I bought two mahjong machines in China to use in the US but I forgot they u se 220 over there. So I want to install a US 220V 20A female receptor by u sing two legs of 110V 15A circuits and mounting a box next to one of my 110 v outlets. That done I want to convert that over to 220V, neutral, & ground to run my machines.
The cord into the machine has "L" "N" and "gnd". I want to combine the two 110 legs to one 220 leg.
I know that there are converter that will convert 110V to 220V but I am afr aid the 15A circuits can not handle the machines. Anyone out there really k now what I can do or buy to make this happen?
This is one of the things that if you have to ask, get an electrician todo it for you.
In ther breaker box you will have to run 4 wires to a receptical that is made for 220 (240) volts. There will be 2 wires, usually red and black that will have the 220 volts across them. There will be a white wire (neutral in the US) that from it will be 120 volts to the red and black wires. Then a green safety ground.
If the machine you have is truely a 220 volt machine, you will use what is labled L and N for the 220 volts. It will not matter which wire from the machine ( L or N )is hooked to which Red and Black wire. The white wire on the receptical will not be use. The GND will go to the green ground wire of the receptical.
use 220 over there. So I want to install a US 220V 20A female receptor by using two legs of 110V 15A circuits and mounting a box next to one of my 1
10v outlets. That done I want to convert that over to 220V, neutral, & grou nd to run my machines.
wo 110 legs to one 220 leg.
fraid the 15A circuits can not handle the machines. Anyone out there really know what I can do or buy to make this happen?
First, if you are in the USA it's 240v, so let's assume the machine is ok w ith that. You can't put a 20a receptacle on a 15a circuit, ie a circuit wi th a 15a breaker and 14g wire. Looks like your only option is a new 240v c ircuit.
ey use 220 over there. So I want to install a US 220V 20A female receptor by using two legs of 110V 15A circuits and mounting a box next to one of my 110v outlets. That done I want to convert that over to 220V, neutral, & gr ound to run my machines.
two 110 legs to one 220 leg.
afraid the 15A circuits can not handle the machines. Anyone out there real ly know what I can do or buy to make this happen?
with that. You can't put a 20a receptacle on a 15a circuit, ie a circuit with a 15a breaker and 14g wire. Looks like your only option is a new 240v circuit.
Let's try again. I saw where you said you wanted to put in a 20A receptacl e. But the machine only needs 10A. So, you could use a 240V 15A receptacle. The rest of what you're trying to do gets more dicely. As I understand it, you want to take two existing branch circuits that are on separate breakers ,
15A?, and turn them into an Edison circuit/shared neutral circuit that still powers the existing two circuits plus the added 240V 15A receptacle. You'd have to replace the two breakers with a single double pole 15A breake r. Then the physics and basic safety work, but you still have other potential issues:
Are 240V and 120V receptacles permitted on the same circuit? I don't know of any code provision that says no.
You'd have to make sure there aren't any other code issues with converting this into a shared neutral circuit.
They do, but, it's not afaik, split like ours is. The 220volts there is coming via a single wire. That's not how we do it, here. We take both 120volt legs to get the 240volts on two wires, not one.
You'll be buying a suitable converter then. You can't just take our
120volt lines and 'combine' them. You'll have a very spiffy looking arc flash if you try.
A suitable converter on a dedicated circuit. You might want to consult with an electrician for this.
That would be some remarkable physics to supply power using only one wire. Those Chinese must be really clever.
No arcs. If the two 120V circuits are on the same hot leg/phase, then nothing will happen. If they are on opposite legs, which is what the poster said they were going to do, then you have 240V between them which is what the machine needs. That is assuming it's here in the USA and it's OK with 240V instead of 220V. They could theoretically turn two regular circuits into a shared neutral edison circuit, which is what it sounded like they were talking about doing. There may be code issues, but the physics is straightforward.
To add to that, the code issue that would come into play would be that you'd wind up with two separate cables that are part of the same circuit. And you're not supposed to have conductors for the same circuit in separate cables, raceways, etc. That would be the code problem and show stopper with converting what's there.
Being in the UK I'm not sure how this works in the US. But before those namby pamby circuit breakers, you just had -110V, 0V, +110V. You could take 110V from either of the 0V and 110V wires, or 220V from the two 110V wires. Do the circuit breakers think there's an earth fault if you try to run a 220V device off two 110V wires? I thought an American circuit was paired - i.e. the two 110V lines were linked and run off a dual breaker which would accept a 220V device?
I thought an American circuit was paired - i.e. the two 110V lines were linked and run off a dual breaker which would accept a 220V device?
I think you have it correct. In the US what we have comming into the house are 3 (or 4) wires. At the pole is a transformer that is center tapped. across the full winding is 240 volts. From the center wire (called the neutral) to either of the other wires is half that or 120 volts. So we can have either 120 volt or 240 volt devices. There is on the newer items a safety ground that connects to the neutral at the breaker box.
