 |
Hello,
I've recently moved into a rent house that supplies a line for a gas dryer. I have a whirlpool 3prong electric dryer that I've been using for years. Before calling an electrician I was wondering if this was a difficult task for my husband, although he is a good handy man, electricity is not one of his favorites. Anyone have any suggestions? :confused:
Since this is a rental house and not one that you bought, I would highly suggest contacting the landlord and asking if he would install the 220 line for you. If he says no, ask him if he would even allow this if properly installed by a licensed electrician. Under no circumstances have hubby do this since this home is not yours.
Go out and purchase a 110-220v step-up transformer capable of the amperage / wattage of your dryer...
A 110 power line is not going to carry a 220 power, a entire new line will have to be installed.
Your first phone call should be to the landlord. 2nd if you are not experienced with electricity I would highly recommend calling in a professional since you WILL be running a new line into the circuit box and unless you plan on shutting the entire house down you will be working in a box with line voltage. And trust me it does not tickle. :eek: You also want to make sure the current electrical box can handle the added load.
Why not just go out and buy a gas dryer and solve your problem as installing a new line could probably run you about the same money in the end anyway? What's so hard about that? Dryer doesn't have to be brand new either.
I agree with those who say you should contact your landlord...
However, for any homeowners who may be reading this... I come back with this.
The 110 volt outlet is fed by a hot (black wire) neutral (white wire), and ground (green or bare copper wire)
There is enough wires here to make a 220 volt outlet, just not for a dryer. A dryer will most likely require a neutral.
Also, I'd amost bet that the 110 volt outlet is ran on 14 gauge or 12 gauge wire, neither will be sufficient for an electric drier, even if you did have the three conductors.
To do it right, you need to calculate the amps that the dryer will draw. If the dryer has a 4500 watt element, and other various components (motor, controls etc) consume 500 watts, then the dryer will consume about 5,000 watts. 5,000/240 is 20.83 amps. A 30 amp double pole breaker will need to be installed in the box.
Then you will need to run a three conductor 10 gauge wire to the new outlet.
But again, your landlord should take on this task.
And this is my 200th post!
I am really kind of scared by a few totally inaccurate posts here.
Not even close...Quote:
Originally Posted by aidos
Getting closer but still not quite right. You can run 220 or should I say 240V on many different lines. What determines the size wire you need is AMPs not Volts. Mostly right though because the dryer will need both 120 & 240 at 30 AMP meaning you will need 10/2, unless you plan on adding a ground (which I recommend) in which case you need 10/3 and will have to buy and install a new 4 prong plug for the dryer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck
I agree with most of this but WHO would not shut off all the power when in the box?? That is just a bad move period unless you would like to die. Also I have worked in the box and I am no pro just make sure you educate yourself about how to do it right and safely.Quote:
Originally Posted by cetanagi
Andrew got it right!
Don't mean to rant but if you're not completely sure you can give a good answer here please wait for an expert to do so (Stan, KISS, Russell). I wait for them all the time...
There is no need to shut off the main when installing a new breaker/circuit if you know what you are doing that is. In my line of work, working with live voltages is part of the job. You either learn to respect it or you get got.Quote:
Originally Posted by codyman144
Okay if you are highly trained and licensed maybe. But I wouldn't think of it, no way no how even if I was confident I could do it why take the chance. And I would never suggest a DIY'er do that.Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkwithaK
That is why I said the bit about learning to respect it and what it can do to you. I won't lie, I get nervous sticking my hand into a 3 phase box. Hell I can still feel the tingle when I put my fingers into a new disconnect even if it has no wires to it yet!
Hell I get nervous working in the box with the darn power off! But hey I am an accountant who crunches numbers all day and has a wife with a baby on the way. If I did it every day maybe another story. I take it you work for the power company?Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkwithaK
Nope. I'm a commercial HVAC/R technician.
Both are correct. Yes you can work on a box while it's hot. I've done it, many times. Mainly because when you want to add one circuit, you don't turn off the power to a house full of girls.
