Changing a dedicated 120V circuit to 240V

[Guest]

People can get more fixtures on a 240V circuit than a 120V,about twice as many fixtures actually if mr ohm is correct lol,and changing out a circuit is simple if you have two things.One thing is the circuit must be "dedicated",or running straight from the panel to the outlet with no other outlets on the circuit.Second,you'll need an extra space in the panel.A lot of times this can be achieved if the panel is full by using tandem breakers,they are breakers that allow 2 120V circuits to be run off a breaker using only 1 space.Anyway,its simply a matter of changing the recfeptacle to a 240V receptacle,putting the black and white wires on either side,it doesnt matter.Ground wire goes under the green screw of course.Back at the panel you will remove the single pole breaker,and replace it with a 2 pole breaker of the same amperage.Again the black and white wires will go under the breaker screws in either order,and the ground doesnt get touched.Your done.There are load balancing aspects that I didnt talk about,but it can be confusing and these directions are pretty simple,just trying to keep it thata way

 

[bartender187]

As im not an electrician I wont comment on the saftey of this post.

Messing with electricity and not knowing exactly what you are doing can result in fire and or death. Be very careful and it would be wise to check with a licensed electrician before doing any modifications.

Thanks for the post, and everyone take care.

 

[Guest]

I'm a journeyman electrician and there's no such thing as an unsafe post in reality,its what people do with it that counts lol.There are some unsafe people in this world of that there's no doubt but that doesnt mean a lot of smart people wont use this info to their advantage

 

[silvertrain]

i was thinking about switching to a 240.. safety is definatly a issue.. them 240 volts are something u dont want to play with.. i would say its not a do it yourself job unless your a electrician.. they have adapters that run from a stove plug or dryer plug that are 240v..

 

[Guest]

This is only for people that can change out a breaker and a receptacle.C'mon folks are you serious lol??O yea,you have to be able to switch one wire in the ballast also,that'll take an engineer!

 

[MTF-Sandman]

lol...this ain't rocket surgery folks. It just takes a little common sense.

Question ballastman - does this violate NEC code in any way? Some folks were claiming that running 240v off 2 conductor wire did in another thread...but the electrical inspector didn't give it a second thought when he saw my 240v only circuits running off 2 conductor and happily passed em

 

[The Dopest]

 

[Guest]

Hey MTF,no it doesnt violate code bro what do you need a neutral for?Unless you are wiring a subpanel at 240V for 240 and 120V circuits,a neutral isnt necessary.If you are just running the fixtures,a noodle isnt part of the p[lan.Actually,your best bet is to just mount an intermatic WH40 little gray box hot water heater timer directly over the receptacle box,and come out of the timer with a short pice of wire to your receptacles.Thats how I've been doing it for years now

 

[MTF-Sandman]

^^Cool...that's what I thought. They were circuits for AC's and my workshop, so no 120v stuff was getting run off em. Appreciate the confirmation

 

[Guest]

just make sure each hot wire is on a seperate phase if using a tandem style double pole breaker!
another thing to clarify for everybody,
whether you run a ballast of 120 or 240v, you still consume the same amount of power.
this is a common misconception, the few positives on running 240v is that you will balance the load of your draw equally on both phases, and you can run more ballasts on the same circuit.
but in no way, shape or form will it save you money.
for instance, if you are running 1000w ballast, it will draw around 9 amps at 120, but 4.5 amps at 240v. the only difference is that instaed of drawing all 9 amps on one phase at 120v, it draws 4.5 amps at 240v on BOTH phases. so 4.5a x 2=9amps total.
1000w is 1000w all day, no matter what!