A sneaker way to run the 240 volt devices (you did not hear it from me) is to find two recepticals on the different legs . YOu then run a wire from each of the hot wires to the 240 volt device. It helps for safety if you also run a ground wire. You do not need the neutrals if only a
240 volt device is hooked up. If you do for some reason need a 120 volt device also, you can run the neutral wires. As they are connected together at the breaker box, you can use either one or both of them. Just be warned that if a single breaker trips , the other side will still be 120 volts to ground and neutral.
e namby pamby circuit breakers, you just had -110V, 0V, +110V. You could t ake 110V from either of the 0V and 110V wires, or 220V from the two 110V wi res. Do the circuit breakers think there's an earth fault if you try to ru n a 220V device off two 110V wires?
inked and run off a dual breaker which would accept a 220V device?
If by newer items you mean circa the 60s, I agree.
That is what the OP proposed doing, which creates a bastardized shared neutral. but it's not code compliant, which it seems you agree. But note that they proposed using a 220V 20A receptacle, which in addition to the other code issues, is unsafe if either of those circuits is 15A.
IT sounds like the reverse is the problem. The OP already has the circuits and is trying to put in a 220V or 240V receptacle off of
110V circuits. Doesn't help that we don't know where they are.
Not only that, he went above and beyond the call of duty to try and discount my arc warning by specifying the same leg for both 120volt circuits. Well, duh, there'd be no arc, but, you wouldn't get
240volts either, so there'd be no point in using the same leg for l and n on the device in question.
What are you talking about? I have no idea why trader thought it necessary to mention the obvious. I don't think anyone? else assumed (as he did) that I was writing about taking two hots fed by the same leg and cautioning against connecting them to each other. Especially given the fact you can't get 240volts by doing that. You need BOTH legs to get it here. And, you can't just take a wire from each leg and make a pigtail expecting the pigtail to now magically, be
240volts on a single wire. it's not happening.
Based on the Ops post and my replies, there's no real reason why anyone would suggest I was warning about any potential for harm by connecting the same leg back to itself.
Had you even the slightest clue about what's being discussed here, your opinion might be of some, slight, trivial value. As it presently is, it's the same as your accusation (without any ability to support it) that all forms of 'hacking' are illegal, when infact, you were mostly writing about 'cracking', without realizing the differences.
I'm going to assume this was your attempt to be a smart ass? it's obvious that I was writing about the fact China provides 220volts via a single hot wire in their homes. Unlike how we do it here, with our split phase system.
Once again, I don't know where you're coming from or why you thought I was warning against connecting the same leg to itself. You wouldn't get an arc or an increase in voltage. You would get redundancy and a backfeed instead. Circuit A and circuit B powered from the same leg but on seperate breakers would require both breakers to be turned off to ensure either is really dead if you wired their hots together at some point, due to backfeeding as a result of connecting their hots together.
If the two 120volts circuits are not fed by the same hot leg/phase, you WILL most certainly get the arc flash I previously wrote about if you just try to wire those hots together to create 240volts on a single wire. IE: make a pigtail.
If the OP takes the advice you and another poster suggested to supply power to the device, they should be aware of ALL the differences and how it might affect the operation and/or safety of the device.
One, the supply is going to be 240volts across two seperate leg fed hot wires, instead of one as originally called for. Two, it's going to be 60hz instead of 50hz as it is where the Device is from. Three, neutral is now a hot wire. The direction of current flow does matter with some things. The internal wiring would tell the tale, though.
The machine is wired for 220volts at 50hz on a single hot wire. Like you'd expect to see in commercial lighting and such here in the states. 208/277 (at 60hz) etc on a single phase hot wire. As in:
208/277, etc, line to neutral. Not line to line, as you're suggesting they reconfigure it to be.
The individual would be better off, although it would be more costly to get themselves a properly sized converter which can provide the expected 220volts at 50hz on a single 'live' or 'hot' wire. That way, neutral remains neutral and the frequency remains the same, too.
Assuming it doesn't care internally if neutral is used to provide the second hot leg to get the 240volts as required here. Along with the frequency difference.
I'm not arguing that point. That's exactly what your suggesting they do. I'm just not so sure it's a good idea for the OPs intended purpose. I've never seen the machine they want to wire up, so obviously don't have any schematics to it. I wouldn't wire it that way without more information concerning it's internal wiring. I'd play it safe and use a properly sized converter for the task, instead.
Umm... Where are you getting consistent polarity from? You have 240 from hot to hot, and 120 from either hot to neutral. To get the full
240volts, you use both hots and forget the neutral. AC isn't consistent polarity in the positive/negative sense. It changes. In the case of the states, roughly 60 times a second.
It depends on the 'dual breaker' aspect. Some what I call 'mini' duals are using the same phase to feed both; those are easily seen in our panels because they use a single slot. The duals which take two slots are using both legs. They can provide 240volts, where as the mini single slot breaker cannot; since it's only using one of the two phases in the panel.
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