Ohio-Ed

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The cord in the post above is only 3 wires... 2 hots and a ground... no neutral.

In order to get 110 from 220, you need a neutral. So, you cannot use that cord to get 110v.

Ed

thelorax121

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Ah, thanks Ed, that was the part I was missing. Looks like I may have to suffice with a 1500-2000W element just for temp maintenance till I move to a house with more up-to-date wiring...

wyzazz

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What Ed said. If you were ONLY running 220 in that box you would be OK, or if you were plugging a seperate 120 power source in to the box you would also be OK, but you would want to wire a gfci to that as well.

The benefit of a GFCI Breaker is that it's usually farther upstream than an inline cord and will protect everything downstream from it. The disadvantage is that it's not as portable as the inline cord.

I've been searching for a DIN mountable mini GFCI Breaker but haven't had any luck so far...

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petey_c

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Just some notes...
There are many different manufacturers of circuit breakers and many of the breakers are inter-changeable. Square-D makes QO, QOB, QOU, etc., and Home-line breakers, The home-line style is the most common (in this area) for residential use. These types of breakers will fit in (most) panels manufactured by Murray, Cutler Hammer, GE, Siemens, etc.
In the old days, they used to use SE cable (or 10/2, 6/2, etc., romex) to wire stoves, dryers, etc. A black, a white and a ground. For a 220V device (water heater, dryer, etc.) the loads are the same on each leg and cancel each other out on the neutral. Now for new installations you need to wire for a 4 wire connection, but that's getting off the point.
There have been some good suggestions on how to get around the $100.00+ Eaton Cutler-Hammer GCFI problem. 50A regular breaker to a 50A outlet. 60A sub-panel (about $15 at HD) wired with a 50A (cheaper) GFCI breaker. Basically a 50A extension cord with a GFCI protected sub-panel in between.
If you’re going to have 2 separate circuits share the same neutral, they should be connected to a 220V breaker. (required in some areas) This way you don’t have current on the shared neutral with only one of the circuits off. It also eliminates the risk of putting both circuits on the same leg and adding the current on the neutral (possibly overloading).

hennesse

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I've also been looking for a stand-alone GFCI - not built in to a receptacle or circuit breaker. Haven't found one yet.

The Multi 9s are designed to protect equipment - they trip when the difference in going and coming current is 30, 100 or 300 ma - depending on the model. The standard for protecting people is 5 ma.

Look for one that is "Class A" and meets UL 943.

Here's a link to a UL document
http://www.ul.com/global/documents/corporate/aboutul/publications/newsletters/electricalconnections/january09.pdf

wyzazz

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What Amp/Volt combo's are you looking for? There are power cords all over Ebay with GFCI's built in.

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hennesse

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120/240 30amp (for 3 wire + ground)

Hubbell makes some cords or hard-wired GFCIs, but they're like $300.

wyzazz

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http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350425166456&ssPageNam e=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Give that a shot for $77.00. It's what I'll be picking up for my build.

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hennesse

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All GFCI's are not equal.

Ask the seller what it says on the GFCI unit on this cord. The answer will probably be:
240V, 30A, 7200W Per Phase
50/60 HZ I (small triangle) N = 10 mA

The UL 943 standard for protection of people requires a trip between 4mA and 6mA. Regular GFCI circuit breakers and receptacles are UL 943 "Class A" which trip at 5mA.

There are some GFCIs which are used for protection of equipment. These have various sensitivities, some as high as 300mA.

What's the difference between 5mA, 10mA, 300mA ?
Check out: http://www.elec-toolbox.com/Safety/safety.htm#shock

I'm looking for something that will protect me - not my equipment.

Dave