Is it really that easy to change a 230v outlet to....?

Question

a 110v outlet? My partner seems to believe it is, but I think it would burn out whatever would be plugged into it due to the extra voltage.

The reason for the disagreement is we had an in-wall A/C unit with a 230v outlet. Most of the A/Cs we find have 110v outlets and her brother says he can just change the outlet to a 110v so we won't have to overburden our other outlets that are already being fully used.

Answer 1

It's very simple, all you need to do is get the red --or-- the black wire to one side and the white wire to the other side of the 110 outlet.  Good luck and God Bless.

Answer 2

Your 'partner' doesn't know what he's talking about,

and should not mess about with electricity.

Yes, one can change the outlet, and depending on

the way it's wired, either the circuit breaker or the

connections to draw 120V. at that point.

BUT ONLY IF HE KNOWS WHAT HE"S DOING.

That '230V.` outlet will be on it's own separate circuit,

and will have no effect on other circuits.

Most 120V. air conditioners do draw less power,

but also provide less cooling.

That outlet was probably sized at '230' for a reason.

Answer 3

yes its no problem to change it ,just use only one of your hot wires cut and tape the other one out of the way ..220-240 is really just two 110-120 hot leads on a double breaker..of course be sure to still use your neutral and ground

Answer 4

The problem you are going to run into is the 120v air conditioner won't have enough btu's to cool like the 240 v unit did.

Answer 5

Yeah but you can't just connect the 210v wires to the new outlet, you need to run wires from another regular outlet to power it. If you were to plug a 110/120 appliance into 230v it would almost certainly die in a big puff of smoke

Answer 6

Yes you can. Besure to install a 20 amp or 15 amp receptacle and be sure to change the breaker to either a single pole 15 or a single pole 20.

Answer 7

A 220 volt outlet has 2 hot wires from the breaker bar and one neutral. A 110v has one hot wire from the same bar and a neutral. Disconnect one of the hot wires from the receptacle and it only has 110 v going to it. Cap the extra hot wire in the outlet box with a wire nut and safety tape it. The black wires are usually the hot ones, but use a circuit tester to be sure. You can check the outlet after with an inexpensive voltage tester before you plug anything into it to be on the safe side.