You may have another little problem: the "220V" may in reality be only as
high as 208V. Many apartment buildings are using a 3 phase supply and not
the single split phase supply that houses are normally using so instead of
having two 120V and one 240V available you have one 120V and one 208V (phase
to phase in the 3 phase system). Your AC, if built for a split phase
residential system was intended to operate at 240V, at 208V (never tried
that) the compressor may not have enough torque to start. But it will
definitely operate with really crappy efficiency and may even get toasted
because of the higher current the induction motors need to suck to provide
the same torques as when they operate at 240V. I would suggest you first
determine which type of supply your building has, before even trying to tap
into the "220V" circuit.

....sm

"Rick" wrote in message
ink.net...
Our apartment (built early 60's) is woefully underpowered. There's
one 20A circuit to service the entire living room, dining area AND
kitchen. However the stove and oven have separate 220V circuits
and breakers.

We'd like to run a 220V air conditioner during our hot summers
by tapping off the oven's circuit (for reasons I won't go into here,
the oven is never used). The wiring has its own conduit and
junction box in an adjacent cupboard in the kitchen -- it's readily
accessible.

How much effort is involved in adding a few 220V plugs into this
junction box? Is it easy enough for an neophyte to handle?