"LRod" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 16:01:46 -0800, "Slowhand" I'm@work wrote:


"Leon" wrote in message
.com...

"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?

Hot, Hot, Neutral, Ground
I have the 4 wire running to my table saw. Of which I branched off and
created a duplex 110 recepticle where the neutral was needed.

All that is true, and I'm sure as an old sparky you remember when a
240V circuit was just the two hots; the ground wire is a relatively
new (40 or 50 years?) requirement.

Hey, I'm not old. (38). ;-)
As long as I've been sparkin (wired my first house in 1992), it's been two
hots and a ground.

I have a buddy who's a electrical contractor who pretty much taught me
enough to be dangerous. I'm still not sure why electricity works the way it
does. I just do what I've been taught.
SH