In ,
JIMMIE wrote:
On Jul 4, 8:54*am, flips333 wrote:
On Jul 3, 1:47*pm, dpb wrote:

RBM wrote:

SNIP to here

Thanks to all who helped and here's the answer... *the neutral is
receiving power. Thus it blows out any and all normal appliances that
go in it. *Until I can get someone to fix it I'm just gonna fill it
with those baby proof socket fillers.

Thanks again you all rock.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

When my friend lived in base housing there was a dedicated 120 VAC 20
amp circuit beneath a window so you could install a window AC unit.
Someone connected the neutral to the to the hot bus so they would have
240 for a larger unit. His wife found out about it when she plugged in
a christmas tree.

That does not sound to me like a "dedicated 120 VAC" circuit, but a
240V one for 240V air conditioners. Better hope the outlet is one
designed for 240V and made to accept plugs of 240V window air conditioners
and to reject plugs of 120V applicances.

In a "USA-usual" 240V circuit, the two conductors other than the
"grounding conductor" are both "hot" and both "live" to extent of 120
volts.

A USA-usual 120V circuit differs from the 240V one by having between the
2 conductors other than "grounding conductor",
one is "hot" ("ungrounded conductor") and the other is "neutral"
("grounded conductor").

You should know the mutual concepts of "hot-neutral-ground",
"ungrounded-grounded-grounding", "black-white-green/bare" as well as
preferably good multimeter/voltmeter usage practice for USA-usual 120V
circuits and occaisional (all-too-common) errors therein.

This is what you should know, along with what various various-amp-rating
120V and 240V residental outlets look like and should have looked like
30-50 years ago, along with some knowledge of existence of both 120V and
240V residential window air conditioning units and the cords and plugs
that they had and the receptacles that they plugged into.

- Don Klipstein )