On Tue, 03 Dec 2019 01:44:22 -0500, Clare Snyder
wrote:

On Tue, 3 Dec 2019 05:56:23 +0000 (UTC), danny burstein
wrote:

In "M. L." writes:

I have a broken air conditioner that plugs into my 220V USA wall socket.
Its prongs look quite different from typical 120V appliance prongs.
Before next summer I'd like to buy a 120V portable room air conditioner.
Is there a converter available that would allow me to safely plug the
120V 3-prong socket portable air conditioner into the 220V outlet? Thanks.

Short answer: No

Longer answer: Unless you really, really, really, know what you're
doing (and the fact that you're asking this question suggests
you don't have solid, err, grounding in this), the answer is
still no.

Chances are that the 240V outlet (you're talking the US here, right?)
has three wires in it. The two flat parts of the outlet are
both "live" at 120V, giving you 240V to the appliance.

There's a roundish third one which is a safety ground.

You might be tempted to build an adapter cable BUT this
will mean using the "ground" as a neutral. DON'T.

Yes, you can maybe run a separate wire as the neutral,
or might be able to take one of the hot wires and,
both at the outlet and at the breaker box, convert
them to a neutral, but again, this requires that you
really, really, know the deal.


Have someone who knows a bit about electricity check to see what
color the wires are in the outlet.
If you have black, white, and red you CAN connect a 120 volt outlet to
either black and white or red and white.
If you have black and red only you cannot get 120 without rewiring
(and remarking the red wire with white shrink tube on both ends)
If you have black and white you can rewire it for 120.
The wires will need to be moved in the panel. I would recommend
getting a licenced electrician to do the job - but at least you do not
need to have new wire pulled in.

I bet he has a black, white and bare wire in that box and the
electrician may have reidentified the white but I wouldn't count on
it. Black red and bare, 2 wire romex is so rare I doubt most people
have ever even seen it.
It still sounds like he should have a qualified person in that panel
but the fix might be as simple as moving the white wire in the panel
to the neutral bus and changing the receptacle.