And I don't know which is worse, getting zapped or making my wife and daughter mad. LOL
(that was just a joke by the way)
But, the greater majority of askers on this site have never even opened a panel box before. As a safety, yes I'll agree that it's always good to advise them to cut off the main.
After all, we don't want the mans wife coming back on here blasting us for giving him advice that sent him to the hopital.
And I still get a weird feeling in my toes and fingers when I'm troubleshooting a 480 volt circuit. There is just something about it.
I got hit with 10,000 from an ignition transformer once. It really wasn't as bad as grabbing a live 240. I could taste metal after the 240 circuit.
See I feel like what if I make one tiny mistake and touch the bare ground to the center live bus? My panel is in a pored concrete basement so I think I would make a great ground maybe even with shoes on, not that I always wear them
They say it isn't the voltage but the current that kills.
I've been bit by a few spark ignitors myself.
I've never had a really bad shock, but I did hear 480 dead short once. On a disposer in a hospital. The maintenance crew and I were trying to find the short, we repaired one bad connection, and they left to flip the power back on. Well, they didn't return for a while, I walked up the hall towards the service corridor. I was about 200 feet away, up the hall. I heard a sound like a shot gun went off, and the lights in the hopital flickered.
Apparently we had not found the short.
(which turned out to be in a Jbox behind the wall)
Yea, you do have to watch that ground wire. Even when I run a new circuit on a live box, I keep my eye on the bare ground, and it is always the first wire I secure.Quote:
Originally Posted by codyman144
Again for anyone reading this, you do take your life into your hands when you do this. Do so with caution.
Oh don't get me wrong, it is great to be cautious. Especially if you aren't really comfortable with electricity. I'm smack dab into remodeling my house and the electrical system is SCARY at best. I have a slab foundation and my panel is so damned old there is no ground bar. From what I can tell the system is relying on the conduit, for lack of a better term, as the ground.Quote:
Originally Posted by codyman144
Wow you should really upgrade that panel. And don't get me wrong either we are just discussing this and I wanted to put my reasons behind it. Is there somewhere else we should take this conversation because I am not sure this is the right placeQuote:
Originally Posted by MarkwithaK
Sounds like fun. I finally got all of my ungrounded circuits grounded last month. It only took 5 years. When I first baught this place, a wire run run out of the box in the basement, there would be a tape splice, then those two wires would splice, and so on, with nothing more than tape. I had numourous runs of 14 gauge wire on 20 amp breakers.Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkwithaK
My first year here I just put all the splices in metal j boxes and any 14 gauge circuit on 15 amp breakers. This December I finally got everything upgraded to grounded 12 gauge wire. Cleaned it all up real nice. One circuit at a time.
I don't know. In my opinion the question was answered.
#1. Call your landlord.
#2. Call an electrician.
:p
Nah, I think this thread is just as well hijacked. The OP does't look like he's coming back. So it's ours now. :) And even if he did, he may learn something.Quote:
Originally Posted by codyman144
Just three "Jack's of all trades" sitting around on their computer at 2:30 AM talking is all. No harm in that...
I upgraded the service in my house from 60 Amp to 150 Amp but had a pro do that part. He put in a new panel and everything and changed the location of the panel and re routed wire as needed. Bought the house in Sept this year. Problem with my house now is none of the original wiring is grounded NOTHING. So I am slowly replacing the circuits one by one.Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewc24301
Why the hell not Andrew I agree for now, someone will delete most of this in the morning.
Hell my house is nowhere near code according the NEC. Each bedroom has one outlet. One. Come spring it's all coming out. All new wiring, all new HVAC system... everything. I've learned that my trade comes in handy for personal projects as well :p
Quote:
Originally Posted by codyman144
Nahh... Like Mark said, the askers question was answered, we're still talking about electrical. The worst thing the mods may to is take some of these post and put them in a new thread.
Although I don't know what they would call it.
In response to your other comment...
