Doug Miller wrote:
In article , Tool wrote:

I have a 220 volt line that powers my pool pump. I want to run 110
volt lights near the pool pump and would like to convert 220 to 110.


Just for future reference, it's 240 and 120 -- hasn't been 220 and 110 for a
long, long time.


Is this as simple as taking the 220 wires, and connecting only one hot
wire side with the common wire and ground wire to a standard 110 volt
outlet?


No. You probably need to pull a new cable. A 240V circuit consists of two hot
conductors and a ground -- and NO neutral conductor. A 120V circuit consists
of one hot, one neutral, and one ground.

In other words, to get a 120V circuit, you need a neutral, and you probably
don't have one. It's possible, although unlikely, that your pool pump circuit
contains an extra conductor -- check the cable going to the pump, and count
the wires in it. If there are four of them (black, red, white, and bare), then
you can do this easily and safely: black and red to the pump, black and white
(or red and white, doesn't matter) to the 120V outlet, and bare to everywhere
that needs a ground. Verify at the breaker box that black and red go to a
double-pole breaker and white to the neutral bus bar.

If you only have three wires in the cable going to the pool pump (black,
white, and bare), then you don't have a neutral, and you need pull a new cable
that does have one. Rather than remove the existing 3-wire 240V circuit and
replace it with a 4-wire 240V/120V circuit, it's much less trouble to simply
install a new 120V circuit.

.... and simpler still to use a 240V light.

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