Doing some reno work in my brother-in-laws condo. Changed out the old FPE subpanel panel to a new one, worked out great. Now I am changing out the old outlets. One of them is a 220V A/C outlet that was originally connected to a 20A double polebreaker with 12 guage wire. The outlet looks like this:
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My question is should I replace with the same kind? This outlet is only rated for 15A, meanwhile I have a 20A breaker. Do I need to put in a 20A outlet like this?
The outlet should be rated to at least the breaker.
What's plugged into it? While it is ok to have a 3 wire 220 outlet it is no longer ok to use the ground and neutral interchangably at the outlet. So many 220 appliances have switched to 4 wires with a 4 prong plug.
But doesn't BX already have a bare copper ground conductor? The metal sheath isn't the only ground connection -- at least, if I am remembering correctly from the last time I used it, about ten years ago.
If it's the only receptacle on the circuit, it should match the breaker. So either replace it with the one you pictured, or you could use a 15A (or 20A) 240V duplex receptacle. Using a duplex device would allow you to use a 15A device because now there'd be more than 1 receptacle on the circuit.
(I would probably just leave it alone even though it is not technically correct)
AFAIK, 15 and 20A outlets are both UL tested for 20A; the only difference is the prong arrangement to not allow a 20A cordset to plug into a 15A outlet but the 15A plug is still ok w/ a 20A breaker.
I know this is so for 120V and while I didn't go look at the current UL protocol I'm virtually positive the same is true for 250V rated outlets.
True dat if replacing anyway or new work...but I don't believe there's any overriding reason to replace the existing "just because" or for Code reasons.
The outlet should be rated to at least the breaker.
What's plugged into it? While it is ok to have a 3 wire 220 outlet it is no longer ok to use the ground and neutral interchangably at the outlet. So many 220 appliances have switched to 4 wires with a 4 prong plug.
**There is no neutral on a 240 volt air conditioner outlet, and grounds and neutrals were never interchangeable on such appliances.
Oooohhh...it's written slightly different than I thought regarding the test load, though...the load is 150% of the rated load for the device rather than a specific test load that I thought I remembered.
So, if manufacturers really want to scrimp and test the devices as separate, they can get by w/ 22-1/2A test load for 15A device and a 30A for 20A device. I don't know if they go to that extreme or not...
All but the very oldest BX cable had a flat bonding conductor inside that was to be used, NOT the sheath. The new BX (plastic insulated cable instead of rubber, with "raffia" liner) virtually all had a bare copper ground.
Now, to get down to the real differences on CURRENT spiral wound metallic sheithed cable.
There are 3 basic types, MC, AC, and MC/AP
MC has an insulated green or green and yellow ground. AC has a bare copper ground. MC/AP has a full sized copper ground wire attached full length to the sheath, allowing the sheath to be used as safety ground - but that wire is cut flush with the sheath and REQUIRES special connectors where the cable enters the metal box.
I don't know where you come up with your nonsense. For one thing, the bonding wire inside some AC cable was to assure a fault current path, and was never connected to anything . I have several coils of AC cable in my truck, none of which have a grounding conductor, copper, or otherwise, insulated or bare.
** FYI, AC cable was invented at the turn of the century by Gus Johnson and Harry Greenfield. "BX" was never a code designation, just a name given to AC cable made by GE's Sprague division. The bonding conductor wasn't required until the 1959 Nec and was never used as a ground, only to assure a clean grounding path against the metal coils of the sheath
MCAP is a relatively new standard. Look up southwire mcap. Nolan has some good info on it.
I depended on Northern cable's site for the rest of my information, which was incomplete. There are a lot more than 3 types of spiral wound metallic cable. I checked with Allied cable, one of the larger cable manufacturers. According to THEIR specs: MC-TUFF cable is steel, MC Lite is aluminum, MC Lite ig is insulated ground aluminum. all,with no integrated bond , and with the conductors taped
HCF90 is green steel with insulated ground and bare bonding connector. HSF Lite is the same but aluminum. For HEALTH CARE applications.
AC90 is steel with an integrated bond ribbon AC Lite is aluminum with an integrated bond All AC cable have the conductors wrapped with paper or raffia
And I'll be danged if I can figure out what they would call the hundreds of feet of aluminum sheathed cable with aluminum integrated bond strip AND bare ground wire I pulled last fall would be called - obviously not made by Allied.
It met the description given by Northern for their AC spec cable. (and was LIKELY Northern cable - I don't have the rolls kicking around to check
What brand is your "ac" cable that does not have an aluminum bonding strip, and is it steel (ac) or aluminum (ac lite). Sounds like MC cable rather than AC if it has no bond ribbon. Is it paper separated, or plastic "taped"?
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