Adding a 220V Outlet Box

[Rob Russell]

Well, I dug into the code and found the section. Article 250.119, Identification of Equipment Grounding Conductors, appears to be the relevant section.

First, for this installation - Rollie is correct. You can't reidentify the neutral. The way it's put in the code is that a covered/or insulated EGC has to be green or green with yellow stripes. Bottom line for Chris is that - if he wants the installation to meet code - he needs to pull a bare, green or green with yellow stripe conductor to use as his EGC. That and some other things in terms of how the flex conduit is secured and the actual receptacle mounted.

Second (and this is what I was remembering from running a subpanel), conductors larger than 6AWG are allowed to be reidentified under 250.119(A). I'll remember this for future threads that 6AWG and smaller conductors can't be reidentified.

[Chris Tsutsui]

The flexible conduit is only about 3 feet long. Then it goes into a rigid galvanized metal conduit before it goes into the wall.

The wires in the conduit are 10AWG.

Thank you for the helpful information, I would prefer to keep everything to code and safe as possible of course.

Since this is in the garage which is near my main panel box. I am just going to run a new green ground wire. I have to find the main source of ground and run a new wire from here? (Find the pipe that goes into the ground attached to the other common grounds). Or can I just daisy chain a grounding wire from the nearest 110V receptical?

My next question is what do I do with the White Neutral wire if I run a new green ground? Do I just cap it and leave it inside the new terminal box?

As far as I know, I just need two 220V outlets though what if I plan to add a 120V outlet in addition. Would that be possible and would I need the white wire for this? For 120V would I go Red/white with ground. Or Black/White w/ ground. For 220V I go red/black with ground.

Of course i will do more research on this before I try anything, but this thread has been a great help.

[Rob Russell]

You need to run the #10 EGC back to the panelboard that the circuit originates in.

Leave the white conductor there. In the future, if someone decides to reconvert it to a dryer circuit, they will need all 4 wires.

You probably won't be able to use the 30A circuit for 120v loads. A 30A circuit requires 30A receptacles which are a different slot configuration than the standard 15A/20A receptacles you're familiar with. I've attached a pic of a NEMA 5-30 receptacle.

[Chris Padilla]

I turned off the 30A breaker before opening this outlet.

Excellent! This is ALWAYS a good start into working on electricity! The next one, however, is to do a double-check with a voltmeter just to be sure!

At my home's breaker box there are two 30A breakers attached to one switch, so when I flip the switch, both of the 30A breakers turn off. (I don't know what this means cause there's only one plug...

The reason you have "two" 30 A breakers is that in order to get a 240 V circuit, you need to connected to both sides of the wire coming in from the pole/street. Remember, you have two hots. Hot to Neutral is 120 V and Hot to Hot is 240 V. This 30 A breaker is connected to both hots and thus why you have 240 V from it. Look carefully at the wire coming in from the pole/street and observe how it connects to two separate "bars" or "bus bars".

I attached a pic of a subpanel at the beginning of installation. The "1" points to two lugs that connect to two bus bars that have a black and red hot connected. The breakers snap onto the metal "prongs" in between the two lugs. If you snap only into one, as shown in the second pic, you will only have 120 V. To get 240 V, your breaker must be physically wider and snap into two "prongs". In fact, the "prongs" alternate between the red and black hots such that one prong to its neighbor will always be 240 V. Now you know why all 240 V circuits have "two" breakers.

[Rick Christopherson]

Nice posting and nice pictures Chris!