Circuit Assignment and Panel Management for Level One Power Plans

Now that we have all of our Receptacles placed for our Level 1 Power Plan, we can assign them to circuits. Feel free to use the PDF handout as a guide for arranging these into circuits. Let's zoom in here.

If we hover over one of the Receptacles in Classroom 1510 and press TAB, we see that the first circuit has already been created. We want to continue that pattern, and we want to do it a bit more quickly.

We can draw a rectangle around the Receptacles for the next two classrooms. It's a quick way to select them all, but we'll need to click Filter, select only the Electrical Fixtures category, and click OK. Now we can assign these to a Power System.

To keep it simple, we're just going to place all of these onto Panel Board 3 for Level 1. We're going to start filling up that Panel Board. In a little bit, we'll see what happens when it gets full and how we can address that.

We can give this a name. We've already used a Load Name before for our Classroom Receptacles, so it now appears in the dropdown list. We’ll select it—Receptacles—Classroom. It's best to select from the list to avoid any misspellings as we go.

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So let's continue. We'll assign circuits for the next two classrooms. I'm noticing that I skipped a Receptacle in the Nurse's Office.

That's okay. If you miss one like I did, you can use the Create Similar command and add another Receptacle back in. Then we can select the two classrooms and the Nurse's Office together.

Filter to only Electrical Fixtures, click OK, and then click the Power button. Assign them to Panel Board 3, and set the Load Name to Receptacles—Classroom.

Pretty straightforward, right? Oh—but I made a mistake. It looks like I didn't include the GFCI Outlets. Not a problem.

I can click the Edit Circuit button and simply click to add those two to the circuit. Now I'm getting a warning: The total connected apparent power for Circuit A is exceeding 80% of the defined 20-amp rating.

So adding the Nurse's Office pushed the circuit beyond the limit. Revit is smart about how it handles this. Let's go ahead and click Finish.

And I might want to go ahead and alter the Circuit here. We’re going to deviate slightly from the PDF handout—that’s okay because we’re learning, and we’ll add these to their own Circuit.

So let’s go ahead and grab the two Electrical Room Receptacles. We’ll power them up and assign them to Panel Board 3.

Now let’s see—we’ve got the Load Name. We can use “Receptacle, ” and that’s fine since this is no longer a classroom.

So, Load Name: Receptacle. Then we can Edit that Circuit. I want to remove the Receptacle from the Nurse’s Office that was part of the previous overloaded Circuit.

It’s pretty easy to just add it to our Electrical Room Circuit instead. So let’s go ahead and add it to the new Circuit—click on that Receptacle. Revit will give us a warning saying it’s already part of another Circuit, but that’s okay.

That’s exactly what we want. Now, if we hover over this and press TAB, we can see the Circuit that includes the Nurse’s Office and Electrical Room. If we tab over here, we have the two classrooms, and they’re fine now since we removed the Nurse’s Office.

All right, let’s repeat that process. I’ll go ahead and pick the next two classrooms here. I’ll filter them, select Electrical Fixtures, power them up, assign them to Panel Board 3, and set the Load Name to Receptacles—Classroom.

And I made a mistake—I missed one right here. Not a problem. I’ll use Edit Circuit and add it.

And there we go. If I hover over one of these and press TAB, I can visually confirm the Circuit. It looks good now.

Now let’s go ahead and do the next two classrooms. Select the area, filter, uncheck all, then select Electrical Fixtures, power them up, assign them to Panel Board 3, and name the Load: Receptacles—Classroom. The final two are a classroom and the break room together.

So I’ll select all of these. I accidentally grabbed one extra, so I’ll hold Shift to deselect it.

Now I can filter to Electrical Fixtures and power them up—Panel Board 3—and use the Load Name: Receptacles—Classroom. Good to go there.

Okay, let’s zoom into the lower area and repeat the process. I’ll move quickly—two classrooms at a time. Select everything, filter, choose Electrical Fixtures, and power them up using Panel Board 3.

And here we go—Revit is telling us we can’t connect to Panel Board 3 because there aren’t enough slots.

And the Feed Through Lugs option is unchecked. We don’t want Feed Through Lugs—we want these to be on Circuit Breakers.

We don't want to enable Feed Through Lugs. We’re going to hit Cancel. What’s the problem here? The problem is we don’t have enough slots in Panel Board 3.

So Panel Board 3—it’s the third panel from the left when looking at this wall. That’s PB1, and if you hover over them, Revit gives you a readout of what they are. So PB1, PB2, and PB3 are located here.

If we scroll down in its Properties under Electrical Circuiting, we’ll see the Max Number of Single-Pole Breakers is set to 12, which is fairly low for a 200-amp breaker. A more typical value would be 42. We’ll increase that and click Apply.

Now we’ve got 42 slots. Let’s try again and see if we can assign it to that panel. If I hover over one and press TAB, we can see it did create the Circuit.

Revit will create the Circuit—it just defaults to “Panel: None.” Now we can assign it to Panel Board 3.

This time, it worked with no issue because we now have available slots. Revit is pretty smart with how it handles this. Let’s go back to Properties and set the Load Name: Receptacles—Classroom.

There we go—we’ve made solid progress. Let’s go ahead and check out the Systems Browser to see what’s going on there.

