"LRod" wrote in message
...

The other thing is make sure your terms are straight when you're
describing your situation. You actually have a copper, 10 gauge (3
wire - ground, hot,, hot) coming from a 30 amp (unused) breaker which
used to power a water heater (now gas). The fact that it used to power
a water heater tells us it's a 240V circuit protected by a 30A
breaker, thus the wires are hot, hot, ground. There is no neutral in a
240V circuit (North America).

With that in mind, and I agree about ground, hot, hot on a 3 wire set up.
Many newer homes with 220 have 4 wires, 1 being ground. What do you call
the other 3?