[wontdoitmyself]

I have a 220 volt outlet in my basement, no longer used for that purpose. I am finishing my basement into living area and need to add some new branch circuits for lighting and additional outlets. It would be very difficult to run new wiring for the basement lighting to the house main panel which is in my garage. Can the 220 outlet be routed into a subpanel in the basement and used to create a couple of new 110 branch circuits for the lighting?

[eeseely]

Yes, since you already have 220vac, you can actually make two (2) 110vac circuits from it.

1. Look at the wires going to the 220vac outlet, after turning its breaker off.

2. You will probably see a black wire, a red wire and a white wire, which it the neutral wire. And there should also be a solid copper wire, too.

3. The voltage between the black and white wires should measure 110vac; and 110vac, between the red and white wires, also.

4. You need to install two (2) small circuit breaker panels to house 2 circuit breakers. I would go to Home Depot or Lowe's and get some guidance on this issue.

5. The 1st breaker will be power by the black wire, and the 2nd breaker, by the red wire.

6. If you are going to run wiring for receptacles in your basement, try to split the load evenly between the two hot circuits.

7. I would suggest that after you have run the wiring, then have someone who is more experienced make the connections in the circuit breaker panel.

[Tev]

Does the current wiring include a neutral and ground?

[stanfortyman]

eeseely is assuming you have a 120/240v 4-wire circuit.

Tev's question is extremely important. If you do not have a neutral then you can convert the existing circuit into ONE 120v circuit.

If you do have a 4-wire 120/240v circuit then you can convert it into two 120v circuits.

Connecting the wire to the panel is the easy part. Knowing how to wire the circuits is the part that demands knowing what you are doing.