220V to 110V ?

I have an office where I am blowing the fuse from time to time. I
want to see if I can run my 110V air conditioner on the 220V outlet in
the office that isn't being used for anything.

I understand that there can be some problems with frequency when doing
this type of thing, if you are trying to use a monitor or TV or
something, but I am just hooking up an air conditioner.

Someone told me that I could just rig up something by leaving one of
the 2 live prongs out, and wiring it to a normal 110v plug. Is that
true?

Otherwise, where could I buy something that would do the conversion?
I saw this site: http://www.voltageconverters.com/voltage_converters.html,
but it looks like there is no plug for fitting into the 220v outlet,
which has one of the prongs at a perpendicular to the other, as
opposed to both being parallel.

Any thoughts?

 

The 220 Volt receptacle is actually two 120 volt circuits. It must be a 4
wire type circuit not 3 . 4 wire circuits have an independent neutral, a
ground, and the two "Hot" legs that are 110 V from opposing poles! In
addition to that, the breakers must be of the proper current rating, and the
wire of the proper size! Yes it can be rewired (if 4 wire) to provide 110
VAC, but You do not now enough to rewire yourself! Please consult a licensed
Electrician, it is very dangerous to do without fully understanding!

 

Plugging a 110V appliance into a 220V outlet will destroy it. The trick of
connecting the 110V appliance to one live wire and ground, only worked for
3-phase 220V nets. They had about 220V between two phases and 127V between
each phase and ground. Modern 3-phase nets (in Europe) have about 400V
between two phases and 230V between each phase and the common that's
connected to ground at the distribution transformer. There is 220V between
phase and ground as well but it cannot be used due to the earth leakage
circuit breaker installed in common house installations. The only way to
become a save 110V from 220V is using an (auto)transformer. If you really
need 110V/60Hz you'll have to get a converter.

petrus bitbyter

 

This outlet only has 3 wires. Is it possible this is a 250V line?

The outlet looks like this: (I'll try...)

o

| |--


Any ideas what this is?

 

I think I drew that outlet wrong in my last post...

It really looks like this:


O

-- |--

 

Even better!! I found an image of what the outlet looks like:

http://assets.twacomm.com/1630798307/product_images/19065.jpg

20Amp
250V
NEMA 6-20R

I'm guessing 6-20R is the type of outlet.


Is there any product that will convert this to run a 110v appliance?

 

I am truly pathetic...

In my last message, I posted a link to a picture, but after further
review, the picture of the outlet doesn't match up 100% with my
outlet, even though their diagram on the right does.


This, for sure, is what my outlet looks like:
http://ace.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pACE-992123reg.jpg


My god it took me a long time to get to this point. Jeez.

 

This receptacle does not have a neutral return. You cannot safely convert it
to 110VAC from the outlet alone. An electrician can rewire the Circuit
breaker panel by rerouting one wire to the neutral and installing a single
pole breaker. That is beyond the scope of a first timer, please don't try
it. I don't know of any "Converter" to use, it would have to be a big
transformer to run the Air Conditioning. The only thing you could do would
be to have a licensed Electrician rewire the Breaker Panel. Sorry to be the
one to give the bad news!

 

Answer is "If you have to ask, Don't"
Real solution is , You can't have the Air Conditioner and the Coffee Pot or
Photo-Copier all on the same breaker (fuse??) The Air Conditioner should be
on its own breaker or install a heavier line, to a 20 Amp breaker if
necessary.

Yukio

 

That's correct. **** you, earlier posters.

 

Sorry. Please disregard any further messages of this nature. My girlfriend used
my account earlier today to post this.

 

There aint no such thing as a free lunch. It would be just your luck to hook up
to the same half of the 220 that was feeding all the 110 outlets, and the darn
thing would still go out. The other half is probably feeding the lights.....
did they go out when the ac went out?