[Shop-talk] Electrical question

[Jeff Scarbrough]

This is correct.  The four wires are needed for a device that uses
both 115V and 230V.  Otherwise, if there is an imbalance in current
draw between the two hot legs (because one of them is also supplying
current for the 115V circuit) the "return" will be on the ground wire
instead of the neutral causing current flow there.

And if you tie the neutral to ground anywhere except in the correct
spot in your panel, you risk energising every ground wire in your
house.  This would be what we call "a bad thing".

Appliances that only use 230V only need the two hot legs (and the
ground) since there is no return path except the load wires.

On Sun, Nov 28, 2021 at 9:54 AM Mark Andy <marka at maracing.com> wrote:
>
> Howdy,
>
> Guessing that you have a NEMA 10-50 outlet?  I'm not sure code allows those any more but ??  You do wire them with the ground not connected.  I'd have said that modern code would require a 4 prong 14-50 for 220vac connections where the device also wants 110vac.
>
> My recollection, which may well be wrong, is that the only modern 3 prong 220vac outlets (6-50) are supposed to be wired with the two hots and the ground... Neutral not connected.  And that those connections are only used when you have a device that uses only 220vac, not 220vac along with 110vac.
>
> I think it's a lot more common these days for any 220vac connection to use 4 prong outlets.
>
> Mark
>
> On Sun, Nov 28, 2021 at 8:46 AM John Mitchell <jmitch at snet.net> wrote:
>>
>> My electric stove has always been wired direct from the cable.  I was
>> told that code now requires an outlet and a pigtail on the range.  The
>> romex cable has the 2 hot leads, a neutral and a bare ground wire.  I
>> bought a surface mount 50 amp 3 prong outlet, but there is no place for
>> a ground wire to connect.  For now, I bent the ground back on itself and
>> used the clamp to at least ground to the metal part of the outlet.  Is
>> this ok or should I have just clipped it off?  Thanks for any
>> expertise.  John Mitchell
>>
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