Here’s the scenario: There is an office where my mother works. They have been using electricity there for years (i.e. – cd players, radios, etc.). They just purchased a room air conditioner that runs at 110v. Now the maintenance dept. says no one can use them because the rooms are wired for 240v.
Is this true? Please help with my ignorance. Thanks.
Replies
Note that a few pieces of electronic equipment is uses switching power supplies that will work on 100-250 volts without making any changes. This is not uncommon on computers and monitors.
I doubt that covers most common radio's and CD players. But still the way that they use power supplies it is possible that many would work on 240, but no guarantees.
But plug in a desk lamp with an incandent bulb. That is a quick and reliable test. The bulb will quickly burnout if you try to operate it on 240.
But if the standard parallel slot receptacles are used (either with our without grounding pin) and they are wired for anything other than 120 volt then this is a serious hazard and should be reported to the fire marshal.
http://www.leviton.com/sections/techsupp/nema.htm
Bill
I did some work on a cabin once, pluged in my drill and noticed it ran a little funny!
Did some investigating and found out that someone had installed electric baseboard heaters(had to take them up to install some cabinets) using standard recepticles but they were wired 220, so of course when I pluged in to the standard recipticle figuring all was well and good it really wasnt. I assume that I couldnt have ran that drill for very long? All I know is that I was getting some serious sparks on the armature.
I also bought an old house with the typical wet cellar. I bought a dehumidifier to dry out the basement. Seamed that I went through about 3 dehumidifiers before investigating, checked the recepticle and there was a tag hanging(tucked in behind the romex) from it saying "220", previous owner was so tight that he didnt want to buy the 220 plugins so he just wired regular ones and "taged" them, must have been 5 or 6 of them in that basement.
I guess it was my mistake for not checking the tags ahead of time!
Doug
I'm wondering if what the OP is saying is that the office already has dedicated outlets for air conditioners but that they are 220 outlets, right by the windows. It's inconceivable that an entire office would have 220 outlets with standard plugs. Or is it?
I suspect that there's a bunch of confusion involved, with several folks speaking/acting on partial (mis)information. (Kinda like here.)
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison
It's inconceivable that an entire office would have 220 outlets with standard plugs. Or is it?
Hell I wouldnt think so, what would you plug your electric pencil sharpener into!
Doug
There was a lecture hall at the University of Louisville that for some reason had some outlets wired for about 200V DC. While I was working in the A/V department we had several projectors get wrecked from plugging them into one of these outlets.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison
DC ? Arc lamps ?You'll find 208AC all over offices in our area for copiers, commercial cleaning equipment, ....
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
Never did find out what the DC juice was for -- possibly some sort of arc lamp, possibly for some sort of experimental apparatus.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison
I'm willing to bet that someone has their numbers backwards, and that the problem is that the AC is a 240 volt unit, and the outlets are all 110. Unless maybe this is in the UK or something.
that is why we have building codes
that is why we have building codes
Building codes are one thing, compliance is another!
Too many people in maintenance don't know what they are doing. The first thing I had my techs do was an electrical map of everything and use voltage testers to verify everything and figure which outlets, machines, etc are connected to which breakers if they have dedicated outlets it's easy to have a 240 changed to a 120.