How to Document a Converted House for the Next Tech
Why this matters
The next tech in a converted house arrives without the conversation you had. They find a capped pipe stub where a furnace used to be and wonder whether the gas is live. They see a chimney with an open thimble and assume it still vents something. They open a panel whose directory still says "furnace" next to a breaker that now feeds a heat pump air handler, or says nothing at all next to the two-pole breaker that matters most. Every one of those guesses can go wrong in a way that hurts somebody: a plumber who reconnects a range to a line the utility thinks is retired, an electrician who adds a circuit to a panel already at its load-managed limit, a water heater installer who connects a new appliance to a flue that was sealed at the top.
The work is not complicated. It is a rewritten panel directory, a few tags and labels, one job record, a page for the customer, and a habit of writing them before the van leaves. This procedure covers what to record and where to put it so it is found by someone who never talks to you. The broader customer handover is owned by The Electrification Handover SOP; this card is the physical labeling that outlives the paperwork.
The steps
1. List what changed before you write anything
Walk the house once with the job in hand and list every change: circuits added, circuits retired, gas outlets capped, flues abandoned or relined, appliances removed, controls added (a load management device, a smart panel breaker, an energy monitor), and settings the commissioning tech chose (backup heat lockout temperature, staging, time-of-use schedule).
Why first: labels written from memory miss the change that was made on day two by a different crew. What breaks if skipped: the panel gets labeled for the heat pump and nobody records that the dryer circuit was moved to make room for it.
2. Rewrite the panel directory, not just add a line
The NEC requires a legible directory identifying each circuit's purpose, written so it does not depend on who happens to live there (Article 408, in the edition your jurisdiction has adopted), so "Bob's room" fails and "bedroom 2 receptacles" passes. On a converted house, rewrite every entry that changed and add three things most directories lack:
- Retired circuits, marked as spare with what they used to feed, once the electrician has confirmed the conductors are removed from the breaker. A breaker labeled "spare" that still feeds a buried junction box is a hazard you just certified.
- Load-managed circuits, marked as such, with a note naming the device that sheds them. The next electrician deciding whether the panel can take a new circuit needs to know the service is being held under its rating by a controller, not by spare capacity. See related: Panel Space Versus Panel Capacity.
- The service size and its date, if the service was upgraded or deliberately not upgraded.
Hazard at this step: identifying circuits by switching breakers off interrupts whatever they feed. Ask the customer first about medical equipment, a sump pump, refrigeration and anything on a timer, and do not switch those off to trace them; use a plug-in circuit tracer instead. Reading and labeling the directory does not need the dead front removed, and work behind it is for a qualified electrician under 29 CFR 1910.333(b)(2).
3. Tag the capped gas outlet where it was capped
At every capped outlet, attach a durable tag (a metal or laminated tag wired to the pipe, not a sticker on drywall) stating what the outlet served, the date, how it was closed, who closed it, and the status of gas service to the house. That last field is the one most often missing. A cap on a house with an active meter means the line behind it is under pressure; a cap on a house whose meter was pulled means a plumber can work on the line after confirming that themselves. How to close the outlet is owned by How to Cap and Abandon a Gas Line Correctly; whether the meter came out is owned by How to Close Out Gas Service With the Utility.
What breaks if skipped: a remodeler reads an untagged capped stub as dead pipe, cuts it, and finds out otherwise.
4. Tag the thimble and state every flue's status
At the thimble or cleanout of any abandoned flue, attach a tag saying the flue is abandoned, whether it is sealed at the top, the date, and which flues in the same stack are still live and what they serve. If a flue was relined for a remaining appliance, tag that appliance's connector with the liner size, the date and the input it was sized for.
Why: the next water heater replacement will be done by whoever answers the phone. A liner sized for a 36,000 Btu/h water heater is not automatically right for a 50,000 Btu/h replacement, and a sealed flue is not a vent. See related: How to Handle the Chimney a Furnace Left Behind.
5. Label the last combustion appliance as the last one
If one gas appliance remains, put a label on it saying so, with the date of the last combustion safety test and where the CO alarms are. The tech who services it next year needs to know it is now an orphan on a system designed for two, which is the subject of What Removing a Gas Appliance Does to the Ones Left.
