On Friday, November 15, 2013 5:14:25 PM UTC-5, Danny D. wrote:
On Thu, 14 Nov 2013 21:40:25 -0500, Stormin Mormon wrote:



Two hots, and a ground. No neutral wire.



I may well be out of my league, but, I've wired 220 in

the past, and, well, *I* used two black and one white

(i.e., two hots and a neutral), and it worked, for me.



Assuming that was prior to the mid 90s, then it was code
to use a single conductor for both the neutral and the ground.
If you did it after that, it's a code violation.





My problem at that time was that the wiring was in an

old house with screw-in fuses, so, that arrangement

above would tend to blow one fuse but not the other,

which wasn't really a good idea.



I could tell a fuse had blown 'cuz the motor would

hum instead of move for the compressor. But, when I

replaced the fuse, it would work again.



Dumb. Yes. I agree. Darwin award even? Perhaps.

But, clearly, *my* 220 in that case was two hots and

a neutral.



Even if it was an old house, if you were doing new
wiring, it has to comply to current code.




I supposed had I two hots and a ground wire tied to

the cold water pipe, it would have worked as well.



And, I must note, that I've *followed* the neutral

wire, in the olden days, when wires were above ground,

from the house, to the pole, to the next pole, to the

next (as far as I could tell anyway), until it went

straight into the ground.



Hopefully it's also tied to the ground at your house panel
or else it's a major code violation.



Of course, I really didn't follow the wire directly,

but, I surmised the neutral went into the ground at

every third pole. At least that's what I remember

surmising way back when ...



So, *both* a ground and a neutral go into the ground.

The only difference, as I see it, is that the neutral

goes into the ground hundreds of feet away, and it

carries current; while the ground goes into the ground

at the edge of the house, and, it's not carrying current

(unless there is a fault).



So, given all that, I think we're talking semantics here.



It's a more than semantics.




I have two hots and this "thing" which goes into the

ground a few hundred yards from the house.



Apparently this "thing" is acting both as a ground, and

as a neutral. I'm going to check that this "thing" is

actually *connected* to the steel case of the dryer and

report back!



Thanks!