In article . com, "farseer" wrote:

in my home are a few 240v outlets that used to serve air conditioners.
We now have a central air system, so those outlets are no longer
needed.

Can i leave the 240v outlets as is and plug any old device into them?

No. (Duh.) You can plug a 240V device into them.

For instance, if i were to plug my alarm clock into that outlet, what
would happen?

*If* you can get the plug into the receptacle -- which is doubtful, since the
prong configurations are complete different -- the result would be a loud
"POP" accompanied by a bad smell, smoke, and possibly flame.

Oh -- the alarm clock won't work any more, either.

How can iconvert them to 120v outlets? is it simply a matter of using
only one of the two hot wires to wire a new 15 or 20 am outlet?

Call an electrician. Please. You don't even begin to realize the danger you
could be creating. At a bare minimum, at least go to a library or a home
center (like Home Depot or Lowes) and get yourself a book on residential
electrical wiring. Electricity is dangerous to those who don't understand it,
and (no offense intended) your questions show that you're in that group.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.