O.T, Electrical question, please

I'm installing a natural gas range to replace an electric range. The NG range requires 120 electrical to run lights and timers, etc.

There is no 120 outlet behind the range. Can I just tape off one leg of the 220, put in a 120 receptacle and use the other leg and the neutral wire, or must I come from the box with a new 3-wire run? Obviously that's not going to be easy or I wouldn't be asking.

You Sure Can,, but be as safe as possible with your connections,
each leg is 120volt,,, and the white wire is common,,,

(quoted from post at 15:57:47 10/04/11) I'm installing a natural gas range to replace an electric range. The NG range requires 120 electrical to run lights and timers, etc.

There is no 120 outlet behind the range. Can I just tape off one leg of the 220, put in a 120 receptacle and use the other leg and the neutral wire, or must I come from the box with a new 3-wire run? Obviously that's not going to be easy or I wouldn't be asking.

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eally ought to reconnect the "other leg" to ground in the breaker panel, so that you can have the 3rd prong safety ground and need to reduce breaker size from 50A to 15A, too.

It would work however the 220 wire for the cooktop is probably a 6 or 8 gauge wire on a 30 amp or greater breaker. If there was ever a problem in the cooktop it would burn to a crisp before it would trip the breaker. If you do this I would disconnect the both wires at the breaker box and connect the one you"re going to use to a 15 amp breaker.

As others have stated, it can be done, but not quite as you stated. Just to clarify. In the range configuration, there is no neutral, just two hots and a ground. So, what needs to be done are these steps:
attach the black wire from the range to a 20 amp breaker in your panel.
attach the other insulated wire to the panel's neutral bus. Be sure to remark with white if needed.
confirm that the ground is connected to the ground bus, may be the same as the neutral, depending on the panel.
Since the wire is likely way to big to attach to a normal outlet, I'd install a j-box to make a splice to a 23g jumper to an outlet. Now you have a place to hook up the range and add more kitchen recepts. Most kitchens need more anyway.

Never seen a 240V only range. The lights,controls and range receptacle are 120V.
23gauge wire is an awfully light conductor.

BIL did that and ended up burning up a dishwasher. change the breaker at the box to the needed range and wire accordingly with 120 volt box--if you are like me, leave yourself a note on the breaker box so you don't forget what you did.

Lots of great information here, as usual. I'll go back into the breaker box and re-wire there. Thanks, guys.

Okay heres the deal, you ask... """Can I just tape off one leg of the 220, put in a 120 receptacle and use the other leg and the neutral wire, or must I come from the box with a new 3-wire run?"""

YES THIS CAN BE DONE "IN THEORY" AND
NO YOU DO NOT NEED A NEW THREE WIRE RUN

If there are three existing wires, a Black and a Red and an equipment grounding conductor, (bare or green) THATS MY BEST GUESS OF WHAT YOU MAY HAVE heres how you would do it in theory (if thats what you indeed have).

1) Use the Black as the 120 volt hot wire and it would connect to a 120 volt single pole 20 amp circuit breaker in your panel HOWEVER THERE MAY BE A PROBLEM IF ITS SAY A NO 6 WIRE THAT MAY NOT FIT TOO WELL IN A 20 AMP BREAKER AND HOW ARE YOU GOING TO GET IT TO FIT THE TERMINAL ON A 20 AMP RECEPTACLE!!!!!

2) Use the Red (BUT Id atatch white tape near the ends) as the Neutral and wire it to the panels Neutral Buss HOWEVER THERES AGAIN A PROBLEM IN CONNECTING A 6 GAUGE OR SO WIRE ON A 20 AMP RECEPTACLE !!!!!

3) Use the bare or green as the equipment grounding conductor and it would atatch to the panels Equipment Ground Buss HOWEVER AGAIN IT MAY BE HARD TO CONNECT IT TO THE GROUND TERMINAL ON A 20 AMP RECEPTACLE

NOTE some main panels have seperate Neutral and Ground busses (but bonded if a main panel), on some others there may be only one common buss used for both...

THEORY VERSUS PRACTICAL

Theres no harm in a bigger then required wire BUT A 20 AMP RECEPTACLE AND A 20 AMP CIRCUIT BREAKER may not accomodate such huge wire is what you may run into.

That 120 volt 20 amp receptacle requires a protected hot wire, a Neutral, and an equipment grounding conductor, so if you alreay have two insulated wires and another bare (not insulated) or even an insulated wire YOU CAN MAKE IT WORK IN THEORY its just the physical wire size that requires attention.

POSSIBLE SOLUTION you could use a junction box in an accessible location near the new range and inside it splice three 12 gauge wires (Black, White, Green) to the proper three bigger wires and run the 12 gauge to the receptacle. In the panel you can probably still get the bigger wires into the Neutral and Equipment Ground Buss (they have bigger holes for the bigger wire)

BOTTOM LINE Id use the existing wires because if you still have a 20 amp circuit breaker feeding a 20 amp receptacle and you supply the protected hot wire plus a Neutral and and Equipment Grounding Conductor your okay (even though the wire is much larger then required) and a junction box can be used to reduce down to 12 gauge wire as needed........

John T long retired electrical distribution design engineer and rusty as an old nail on the latest NEC so no warranty BUT THATS HOW ID DO IT

Glen, here in the good old US of A to your south, Ive seen a ton of them, The older ranges ran 2 hots (240) and an equipment grounding conductor BUT STILL USED 120 VOLT for like a convenience outlet and maybe a clock or light etc

HOWEVER TO DO SO THEY USED THE BARE OR GREEN EQUIPMENT GROUND CONDUCTOR AS A NEUTRAL AND THATS A NOOOOOO NOOOOOOOOOO TODAY AND WHY NEWER RANGES RUN 4 WIRES INSTEAD OF THREE

John T

John, Wouldn't it work to wire nut short pigtails of smaller #12 to the heavy wire on both ends?

Just buy the adapter plug, I'm sure you can find it cheaper than this in the US;
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/gas-range-adaptor/905477

YEP, but its probably required on the receptacle (those terminals are sized to accept 14 or 12 gauge wire) end but not so much in the panel since the Neutral and Ground busses can accomodate the larger diameter wire (a 20 amp breaker may or may not take 6 gauge wire???)

John T

John, I"ve done this before. The 6 gauge wire is usually a stranded wire. I ususally nip enough strands off the wire that it will fit into the smaller breaker. Am I doing the wrong thing?

Please Jerry, redo it from the box like you are supposed to. Ex electrician of 40 years. Dave