220 Volt mishap
I went to plug in my RV inside my parents shop my dad had wired. The outlet is a 220 volts with three prongs. Something similar you would plug in a welder or compressor. I used the 30 amp RV receptac...
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Calkidd wrote:KD4UPL wrote:Will it damage anything? I am only doing this temporarily. I am in transition between homes and living in the 5er for a few months.
You must have a neutral. Yes, you could connect the existing outlet's hots to a proper RV 50 amp. You could use the existing ground for both a ground and neutral. It would work. It's not proper and not recommended. Code requires separate ground and neutral wires back to the main service.
The problem you create by using the ground as a neutral is the ground will become a current carrying conductor (it will carry the neutral current). Since code requires that most of the metal in your house, garage, etc be connected to ground, these items become current carrying conductors if the ground is used as a neutral.
Some examples of the problems this causes that I've seen: Arcing conduit connectors (I got a call that the screws on the "electric pipes" (EMT conduit) were smoking), shocks from water at a sink with plastic water lines (and metal drains), shocks between duct work & copper pipes, etc.
A plumber disconnecting a pipe joint could receive a shock between the two sections of pipe.
All these are reasons code does not allow combined grounds & neutrals (with an older exception that was used for ranges & dryers in the past, but is no longer allowed.)
Yes it would work, but it is dangerous & I don't recommend doing it even for a temporary fix.