If I go to the View tab, then to User Interface, and turn on the System Browser—there it is. Under Electrical Power > Main Distribution Board 3 > Panel Board 3, I can now see the Circuits being created. If I expand the list, I can see the lighting on the upper Circuits.

If I scroll to Circuit 13, I now see the Receptacles. It’s all working as expected.

Revit is all connected—it knows exactly how many slots are available on each Panel Board. Pretty cool, right? Let’s keep going. I’m going to add the next two classrooms right here.

Select the Receptacles, filter to Electrical Fixtures, power them up using Panel Board 3, and assign the Load Name: Receptacles—Classroom.

Now we have a Workroom and a Classroom that belong together. Select those Receptacles, filter to Electrical Fixtures—and we didn’t get the Power button.

Why not? Likely because one of the Receptacles is already part of a Circuit. So instead, click that Receptacle and examine its Circuit.

If I press TAB and click, I can see it's a small Circuit with nothing else on it. First, assign it to Panel Board 3.

You’ll see the Circuit rectangle expand to show it’s now connected to Panel Board 3. Next, Edit the Circuit and add Receptacles from Classroom 2001.

Now set the Load Name: Receptacles—Classroom. When I hit Finish, it should update from “Unnamed” to—yep, there we go—it’s now Circuit 15.

Pretty cool. We're starting to assign some of the previously unassigned items.

All right, now let’s go to the bottom-left corner. I’ll grab two classrooms at a time, select all Receptacles, filter to Electrical Fixtures, and power them up using Panel Board 3. We know the workflow well by now.

Repeat the process down the line: Load Name, Receptacles—Classroom. We're almost done assigning these classrooms.

Select the next group of two, filter, uncheck all, select Electrical Fixtures, power them up, and set the Load Name: Receptacles—Classroom. Good to go.

Now the final two rooms: 1Classroom and the Break Room. Select, filter, uncheck all, select Electrical Fixtures, click OK, power them up with Panel Board 3, and set the Load Name: Receptacles—Classroom.

Phew—we got them all done. Nice work. Now we’ll notice a few other Receptacles, like this one here.

If I hover over it and press TAB, it’s already part of a Circuit, but it’s unnamed. All we need to do is assign it to a Panel Board.

Select PB3—you’ll see it jump down. It’s now Circuit 19. For the Load Name, let’s just call it Receptacle. This helps differentiate it from Classroom Receptacles.

Assign it to PB3, and set the Load Name to Receptacle. Now let’s move into the Cafeteria.

Hover, press TAB—it looks like these aren’t assigned to any Circuits. We need to assign them and press CTRL to multi-select.

Grab the Floor Boxes and a few wall Receptacles.

Oh—and one of these was already assigned to an unnamed Circuit, so it won’t connect. Let’s remove that one.

We’ll select just the Floor Boxes for now. Click Power, assign PB3, and set the Load Name: Receptacle.

Now we need to add in those three wall Outlets. Click Edit Circuit and select them.

Revit will give a warning—we’re pulling them out of an unnamed Circuit, which is exactly what we want. Click Finish Editing.

That’s one less unnamed Circuit in our browser. Now hover over the Kitchen.

Hover, press TAB—it’s all on an unnamed Circuit. Let’s assign it to Panel Board 3.

It will take a moment to process. Set the Load Name: Receptacle. Looks great.

We also added some Receptacles in the Gym, so we need to power those up.

Select the top and left-side Receptacles—three across the top, three on the left—that will be 1Circuit. Add another Outlet to wrap that left side.

Power them up—PB3—and set the Load Name.

And Receptacle. Now we'll do the right side of the Gym. So I'll grab this Receptacle and these three.

I think that's it for that group. We'll click the Power button to power it up. Assign it to PB3, and the Load Name: Receptacle.

Revit is tracking us now—it already populated "Receptacle." We're good to go.

Now let's come down to our Library. First, we want to power the Wall Outlets in the main Library area into a single Circuit. We'll click the Power button.

PB3, Load Name: Receptacle—good to go. Then we’ll add the Floor Boxes on their own Circuit—just three Floor Boxes. Power them up, assign PB3, and set the Load Name: Receptacle.

Over in the Vestibule, if we hover and click once, we can see it's already assigned to the Corridor. Let's try the next Corridor—hover over, press TAB. That one isn’t assigned yet.

We need to select these. Starting in the Vestibule, we’ve got two Receptacles there. We’ll zigzag across the hallway, grabbing all of those.

This Circuit continues up the hallway. When I hold CTRL, the Power button disappears—so I’ll unselect the conflicting item and power the rest up.

Assign to PB3 and set the Load Name: Receptacle. Then click Edit Circuit and add the remaining hallway Receptacles. Select each one—it will warn us that we’re moving it, which is expected.

One of those unnamed Circuits will disappear once we add everything. And the last one—there we go.

Now that they’re all selected, click Finish Editing. If we press TAB to hover over that Circuit, we’ll see they’re all grouped together. Looking good.

Let’s keep going. We’ve got the Restrooms, and we created those Receptacles earlier. We can now create a Circuit for the Restroom and Janitor area.

Select all the appropriate Receptacles and click the Power button. Assign PB3, Load Name: Receptacle, and we’re good to go. Click Modify to finish.

That should cover everything for Level 1. Now go ahead and follow the guide—move to your Level 2 Power Plan and repeat the same process: add any missing Receptacles and assign them all to Circuits.