Can I wire a 120v outlet from my 220v wall heater?

[RedXIII]

Hi all, i'm looking to add a 600w galaxy to my room, but my current 15 amp 120 v circuit i'm using is already full. I have a wall heater in the room that runs off of 220 (wiring pics below) that has 1 black wire, 1 white wire and a copper ground. It goes to this (2 pole?) 20 amp circuit.

Is there any simple way to rewire this to a 120v receptacle? I have done stuff like this rewiring my light fixture in the room to a 120v receptacle but have never messed w/ 220. I would prefer to do 120 so I can also stick some other 120v things on there. But I realize if its not possible or is too much of a hassle I could just wire it to a 220v receptacle and get the 220v cord for the galaxy ballast.

If I did wire it to 220v, what size romex should I pick up? I have some 14/2 but I think that is too small, I was thinking 12/2 or 10/2?

Thanks!

 

[yamaha_1fan]

Well the issue is those two wires are hot, while in 120, one wire is hot and the other is common/neutral.

I think if you could pull the common/neutral from a 120 outlet, you could actually make TWO 120 outlets. This is in theory, there may be some limitation to current on that neutral wire though.

Do not try this unless someone else confirms it. I am just discussing theory and dont want to be responsible for you burning down your house or killing someone.


10/2 is overkill I think. Since you have a 20 amp breaker, I THINK you need 12/2 but let someone else confirm that

 

[PharmaCan]

In your main breaker panel, remove the 220v double breaker and replace it with a single 120v breaker. Hook the black wire to the new breaker and the white wire to your neutral bar. Presto - chango you have a 120v circuit.

You might want to get an electrician to do the changes in the main panel, just so you don't kill yourself, but it's really a very simple conversion that any old Sparky can do in about 10 minutes.

Semper fi!

PC

 

[imnotcrazy]

DO NOT do as Yamaha1fan suggested: he's talking about a "common neutral" circuit and you need all hot legs to be tied trip-common. IE: when sharing the neutral between multiple hot legs, a multiple pole breaker is used. This is so that if ONE of the hot legs overload, all the hot legs tied to the neutral leg of the circuit will open.

#1: Doing as Yamaha suggested will leave one of 3 hot legs out of that common trip arrangement.

#2: Common neutral circuits are mainly used in industry not homes and you can't use Romex to set one up



What you could do, is to get a replacement breaker of the same rating.
Replace the two-pole breaker with the single pole and tie the White leg that was originally tied @ the two-pole breaker. Now, tie it to the Neutral Bonding Bar. You'll now have a 120V outlet of the same current rating as your original circuit...

 

[yamaha_1fan]

Well like I said, dont do what I said as I wasnt sure


I dont quite understand why it wouldnt work though. connecting to the common bar directly verus tapping into another common wire should be the same thing?

Not trying to argue, I just like to get a better understanding of how things work.

 

[Montana]

Messing with electrical setups in your house is a great way to gain unwanted attention, keep in mind that when the house you live in was built, every little thing was inspected and certified, on paper. There is a record of it in the municipalities drawer somewhere, permits were applied for, paid for and certified.

Alot of growers forget that when they tap into power lines and alter the setups it draws huge amounts of power that normally wouldn't be used by that house, this is why we see so many bullshit stories in the news of "power theft". my suggestion would be to get an extension chord and draw power from somewhere else in the house.

this might sound silly to alot of people on here, it all depends on where you live and who is powering your house, every state/country is different.

Every little detail IMO should be considered to stay safe.

 

[badugi]

DO NOT do as Yamaha1fan suggested: he's talking about a "common neutral" circuit and you need all hot legs to be tied trip-common. IE: when sharing the neutral between multiple hot legs, a multiple pole breaker is used. This is so that if ONE of the hot legs overload, all the hot legs tied to the neutral leg of the circuit will open.

#1: Doing as Yamaha suggested will leave one of 3 hot legs out of that common trip arrangement.

#2: Common neutral circuits are mainly used in industry not homes and you can't use Romex to set one up



What you could do, is to get a replacement breaker of the same rating.
Replace the two-pole breaker with the single pole and tie the White leg that was originally tied @ the two-pole breaker. Now, tie it to the Neutral Bonding Bar. You'll now have a 120V outlet of the same current rating as your original circuit...

