Anybody familiar with 220 wiring?
 

I need to wire a socket on the outside of my house for an EV charger. 20 amps at 220 volts. From what I have gathered, I need to run 12-3 gauge wire through a 20 amp ganged breaker to a weather proof box with a weather-proof -at-all-times cover. My hang-up here is code states that circuits that may come in contact with moisture must be GFCI protected. Does this apply to 220 volt?

~Jimbo

Technically, you'll have to have it inspected anyway... why not ask the code inspector?

Usually, you can get a hold of your local code enforcement and ask these types of questions, and they're more than happy to answer over the phone. Construction/updating codes will be different for people who don't live in your state/county/town.

Around here, we use the PA UCC, but some local towns have rejected it, and have their own construction/installation code that is above and beyond the Universal Construction Code.

Um you do mean 3 12guage wires, right? 20amps isn't exactly that demanding. 220v is non-standard in the US but generally there are 3 wire and 4 wire setups 2 hot in opposing polarities (opposing phase) 1 ground and 1 earth ground.

As for the breaker it isn't that complex if your box already "has" 220v somewhere, in our house just needed to lock an overpriced breaker on an unused bus bar in the existing box and rig appropriate wires off. We have a master shut off so it wasn't tough and not hard to wire.

And Unless you want to pay an electrician, do what my father did (who was an electrician), keep the outlet inside of the garage and have an extension cord to the ev. No sense wasting effort on getting something certified and having that expense and pain, unless you really want to do that? And use water proof stuff in the garage even though you don't need it, just good practice and not expensive if you are doing it yourself.

And yes you generally need ground fault crap which can be challenging to locate locally. (still not bad practice though to have and you can wire a GFI in with a non GFI 220 outlet to have GFI protection just not as good of practice)

Cheers
Ryan

What?! Talk to The Man?!

Actually, that is a good idea. I'll do that.

Ah... you have located the source of my troubles. The garage is wired to one 120 volt circuit. Surely illegal, but it came that way.

The EV cord will reach half way to the deck, so my plan is to fab an extension cord (already have the parts) and mount a weatherproof box on the deck. I'd probably run a 120 VAC line, too, because there are no outdoor sockets on the house and I like to show movies on the side of the garage.

Plan 'B' is to replace the little basement window with plywood allowing me to run a cord into the basement. The window is under the deck anyway, so it is useless, and the load center is right there.

Plan 'C' is to reconfigure the garage wiring. There are two wires leading to the garage. one feeds the scooter-charging outlet and garage door. The other is fed from the same breaker but is switched in the kitchen, and in the garage. These are wired in series, not 3-way, and control the lights. If one of the wires is 12-2, I can reconfigure it to 220 service and feed the 120 service from the other wire, locking the kitchen switch 'on' (or not... so I can screw with Kal when he's working on his cars)

~Jim

No don't do that, that would be fine if the wires were colored correctly and it wasn't in a place that ever would see anyone else potentially messing with it. But I know darn well if I see a green wire I might touch it. Plus you never know where the earth ground ends up even if you disconnect it from the garage and wire to the AC-neutral wire.

Effectively what you would be doing is removing all the AC110 neural wires, moving ground to neutral and using the neutral as opposite phase AC for the 220. That could have shocking consequences if your ground wires contact anything they shouldn't on the way to your earth ground. Also none of your 120 or 220 appliances would have an earth ground unless you wire one in.

Cheers
Ryan

OOPS... I ment to say 12-2 in all my previous posts
Ryan, when I say there are two wires leading to the garage, I mean there are literally two separate runs of romex. Two hots, two neutrals, and two grounds. I have no idea why it was done this way... a single run of 3 conductor wire would have accomplished the hot/switched combo easier.

RV's tend to have 220v plugs out doors that are not GFI, I'm not sure how they get by with this but they do, it seems to be pretty common too, I would simply go in to an electrical contractor supply house and ask them what the proper way is.
There are also GFI breakers for swimming pools.

Ah in that case what you could do is take
1. shut off power
2. Disconnect the two sets of wire from the box
3. Check for continuity between the two sets of wire (occasionally somebody just wanted double current capability and wired them together somewhere)
4. Wire one run of "HOTs" to the red reverse phase AC110 then by grabbing a set of wires from each run of wire at the end you could make up AC220 out of two 110v outlets.

The only issue with the above scenario is that if any electronic equipment gets plugged into opposing phase current and another piece of electronic equipment gets plugged into the other phase and you attempt to attach the two in some way you get kablooew

Hubbell makes a 220v GFCI that can handle up to 30 amps call the Circuit Guard, it came to me while I was at work, standing in a pool of water about to turn on a the saw that we use for cutting granite, it's a 220 volt motor on a 20 amp breaker and right on the saw is a GFCI in a weather tight box, the whole set up is designed to be washed down and I've never had the GFCI trip but I have tripped the breaker by pushing the 18" blade to hard in to a slab of stone.

Hubbell Wiring Device-Kellems: 2008 Full Line Catalog

Page 11-17 I think, I have a really small computer screen so I can't see clearly.

I just got off the phone with the inspector. An in-use weatherproof cover is required for ALL outdoor electrical, but a GFCI is not, because the socket has a very specific purpose. However, I may add GFCI for safety's sake.

~Jim

Is this what I'm looking for?
Product Datasheet -- GFSMCB240202P

Sorry for all the dumb questions. I do plan on consulting an electrician :)

Isolation that is required by safety law will prevent that problem.

the one in the breaker should work, but this is what I have worked with and would use as the reset is right there and it has a light on it that tells you what is going on, it makes for quick trouble shooting.
http://www.hubbellcatalog.com/wiring...626,1105,14603

Except when it doesn't, my folks blew out a camera, printer pSU and a monitor by attaching them to opposing polarity lines from a 220 pigtail at a local country fair.

Anything that communicates isolated or not suffers ripple issues and micro currents when run on opposing polarities. very hard to get around that.

on the topic of Ground Fault Circuit Interruption, I talked to an electrician who said that anything that is hard wired like that does not have to be on ground fault, if it is designed to be outside, old garages also do not need ground fault circuit outlets even on the outside, however new garages do, that every outlet has to be on a ground fault branch and this can cause problems as most of them are not designed to run motors as I was also talking to him about my bath room vent fan that is on a leg of a ground fault circuit, the motor sometimes trips the safety, apparently motors do that and if people have electric garage door openers, or fridges in their garage this can cause a problem under the new rules, but I've gotten side tracked, he said that with an existing garage to just go ahead and hook it up and you will be fine and pretty much fallow code but that it would be a nice safety to have a GFCI for the piece of mind if you happen to be standing in a puddle of water.

For the time being, the project is on hold, The other 2/3 of the household responded to the idea with a firm 'no.' I appreciate all the help, though.