According to Tater :
On Nov 20, 5:29 am, (Doug Miller) wrote:
In article
,
Tater wrote:

I believe that is how they do it on 220V electric ranges.

.. especially when you don't know the answers.

now that i think further about it, if he has a three wire 240v line
going in, he shouldn't do it.

Yes. Stoves and dryers are the only special case where you could
do this. It's been against US code for a couple of years now,
so you can't do new installations that way anymore.

[It's been against Canadian code for at least 30 years.]

I wouldn't dream of doing it with a pool pump outdoors. You're
compromising the ground. That plus water that you immerse yourself in
doesn't mix.

If you lost a ground connection (many ground connections really aren't
that good - I've seen too many people just wrap them without wire nuts -
or worse, assume that simply lying against the electrical box sides was
sufficient), the pump frame, the fixture, and everything else bonded
to them in the area could go hot. And you're just asking for corrosion
- which'll kill the ground eventually if it's carrying any current.

Bad. Really really bad.

This is one of those "it'd probably work for a while" _will_ eventually
bite you.

now if he has a four wire (red, black, white, bare) line, then he can.

Either he has four wire, or he converts the pump to 120V. Either
way is reasonable. Might not be able to convert the pump to 120V,
or the circuit may not be beefy enough for it. Strictly speaking,
probably both approaches are still against code (code doesn't like
sharing motors (except very small ones) with anything else on a circuit).
But an inspector would probably let you get away with it for a light
bulb or two on a "change" (rather than new install).

A 240V bulb is by far the simplest/cheapest solution.
--
Chris Lewis,

Age and Treachery will Triumph over Youth and Skill
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.