Electrical Question?

i want to convert a dryer outlet to 120v or 240v so i can add another 600w light. is this possible? and can i do this myself? would appreciate any help. i will try to post some pics of outlet and grow room.

AN electrician was paid $600 to run 8 - 220 outlets into a spare bedroom a few years back. He ran the wiring up in the attic.. then lowered it through the ceiling/walls...

He put the outlets in the closet up above the closet door (on the inside).. it was super stealth..... the door was taken off the closet and the attached room was filled with lights.... 7,000 watts to be exact...


of course.. the electrician new something was up...

you can see this room at: How to grow marijuana - See More Buds - DVD Video trailer


iloveyou

Electricity can be scary stuff...

you can wire it up to 4 240 outlets because the wiregauge your dryer has already is probably rated at 10awg.

First check your load center to see the dryer wire size. Then if its 10 you can load up to 30amp(but you can only run things up to 80% so safe size 25amp total). If its 10 you can put 4 240 plug from that dryer outlet which is like 20amp total for 1k systems.

If you don't know how to wire a recepticle then you'll need some help. Basicly what your doing is replacing that dryer recepticle with a 240v rated at 15amp one. You can just go with 1 even with the prewired its actually better because its bigger so its safer.

If you can count to four you can do it. If you leave it as a 220 outlet you need to change the receptical to fit the light cord. If you want to change it to (2) 110 outlets you will need to run new wires from the breaker box so you can seperate the circuits and install two sinle pole breqker switches in place of the 40 watt two pole breaker you have now. There will be four wires there now. The red and black wires are both hot, the white is a return and of course the green is a grounding wire. You will need to turn of the main power to accomplish the two 110 circuits. You should use 12-2 wire with ground. Can you do it. VV

if you want a 110 outlet there you can run 1 single wire stranded wire back to your load center and that is for neuteral. For the ground and hot you can take it from the prewire pick one of the black or red for your hot and the ground you can use the same as your dryer ground wire.

But if you do this make sure you know how many amperage your using because the one hot that you tap into to use for 110 can pull more amperage. But if your looking to install 1 110 and 1 240 you should be fine.

You are correct, you could do that. It probably wouldn't meet most codes for color on 110 outlets, it would work. You would have to use 10 or better wire depending on the size of the original. VV

Yes it might be against the eletrical codes but to me it works and save me some time and money. I've done this plenty of time, and i do check my work afterwards incase of any fire hazard and this method hasn't failed me once or even give me a alert.

Uh I've never seen a 30 amp 110 volt receptacle. Most household receptacles are 15 or 20 amps. I'd say change the outlet to the correct one for the lamp and leave it at 240 dude. A lot less headache and very ez to re-wire and leave the riggin for the people who know what they are doing or at least think they do.600 watss will pull only aboout 5.8 amps so you could actually daisy chain a few of them on this circuit if u felt.

Caio

Actually 600watt in a 240v recepticle isn't even close to 5.8 amps lol.

Like i said before a 1k lighting takes up 4.7 amp.

Plus be rigging it this way you safe time and money but u must check your work just like all other electrical work.

thanks for all the info guys but i'm a total nub when it comes to electrical stuff so let me get this striaght i can just change the outlet to normal 110v outlet and it should work????can somebody tell me how to do this step by step. thanks again

You can change it to a single 110 outlet by mickey mousing it. I've never seen a 30amp 110 breaker either. The 220 for a dryer is a 2 pole switch. You would replace it with 2- single pole 15 or 20 amp breaker. I don't try to save time or money when it comes to electric, thats how bad things happen. VV

i found this converter that you just plug into the dryer outlet seems like this will do the trick what do you guys think? RH- 220 to 110 Volt CONVERTER. Instant 20 amp 110V power when you need it.

Obviously you can't work advance as how i explained it so safest thing you can do is just run new wires if you want to use 110v. For 220v just use the dryer wire, go get a 240v receptacle apply the 2 pre existing hot wire(red and black) ground to ground then your good to go, no need to change the breakers use that for lighting 1 1k lighting system will only take up 4.7amp so your fine with the 10awg wire and 30amp circuit breaker.

Btw there are not much appliances out there that uses up to 30amp and run on 110v either but we're talking about hydro equipment here, so you must be a idiot to use up 30amp on a single 110v receptacle obviously if you have done something like that you don't understand electricity.

I agree, a short might not trip the breaker. VV

Already been tested by yours truely, a short will trip(will actually go to the off position) both pole of the 2 pole circuit breaker. Gotta always be two steps ahead, electricity should be handle with care and always triple check your work.