Thanks for the excellent explanation & answer. Always wondered (and was on y1f's line of thinking).

I dont quite understand why it wouldnt work though. connecting to the common bar directly verus tapping into another common wire should be the same thing?

Not trying to argue, I just like to get a better understanding of how things work.

Ditto

Messing with electrical setups in your house is a great way to gain unwanted attention, keep in mind that when the house you live in was built, every little thing was inspected and certified, on paper. There is a record of it in the municipalities drawer somewhere, permits were applied for, paid for and certified.

Alot of growers forget that when they tap into power lines and alter the setups it draws huge amounts of power that normally wouldn't be used by that house, this is why we see so many bullshit stories in the news of "power theft". my suggestion would be to get an extension chord and draw power from somewhere else in the house.

this might sound silly to alot of people on here, it all depends on where you live and who is powering your house, every state/country is different.

Every little detail IMO should be considered to stay safe.

While what you're saying has merit, it really has absolutely zero relevance in this particular case. Unless the OP is growing in his parents' house w/o permission, and the parents who pay the power bill notice... or some other silly shit like that. You're reading way too much into it.

20 amps one way or another isn't going to be noticed by anyone except you.

 

[imnotcrazy]

Yamaha, you want to have all the hot legs in a Common Neutral circuit tied together via a multi-pole circuit breaker IE: 2 or 3 pole.

The reason for this is so if one of the hot circuits becomes overloaded or there is some fault in the wiring of one of the circuits, all of the hot legs trip at the same time so no stray currents from the faulty/overloaded circuit remain on the Neutral leg.

Normally, Common Neutral circuits are used in industrial applications from a 3 phase 208V panel to ensure a balanced load between phases.

 

[yamaha_1fan]

Messing with electrical setups in your house is a great way to gain unwanted attention, keep in mind that when the house you live in was built, every little thing was inspected and certified, on paper. There is a record of it in the municipalities drawer somewhere, permits were applied for, paid for and certified.

Alot of growers forget that when they tap into power lines and alter the setups it draws huge amounts of power that normally wouldn't be used by that house, this is why we see so many bullshit stories in the news of "power theft". my suggestion would be to get an extension chord and draw power from somewhere else in the house.

this might sound silly to alot of people on here, it all depends on where you live and who is powering your house, every state/country is different.

Every little detail IMO should be considered to stay safe.

nobodys talking about stealing power here.

Since its not practical for us to call an electrician, we have to get our info from somewhere. Thanks to the few people on here who know this stuff we can get the advice we need.

And run an extension cord? That is bad advice

At least my advice was given with a warning I wasnt sure.



Imnotcrazy. So its a safety issue? In thoery it should work? I understand now. If something happens to one hot, you want that circuit isolated, shut down etc. If the hot is shutdown but not the neutral, then the problem can carry over to other circuits

I think I got it. Like I said, no disagreement, I just like to know why/how etc.

 

[RedXIII]

Thanks everyone for the input and responses, much appreciated! Sounds like a pretty simple thing to do...get a single pole 20 amp breaker, switch it out with the double pole thats in there, hook black wire to breaker and white wire to neutral, right? I still might just wire it to a 220v outlet and get the 220v cord for the ballast, sounds easier and I wouldn't' have to mess around in the breaker box.

@Montana
I appreciate the concern, but i'm only adding a 600w light that would be running through a circuit already expected to be in use (a wall heater) in winter time because it is cold, and the wall heater runs over 1000w. I don't think running a digi ballast from an extension cord is a good idea anyways. Very simple to change back to the existing electrical setup as well. Plus i'm a medical card holder so I really dont have much to worry about except a landlord that might not want me to lol

 

[imnotcrazy]

Yamaha: Yeah, basically if there is a fault in one of the hot legs if the breakers aren't tied trip common: the faulted leg should trip (if working properly) but stray currents on the shared Neutral will be back fed to the faulty wiring/circuit/appliance.

You want all legs tied to that Neutral to open if there is a fault in one of the circuits to ensure the entire circuit goes dead until you can isolate/repair any issue in the wiring etc.