On Wednesday, December 4, 2019 at 11:09:51 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Wed, 4 Dec 2019 06:30:47 -0800 (PST), trader_4
wrote:

On Tuesday, December 3, 2019 at 8:58:00 PM UTC-5, Clare Snyder wrote:
On Tue, 03 Dec 2019 17:32:27 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 3 Dec 2019 16:51:15 +0000 (UTC), danny burstein
wrote:

In trader_4 writes:

Why not buy a 240v unit so you don't have to rework/run new wires?

That's probably the cheapest and easiest solution. As others have said,
if it's a straight 240V circuit, no neutral, it would take changing the
breaker to convert it to 120V.

The costs of having an electrician (depending on your
area, of course) setting up a 120V outlet and then
getting a commodity 120V unit is probably, once everything
is totaled up, is likely to be about the same as getting
the 240V unit.

At least in the US...

120V air conditioners are commodity, highly competive,
and pretty low priced (in comparison...). Also readily
available at second hand outfits like Habitat,
Goodwill, and the like.

240V units are targetted more to the commercial market,
may (or may not!) be better quality, but are certainly
going to be more expensive....

It should be whatever their minimum trip charge is but that is easily
around $100. I would call around.
Around here a non union sparky can usually be had for about $75
minimum charge - up to half an hour - Plus about 2 bucks for the new
outlet and a buck for the plate. No need to change the breaker
(usually -)

A 240V breaker sits across both hot legs. I doubt it's code compliant
to use just half of it for a 120V circuit, but IDK. Fretwell?

Might look sloppy but not illegal. It is just a "spare" overcurrent
device as long as there are no wires connected.

There is one remote possibility here that they actually did run 3 wire
with ground into that box in which case he could install a 5-15/6-15
combo device and have the best of both worlds. I would be surprised if
it was true tho.

This is what the 5-20/6-20 (20a) device looks like but they also make
the 15a.
http://gfretwell.com/electrical/5-20-6-20.jpg


So it comes down to if he wants to convert the circuit to 120V,
minimally it takes moving one wire at the breaker and putting in
a new 120V receptacle. Optionally and to avoid confusion and make
it look normal, he could remove the old 240V breaker, put in a new
120V one. A competent person could do that in 30 mins. IDK what
an electrician would charge. The other alternatives are to buy
another 240V AC, which could be costly too, or plug a 120V AC into another
120V receptacle.