6. Record the settings on the equipment, not only in the file
Write the commissioning settings on a label inside the air handler door or beside the thermostat: backup heat lockout temperature, compressor lockout if any, the staging delay, and any time-of-use schedule. These are the settings a well-meaning tech "fixes" the next winter when the customer complains the air feels cool, and changing them can move the household's bill more than any repair. See related: Time-of-Use Rates and Equipment Settings.
7. Write the same facts into the job record, with photos
The shop's job record gets the same fields as the labels, plus photos of each tag in place, the panel directory and the capped outlet. A label can be painted over or torn off; the record is what you search the next time the customer calls. Name the photos by what they show, not by number.
8. Hand the customer a one-page copy and show them the tags
Walk the customer to each tag. A customer who knows the basement stub is capped and the gas meter is gone can tell a contractor so. A customer who has never seen the tags will say "I think the gas is off."
Worked example: the three labels from one conversion
A 1962 split-level is converted over two visits: the gas furnace is replaced with a ducted heat pump with resistance backup strips, the gas range with an induction range, and the gas water heater with a heat pump water heater. The utility pulls the meter. A load management device holds the 100 A service rather than upgrading it, and it sheds the water heater when the heat pump's strips run. The furnace flue in the masonry chimney is abandoned; a fireplace flue in the same stack stays live.
Here is what went on the panel directory, the capped outlet behind the old range, and the basement thimble.
PANEL DIRECTORY (changed lines) updated 03-14
1,3 Heat pump outdoor unit 30A 2P
5,7 Air handler + strips 60A 2P LOAD-MANAGED
9,11 HP water heater 30A 2P SHED BY LMD
13,15 Induction range 50A 2P
17 SPARE was furnace blower conductors removed
SERVICE 100A, NOT upgraded. Load mgmt device
in meter-main enclosure holds total under 100A.
------------------------------------------------
TAG AT CAPPED OUTLET, kitchen wall behind range
served: gas range. capped 03-14, threaded cap
on tee, leak tested at line pressure, no drop
GAS SERVICE: METER REMOVED BY UTILITY 03-21
house has no gas supply. line left in place.
------------------------------------------------
TAG AT THIMBLE, basement
furnace + water heater flue: ABANDONED 03-21
thimble sealed with mortar. top capped.
LIVE FLUE IN THIS STACK: fireplace, main floor
do not connect any appliance to this flue
Two facts on those tags came from a second visit: the meter removal and the flue abandonment happened a week after the first install. The first visit's tags read "gas service: ACTIVE, meter in place" and "flue: still serving water heater until replacement". The second crew replaced both tags rather than adding a sticker beside them, so no one reads two conflicting statuses on the same pipe.
Note what the directory does not say. It does not call breaker 17 spare until the conductors were confirmed removed; on the first visit it read "furnace blower, circuit not in use, conductors still connected". And it puts the load-management fact in the directory itself, where an electrician pricing an EV charger will see it before opening anything.
Steps 5 to 8 in this house. Step 5 does not apply, because no combustion appliance remains, so the CO alarm note went on the job record instead: the house still needs alarms while the attached garage has an opening into the dwelling. Step 6 put a label inside the air handler door reading strip lockout above 30 F, 10-minute staging delay, water heater shed while strips run. Step 7 filed photos named for each tag. Step 8 took the customer to the thimble and the capped outlet.
What changes the job
The gas meter stays. If the customer keeps gas for a fireplace or a dryer, every capped outlet tag says "GAS SERVICE ACTIVE, line under pressure behind this cap", and the remaining appliances get step 5. See related: Keeping Gas for One Appliance.
A propane house. The supply status belongs to the tank, and the tag names whether the supplier removed the tank, left it disconnected, or left it serving another appliance. See related: Propane Houses and Tank Removal.
A rental or a house about to sell. The labels matter more, because the person who reads them is a stranger to the job. Put a copy of the page inside the panel door as well as in the customer's packet.
How to verify you got this right
Hand the house to someone who was not on the job, give them five minutes, and ask three questions: is there gas pressure anywhere in this house, which flues are live, and can this panel take another 40 A circuit without a conversation? If the labels answer all three without a phone call, they work. If any answer starts with "I would assume", that is the label to rewrite.
References
- NFPA 70 (NEC) Article 408, circuit directory requirements, as adopted by your jurisdiction
- 29 CFR 1910.333 Selection and use of work practices (electrical)
- See related: The Electrification Handover SOP; How to Cap and Abandon a Gas Line Correctly; How to Close Out Gas Service With the Utility; How to Handle the Chimney a Furnace Left Behind