Have you uncovered anything interesting hidden in the walls regarding to your electrical?
I know I was pulling a cable through a wall and uncovered yet another taped splice that I had missed. Nice fire hazard.
I recently replaced a couple of light fixtures and in the J-box there was solid core (I HATE solid core) one hooked around the other and then taped. No wire nuts, just old e-tape.
The only old wire I have left is on the switch loop ciruits. (where the wire runs to the light switches) I may change those in time, but they are on a low priority now. It's 14 gauge, but that's the only circuit I still have on a 15 Amp breaker.Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkwithaK
When I replaced the 120/240 dryer wire I found the electrician I hired to do it used 10/2 and used the bare ground as a neutral. Okay it was like 12 inches from the box but come on why would you do that.Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewc24301
Are you sure he used it as neutral and not as a ground?
Yeah for me I even consider the light circuit’s in general low priority. Sure it’s 14 or 12 AWG 1950’s style romex but it seems to be in good condition. But all the outlets not having an equipment ground, don’t like that at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewc24301
I'm lucky in that here in Indiana we can still use Romex. I live very close to the state line and on the Illinois side Romex is illegal. Everything has to be EMT or rigid.
Yes it’s a 120/240 dryer so he had to use the black and white as hot wires(nice how he didn’t mark the white as red so someone would know it was hot). Also the dryer didn't have a ground before it was 3 prong. I fixed it all with 10/3 new outlet and prong, also I took that j-box out completely and ran the wire into the main box.Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkwithaK
Agreed, the light circuit in general was the last thing I changed. It was the week of Thanksgiving. I was off that week. I started my project that Saturday. I got most of the lights back on in time for Turkey dinner. My wife was freaking out.Quote:
Originally Posted by codyman144
The splice I was telling you about was uncovered on the light circuit. The wire that ran up the walls to feed the lights came from an outlet in the bedroom. I wanted to separate this outlet from the light circuit.
Now get this, I knew that the lights fed on this outlet, because when I turned off the breaker for the lights, that outlet would go out too, plus I traced the wire in the basement and attic and it all came together.
What puzzled me was when I removed the outlet in the wall, there was only one set of wires coming into the outlet.
So my question was, where is this splice that goes to the lights?
Well I knocked out the old box, and reached my hand up in the hole in the wall to feel around, and I pulled out my answer, a bare taped splice, right between the wall! The supply line came in from below, then split to the outlet, and split upwards to the lights. All joined by electrical tape only.
To make things more interesting, when I first moved in here, that circuit was one of the ones on a 20 amp breaker, but most of the wiring was 14 gauge.
That’s crazy nothing wrong with NM wire... I could see maybe if they require NMC but even that is overkill. In commercial applications that might make sense but that is beyond my scope of understanding.Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkwithaK
I will brb time for a smoke break.
Just make sure you don't overtighten those romex connectors. I did this up in the attic. Pinched right through to the hot wire. Shorted the j box.
Well, in order to troubleshoot this, I went upstairs and unhooked everything and just went to each fixture and j box one by one until I found the culprit. Thing is, you couldn't look at it and tell which one it was it required testing.
And yes I got shocked a couple of times.
That is scary. Did you have any problems pulling the new wire in? I imagine you joined the new wire to the old somewhere you could get to it and taped around it. I am worried that as I start pulling wire some of it might be stapled in.Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewc24301
Did you use wire nuts or what kind of connector? Not completely followingQuote:
Originally Posted by andrewc24301
Well, I ran the new wire for the light circuit up a different wall, where I had better access. Regarding all of the outlets, I just fished up from the basement. Stuck my hand in the hole, found the wire and pulled it through. I used an old work box, so every circuit I replaced had brand new wire.
My only painful problem was on the exterior walls, there was this gray loose insulation. Not like what they make now. I don't think it was asbestos, but I do know that it had tiny little metal splinters all up in it and I got quite a number of those in my hands.
| All times are GMT -7. The time now is 01:05 PM. |