Electricians please help can i plud this into 220v source and get 2 120v circuts

Hi Everyone, if anyone now 100% for sure please let me know please no guessing, I dont need another power issue. LOL
I included some photos and 2 people i aasked, said i can plug it into a 220v breaker and plug 2 120v ballasts into it, but i want to know for sure!!
Im a electronic tech, and wonder why this would work, and if it does, I'll make my own and save the $50.00..
I bought this at Princess Auto and it has a 220v plug on it, then it goes to the recepticals. I opened it and see no common wire. the white is on one side and black on the other, so does it need a common wire? the way i see it both leads will have 120v equaling 240v to the load, which is not ok for a 120v load only.

It would be best if you had a common wire coming to the 240 outlet, meaning 4 wires coming in, 2 hots, a common and a ground. That would meet code and be perfectly safe and kosher.

That being said if you go look in your electic box you will find that while you do have seperate ground and common bars, they go to the same damn place. So what they have done here is used the ground as the common for the 2 120's, which absolutely will work, but isn't exacly "kosher". Would i do it in my home? Hell yes! But like you said i would make it myself.

Yes it will work in theory. I don't know if it is wired correctly so you should test it with some electrical items you don't care about. Essentially what they are doing is splitting the 2 positive feeds off a 220v line and using them to power 2 seperate receptacles. The white and the black wires are you positives and should each be providing power to seperate receptacles. The green wire is your neutral wire for the box.

What Trueno means by your "Common" wire is your "Ground Wire." Technically if the first circuit (your meter panel or sub panel) is grounded then all circuits after it are grounded as well.

phillipchristian said:

Yes it will work in theory. I don't know if it is wired correctly so you should test it with some electrical items you don't care about. Essentially what they are doing is splitting the 2 positive feeds off a 220v line and using them to power 2 seperate receptacles. The white and the black wires are you positives and should each be providing power to seperate receptacles. The green wire is your ground wire for the box.

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This just made me look back at your pictures. I would test this too just to be sure that white isn't hot, shouldn't be but I've seen worse.
I was thinking they split the outlet in half and put a seperate 120 to each (top and bottom), but instead only used one "leg" of the 240, which is odd. If you make one of your own, make either a quad plex (4 outlets) with one from each leg or a single gang (like they have here) and split the two halfs (little tab you remove) and have one leg top one bottom, then you can use it for 2 ballasts safely, even 1000 watts.
I would not use this for more than one ballast, in fact i would take the damn thing back and make a proper one of your own, and i would hard wire the 240 side rather than use the plug, but thats just me.

If u have multimeter I would check if those sockets are wired parallel or series. If parallel, then no as that would give 220 at each socket. If series then yes but i wouldn't do it as each ballast might get differing voltages depending on load of each, no 2 ballasts are created equal. There will be slight differences. Major problem would be if a short circuit developed in one ballast then the other will cop the full 220 and well, smoke and /or fire will result.

Long story short, I wouldn't risk it, try get hold of 2 220v ballasts.

I am an electrician by trade btw.

Hope that helps

baskarz said:

If u have multimeter I would check if those sockets are wired parallel or series. If parallel, then no as that would give 220 at each socket. If series then yes but i wouldn't do it as each ballast might get differing voltages depending on load of each, no 2 ballasts are created equal. There will be slight differences. Major problem would be if a short circuit developed in one ballast then the other will cop the full 220 and well, smoke and /or fire will result.

Long story short, I wouldn't risk it, try get hold of 2 220v ballasts.

I am an electrician by trade btw.

Hope that helps

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Yep! Forgot that it was a plug on that end. If you hard wired it to the breaker you could do it but as is I wouldn't risk it.