110 off a 220 outlet

[vegask]

Basically I am looking for the safest/least hacky way of doing this. For some reason whoever wired my garage put the lights and all the 110 outlets on a single 15amp breaker. Problem is my chop saw will trip the 15 amp breaker pretty easily and my hobart 140 will also trip it if my beer freezer happens to kick on.

I just recently put a 220 outlet in the garage that is on a 30amp circuit and was wondering if I made an adapter using some thing like this:
http://www.hardwarestore.com/media/product/154179_front200.jpg

And wired the ground/neutral/one hot to a female 110 plug would that work or would it be to cheesy?

[lt1yj]

I would replace the 30 amp outlet with a sub panel. Then wire the 30 amp outlet to the sub panel and as many 110 outlets as you want.

[87JeepWrangler]

i don't know enough about how a 220/30 amp breaker would react to only having one hot leg being used. i agree with the sub panel idea, or just run a 12/3 wire from your panel to your garage and then you'll have a whole new 20 amp circuit to play with.

[Mechanos]

Basically I am looking for the safest/least hacky way of doing this. For some reason whoever wired my garage put the lights and all the 110 outlets on a single 15amp breaker. Problem is my chop saw will trip the 15 amp breaker pretty easily and my hobart 140 will also trip it if my beer freezer happens to kick on.

I just recently put a 220 outlet in the garage that is on a 30amp circuit and was wondering if I made an adapter using some thing like this:
http://www.hardwarestore.com/media/product/154179_front200.jpg

And wired the ground/neutral/one hot to a female 110 plug would that work or would it be to cheesy?

While, technically, that would give you 120V, it's a very bad idea and shouldn't be done. You would have 15A or 20A recepticals protected by a 30A breaker. As suggested above, just run a new 20A 120V circuit to the garage for the outlets. If your load center is full, then convert the 240V outlet to a subpanel.

If you do this, it would be a good idea to upgrade the 240V circuit from 30A to 40A or 50A. Since a standard 240V circuit has only three conductors, you'd need to pull a new four conductor circuit anyway.

[vegask]

The 220 outlet/circuit in the garage is 4 prong one. Its also tied to a dryer outlet in the house. Although I have a gas dryer I dont think I can go about 30A on the wiring that is there.

[Travis Waldher]

Since a standard 240V circuit has only three conductors, you'd need to pull a new four conductor circuit anyway.

No he doesn't, at least the way you made it sound. :D

But he will need 3 seperately insulated wires, so if it's 10/2 romex that's not going to work. But if it was 10/3 romex and a 30A sub panel it would.

Last I knew, even inside the same room the sub panel doesn't get it's ground from the main panel. There should only be 3 wires going from the main to the sub (2 hot + neutral) and the neutral and ground bars in the sub panel must not be bonded.

Correct?

[brewchief]

No he doesn't, at least the way you made it sound. :D

But he will need 3 seperately insulated wires, so if it's 10/2 romex that's not going to work. But if it was 10/3 romex and a 30A sub panel it would.

Last I knew, even inside the same room the sub panel doesn't get it's ground from the main panel. There should only be 3 wires going from the main to the sub (2 hot + neutral) and the neutral and ground bars in the sub panel must not be bonded.

Correct?

Where I am at the sub panel needs 4 wires back to the main panel, 2 hot, neutral, ground. The exception to this is if the sub is in a separate building, then it would have it's own ground rod. Neutral and ground are not bonded in the sub.

A separate circuit for plugs or a new circuit for a sub panel would be my choice.



Brewchief:D

[Mechanos]

Where I am at the sub panel needs 4 wires back to the main panel, 2 hot, neutral, ground. The exception to this is if the sub is in a separate building, then it would have it's own ground rod. Neutral and ground are not bonded in the sub.

A separate circuit for plugs or a new circuit for a sub panel would be my choice.



Brewchief:D

That's the way it is here, too. I'm not sure about the subpanel in a separate building thing though.... although that's moot in this case as it sounds like he's working all within the same building. If rigid or EMT is used to connect the subpanel enclosure to the main panel enclosure, the rigid or EMT is permitted to act as the 4th conductor (grounding conductor).

In my experience, "bonded" means 'connected electrically to the enclosure'. For a subpanel using this definition, neutrals need to land on an isolated bus bar and grounds need to land on a separate bus bar which is "bonded" to the subpanel enclosure.

[Mechanos]

The 220 outlet/circuit in the garage is 4 prong one. Its also tied to a dryer outlet in the house. Although I have a gas dryer I dont think I can go about 30A on the wiring that is there.

No he doesn't, at least the way you made it sound. :D...?

Well, then technically, it's not a 240V circuit.... it's a 240V/120V circuit. :flipoff2: A pure 240V load has no use for the neutral... the only reason for the netural's presence is to complete the circuit for 120V loads.

[Rat70FJ]

Assuming the 4 prong connector has four conductors going to it, then a little 30 amp subpanel would be fine.

[Urban Wheeler]

i don't know enough about how a 220/30 amp breaker would react to only having one hot leg being used. i agree with the sub panel idea, or just run a 12/3 wire from your panel to your garage and then you'll have a whole new 20 amp circuit to play with.

A 220v breaker is actually two breakers in one, but most of the time they are connected at the on/off/trip lever. It's supposed to be that if one trips it will shut off the other one.