How do you make a 240 volt or 30 amps extension cord with two receptacles?

Answer 1

== == See the View Discussion page by clicking the button shown below this answer. Asking this type of question usually means you aren't ready to do this yourself. If you get any detailed "how to do it" answer here, you might attempt to do something you shouldn't be doing, and that may cost someone a shock, a home fire, or their life. <><><> (LIFE SAFETY WARNING! [disclaimer]

Electricity is dangerous!

You can be injured or killed!

Improper installations can cause fire, injury and death!

Should you be doing this yourself?)

This is one of those questions - if you know this little, you shouldn't be doing what you are planning...

No disrespect intended, but this is SO basic that it suggests you have not studied the subject at all!

THE ANSWERS GIVEN BELOW IGNORE THE MOST VITAL QUESTION THAT MUST BE ADDRESSED:

WHAT ABOUT THE CIRCUIT BREAKERS ON THE MAIN PANEL?

WILL THE EXISTING CIRCUIT BREAKERS PROTECTING THE 240 Volt CIRCUIT BE ABLE TO PROTECT THE NEW 120 Volt OUTLETS?

THAT is why you should not attempt to do this work unless you really know what you are doing.

Better for your own safety - and your family's safety - to give this job to a licensed electrician.

=== === <><><> You need a 4 prong (120/240V) plug to do this. Simply connect the neutral to the neutral bus, the ground to the ground bus, and the two hots to the hot bus bars. Do not tie ground to neutral as you don't have a dedicated ground. Fit your breakers into the panel normally. === === <><><> A 240 outlet doesn't have a neutral which is necessary for this to be done. === === <><><> True, a 220V only outlet does not have the necessary neutral. However, many 220V outlets are 110/220V outlets, such as for dryers or ovens. If it has 4 prongs it will work. If it has 3 it will not, as you need both hots, the neutral, and the ground. == == : IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB

SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY

REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS. : If you do this work yourself, always turn off the power

at the breaker box/fuse panel BEFORE you attempt to do any work AND

always use an electrician's test meter having metal-tipped probes

(not a simple proximity voltage indicator)

to insure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized.

Answer 2

Extension cord construction

What comes into play here is the insulation rating of the extension cord. Most cords are rated for 300 volts even though they are only used on 120 volts. As long as the correct 240 volt cord ends are applied to the extension cord it can be used on 240 volts and still be within the limits of the 300 volt insulation factor of the cord.

To allow the cord to carry 30 amps the extension cord has to be constructed from #10 wire. The composition of the cord will have three wires, black, white and green.

To have two 240 volt receptacles on the end of the cord they must be installed in a two gang box. A two gang FS style box would be perfect as it has a hub incorporated into its construction. This hub is needed to take a strain relief connector to secure the cord to the box for safety reasons. This strain relief connector prevents any water from getting into the box through the hub.

If you are constructing an extension cord make sure that the ends go on the right end of the cable. Match the wire end when looking at it, to the proper pin configuration of the plug. A non locking plug will be a 6-30P or a locking plug will be a L6-30P. On a 6-30P plug, black wire to the left blade, white wire to the Y terminal and the green wire to the G terminal. On a L6-30P plug, black wire to the X terminal, white wire to the Y terminal and the ground wire to the G terminal.

Looking at the end of the cable it should be matched to this configuration. If it doesn't look at the other end of the cable. No wires should cross when connecting to the blades on the plug, if they do you have the wrong end of the cable.