changing an outlet

[onebadapple0013]

i have an old window air conditioner outlet in my house but no a/c hooked up to it, its a 220 plug on a 30 amp breaker.can i put a 110 plug on the end of this where the 220 was

[RayV]

No.

[Jeff Wisnia]

You should be able to accomplish that by doing the following:

Remove the 30 amp dual breaker from the panel and replace it with a single 20 amp breaker.

if the line feeding the existing outlet has just two "hot" wires and a ground lead, then connect the ground lead to the ground terminal on a good quality duplex 120 volt receptical you replace the 220 volt receptical with using one of the two "hot" wires for the 120 volt feed from the new breaker, and the other for the neutral return, tagging both ends of that second wire with white tape.

If the line feeding the existing outlet had four wires, then one will already likely be white and connected to neutral in the breaker box, so use that for the neutral return and use just one of the "hot" wires, for the 120 volt feed from the new breaker, capping off the other "hot" wire at both ends.

If the existing outlet was so old that it was fed by just two wires, then you could install a GFCI outlet labled "No ground connected" and use one of the two wires for the "hot" feed from the new breaker and the other (tagged with white tape at both ends) for the neutral return.

Your local inspector may have his own opinions...

HTH,

Jeff

[gfretwell]

How many wires are in the cable? If it is 2 insulated with a bare ground put the white one on the neutral bus and use a single pole 20a breaker on the black. Hook up the far end normally.