Installing a 220V outlet

[Lesley]

Hi,

I'm getting ready to buy a range (finally!) for my "new" house. The previous owner used a gas stove, but I want electric. However, there's no 220V outlet where I need there to be one. I'm just wondering if this is a major thing, to have one installed. I'll have to call an electrician, and I want to know, is this normally something that takes an hour or four hours? Do they have to make holes in walls and pull wires all over the place, or is it simpler than that?

I do have one 220V outlet in the house where the dryer is, and since the laundry room is on the other side of the kitchen, it's not that far from where I need the new 220V outlet. If that makes a difference. . . Thanks for your help!

Best,

Lesley

[Travis Jordan]

You'll need a NEW circuit run from where you connect the stove to your power panel (this assumes that you have adequate electric service to add the stove to the existing panel). How difficult this is depends on the construction of the home. "Fishing" a wire down the wall, across the attic and down to the power panel can be a one hour job if you have good attic access, a couple of hour job if you have insulation and 'fire breaks' in the walls, or an all-day job if you have to go out through an exterior wall and underground / or / around the house with conduit.

[Sam O'Nella]

Out of curiosity, why would you prefer electric over gas?

[Chip C]

normally

The dryer circuit really doesn't enter into it; each big appliance needs its own 220V feed, and ranges are typically higher-amperage than dryers so need a heavier cable. However, it might be instructive to follow the dryer cable back to the panel. If you're lucky, it might lead you to a path that you can pull the new cable through alongside it. It will also show you how a 220V (black, red, white, ground) cable goes into a two-pole breaker.

A range circuit will probably be the biggest electrical cable in your house, and the toughest to fish through tight spaces. You may also need to make some hard choices about whether to drill big holes through joists, notch them (shudder), or find some longer route. The cable's expensive so you'll want to buy only what you'll need; that means you'll need to plan your route before you have the cable in hand, which is difficult if you've never worked with thick stiff cable before.

Actually, I should ask if you've looked behind your existing gas stove. If the house is reasonably new you might find it's got a range outlet installed; in many jurisdictions code requires a range outlet even if a gas stove is being put in.

Chip C Toronto

[HaHaHa]

You Canucks got some pretty f**ked up codes.

[e-mail]

[Lesley]

Because I like the smooth tops you can get with electric stoves. I am a lousy cook and often things boil over and then I have to deal with cleaning burners. I'd much rather just have to wipe it down. Plus, recently my house almost blew up because the pilot light on my heater went out while I was at work. So I'm a little wary of gas appliances now. If I don't HAVE to use gas, I'm not going to. Call me a coward. I don't mind. . .

[Nehmo Sergheyev]

- Lesley -

- Nehmo - A standing pilot should have been attached to a saftey valve, sometimes a BASO valve. If the pilot went out, gas shouldn't have been supplied to the burner. I realize sometimes these systems fail. Was that what happened?

[Lesley]

No; actually, there was no safety system. The appliance was estimated to be 50-60 years old. The guy who estimated that was the guy who came and saved my house (and my neighbors houses) from blowing up. He's been with the fuel company for 41 years. He says they haven't made that appliance since he's been doing service for the fuel company. So it's at least 40 years old.

Lesley

[Jeff Wisnia]

I'm not suggesting this as an ideal solution, but....

If Lesley's budget is tight, and maybe the main panel can't accomodate another 230 volt circuit or is a real pain to make a new run to, and if her life style could accomodate this, like perhaps she lives alone and only needs to run the dryer every couple of weeks or so;

Would it pass code to simply install a transfer switch in the laundry room and share the present feed between the dryer receptical and a new stove receptical on the other side of the wall, if the present dryer breaker and cable can handle the stove load?

My devious mind even envisons making a hole in that wall, prettying it up with cable grommets and a short piece of PVC pipe and running the stove pigtail through it so that she could just plug whichever appliance needed to be used into the existing dryer outlet. Never heard of anyone doing that, but again, I'm just wondering if it would pass code, it doesn't seem much different in concept from pulling out the kitchen toaster's plug so you can plug in the Mixmaster when it needs to be used.

Jeff

[... ...]

Great idea!! Lets see ,dryer 30 amps range 50 amps> Maybe she could just cook on low heat> Come on do it right or don't do it at all

Bill

[RBM]

[Lesley]

I agree that I should and want to do it right! A friend's husband took a look at everything and said that there is easy access to the wall where the stove would be, from the basement. This will allow the wire to be fished up to the outlet to plug into. The circuit panel has space and is adequate. For someone who knows what they are doing, does it regularly and is prepared with tools and supplies, he thinks it would take about 2 hours, assuming we run the wire along the surface of the joists to get where it needs to go, stapling it in place.

This doesn't SOUND like something that should cost very much. Does anyone have any ideas about how much a licensed electrician would charge for 2 hours' work??? I'm near Buffalo, NY. Thanks again!

Lesley

[Matt]

Gosh Jeff, you are just too clever. Apparently, not satisfied to stop at turning your own house into a firetrap, you would like to help others as well.

Oh well. I guess just as with doctors and lawyers, someone in the world there has to be the worst engineer as well. I'm glad I know who it is now.

"As long as there are idiots like Jeff Wisnia, firemen will have plenty of work"

[Matt]

Lesley -

If everything is as you say, this is no big deal. Electricians rates vary; Id say you are looking at between $200-$300, with material.

[Jeff Wisnia]

I kinda had a feeling that would be the case which is why I left myself wriggle room by saying, "if the present dryer breaker and cable can handle the stove load", in my reply.

Probably the only person on this group who would have taken my questioning whether a xfer switch would be "code legal" (if the wiring and breaker were adequate for the stove) as a serious suggestion is that &*%$^&# Matt. I won't know if he did or not because I killfiled him after I decided that his whole alimentary tract had somehow gotten reversed.

Jeff

[Stormin Mormon]

I'm just outside Rochester -- I can't comment on the cost of electricians, I've never hired one. I do it all msyelf.

[Stormin Mormon]

More inserted.....

[Stormin Mormon]

Depends on a whole lot of things -- the one I did was well under two bills, cause it was a short run, and did it for a couple friends from church.

[Lesley]

Thanks everyone! Really, most of what everyone has had to say here has been useful. And that idea of using the same outlet with a switch for the dryer and range--I wouldn't have thought of that, but if it hadn't been suggested, I wouldn't have learned WHY it cannot and should not be done! So even posts that seem crazy by the standards of people who know what they're talking about can be useful to people like me who know absolutely nothing! If that makes any sense. . .

I will let you know how it goes. . .

Best,

Lesley

[Matt]

Thanks Lesley.

A good electrician should have the whole job done in about 1.5 - 2 hours, again if everything is as you say, and nothing unexpected pops up.

Thanks for keeping an open mind on the options. But when it comes to electricity - be careful about suggestions you get in a public forum. People like Jeff Wisnia (aka DIPSHIT) think it's fun to come up with stupid ideas to supposedly save a buck or two, potentially at the cost of life.

As with anything else, there is a right way, and a wrong way to do things.

In this case, calling an licsenced, bonded and insured electrician and having it done as you plan - is most definately the right way.

When the electrician comes, run Jeff's ideas by him, and let us know what shade of pale he/she turns.

P.S for Jeff Wisnia:

YOU ARE A DIPSHIT.