Switching a 220v outlet to a 110v outlets

Growroom Design
#21

To do it properly you’d want a subpanel with an outlet coming off that. That is a smaller panel that takes in 220 and has the appropriate breakers on it for 220/120 circuits… appropriate based on the breaker size of the original line.

In essence you’re taking one ‘hot’ of the two that go into the 220 outlet and one neutral. It’s not particularly simple so if you’re not knowledgeable with this stuff I would recommend getting a pro…

What kind of light are you planning on running from the 120 outlet? Many old school core and coil HPS/MH ballasts can be rewired to run off either.

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#22

Can’t you just take the 2 hot wires from the 220 and make 2 x 110 lines out to outlets. Making 2 circuits out of 1

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#23

You can but only if a neutral is run in the drop. The cabling will be marked with something like 12/3 where the “3” indicates three conductor wires + ground.

Most of the times when they run 220, they don’t also run the neutral in the wiring from the panel since it’s more copper to do so. Instead it’s usually two hot wires on opposite phases creating 220V between the two + a ground wire. This cabling will be marked 12/2 or similar where “2” indicates two conductor wires + ground.

FWIW. Never use ground as a neutral. Ground is for safety only.

If there are two hots, a neutral, and a ground then yes you can create two 110 circuits.

Otherwise, you can change the breaker to 110V and rewire the outlet to 110V with one of the previous hot wires fed to the neutral bar in the panel…

The bottom image illustrates the 220V relative to a neutral wire (white) where L1 and L2 are opposite phases of 110V (creating 220V between them):
image

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#24

If that HLG is on a Meanwell driver, it should be able to run on 220 and be more efficient to boot.

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#25

Thats what I said above but…if your taking the time to run a neutral wire from said outlet to the panel then why not just run the correct wire size and do it right ? That makes no sense

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#26

Inventronics

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#27

Look at the label. There should be something that says like input voltage 90-305 Vac

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#28

If it is your house then I would agree. This is the safe way to do things. It is not difficult to change out breakers and wire up new outlets. You could even run a few new 20 amp 110 outlets…if you have any openings on the panel. Then you can have your cake and so on.

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#29

Just buy a step down voltage converter if you don’t want an electrician in the house.

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#30

I would split the hots up too just like suggested. You want to keep as much as you can 220 as possible though.
Sorry I didn’t realize this was 3 weeks old.

#31

nema 6-50 and the standard 5-15 plug aren’t compatible

most light controllers don’t come with an input plug so that you may wire a pigtail to any appropriate socket/breaker. since yours in the three prong 10-30 it is not recommended using light controller 120v outlets since the three prong 240v doesn’t have a ground

#32

Moving into a small studio apartment, I noticed all my power outlets are 110 I have two lights that are 240 instead of 110 what can I do to up the power?

#33

Welp, it’s not likely that the wiring was set-up to the outlets to easily allow for 240.

For the US, you could check the voltage across the two hots (the small spade terminal in the outlet). If they measure 240V, then that indicates that they have run two hots + neutral + gnd and have split the outlet to get 120V. In that case, you could replace the outlet with a 240 outlet. If it measures ~zero across the hots, then it’s not wired to make the conversion easy. Sometimes a dryer outlet will be 240V, if nearby, but I’m not certain of the gnd/neutral bond for safety.

But, it is unlikely to have 240V split on an outlet and is not a common practice because it’s expensive to wire things that way and, in most cases, unnecessary. Also, you note a small apartment, it’s not clear if they’ll run two hots (opposite phase) to a such a unit.

An electrician may have some thoughts. Other methods are a bit dangerous and won’t describe it here.

What kind of lamps?

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#34

Two 315 CMH lights I can post a picture of them,
But I also have a led light but that’s at 120.
But in total I have four HID lights all of them are 315 but only two of them are at 240 v.

#35

How is a oversize wire a fire hazard? It’s only a fire hazard when you have the improper breaker. (Example: 30 amp breaker on a 14+ Gauge wire.)

Your allowing more juice without increasing the wire size, will cause excess heat, especially in wire bend areas.

The biggest issue this dude will have besides 220 being too much for a outlet to handle, the wire size won’t fit on a generic outlet. 6 gauge wire won’t fit on a 15 or 20 amp outlet. Max size is 10 Guage on standard outlets.

I’m not a electrician, but I play one on TV.

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#36

It sounds good. I wish it was that easy sometimes.

#37

I agree. 14 is like a telephone line.

#38

That the thing. You have to be careful. Not all are 240 v. With any wiring. I know you know this. For others. 10 g is a great size wire. Even to long of a cord will cut your current. I check all the plugs for heat. To much of a drain will kill your tools. Burn your lights out and fans also. Old post. Lol

#39

I have this home kit model at my house. They are very comfortable, especially if you order some electrical devices from other countries(I’m traveling a lot, so I got devices from different countries, and all of them have different types of plugs). Still, this home kit is very uncomfortable for putting in baggage, and traveling with such a large device may cause different questions on the border, so while I’m traveling, I prefer using the smart plug. This device is very comfortable, especially if you visit many countries and must keep all your devices(laptop/phone) online.

#40

so, what happened? new here, but everyone failed to mention the safe alternative without changing the breaker, using gfci’s. op could have taken one hot wire and the neutral and made a 110v circuit, then hooked it up to a gfci in a wall mounted box to cover the exposed screws. that would have made it safe and about 15a i believe.