small town that farms out the permits and inspections to a private company. But maybe? I think electric permits come from the state, but I don't think they require plans/schematics to be submitted.

But I subsribe to the wisdom of "Never ask the government for anything. You just might get it"

Depending on the age, code requires many things. labeled breaker boxes being one of them. I'll bet that your property is old enough not to have that though. It will once you finish what you are fixing to do.

Lots of changes to the electrical code over the years and many jurisdictions have adopted the National Electrical Code, which lays out all these requirements. Prior to that is was whatever the locals said it needed to be.

Hook up a car battery to the bus bar and start tracing

That is genius

What is the reason for wanting to "rip" any wiring etc out, other then remove unneeded fixtures? I'm having a hard time thinking of good reasons, based on what you have shared so far.

THe down side of having the power cut like that is they'll usually need to do an inspection and bring things up to code before they will connection again.

If you trust the wiring that's there you could hook up a portable generator to the panels and turn the breakers on one at a time to see what they do. That will also give you some power for lights and to get some things done. Definately not safe to do tho if tresspassers have been in there or if things have been torn out or the building has any damage.

Since no-one has said it yet lets see some pictures of this place.

The buss bar would energize every circuit. I'd do similar, but remove every neutral from the lug and connect the battery to each neutral and find what is energized. Doing so one could reattach every necessary neutral, and tap off/cut off each not needed. Lable each circuit as you i.d. it as well.
The nice thing about doing it that way is the battery could be attached to an outlet and test back at the box, larger circuits could be i.d.'d that way as well.
Just need to make sure all the neutrals are removed from the lugs, in the main, and any subs.

you could use the new " future " electrical contractor to do a sweep for you. he would be the one fixing it all down the road anyhow ... it would not take much to check it all and it could save you more money if they find issues that you miss..... codes are not the same everywhere so you may or may not get by...someone up to date will know this and the inspectors !!

Doesn't account for any two or more phase circuits as they may not have a neutral.

Tracing out wiring can be done with a simple volt/ohm meter and no power. Quite easy.
The conduits going to the fuel pumps should be in ridged GRC and have explosion proof sealing fittings so those ones should be easy to identify.
https://www.gordonelectricsupply.co...h09gSDftjU5TZbt8dDANvgIMiexoCePwQAvD_BwE

Huh? Say What? There is Single Phase and Three Phase...no "two or more phase".