So I'm putting in a 230V circuit in my "new" house for my welder. I have two quick questions..

I'm using 10-3 cable (black, white and green). My outlet looks like this:


I know the green goes to the lower round plug, does it matter which of the upper straight plugs the white and black go to?

And on the breaker panel side of things.. I know the white and black go to the breaker. Does the green go to ground or neutral? I am almost certain it goes to the ground, but I don't like house fires so I wanted to be sure.

Thanks,

Scerb

This is an oldie/goodie thread I moved to Tools/Fab awhile back:

Garage wiring

Black and white are both postitive, it doesn't matter what they go on, and the green (ground) goes on the bottom hole, just like a 120v receptacle.
when connecting to your breakers, just make sure teh white and black have the same size breaker.... then you're golden.

Awesome, thanks. My main concern though was where the green wire goes in the breaker panel. Am I correct that there is both a ground and neutral bar in the panel and that they serve a different purpose? Just wanna make sure that the green one goes to the right spot or if that even matters at all..

Thanks,

Scerb

To be technically correct if the outlet has a brass screw and a silver screw the black wire should be to the brass and the white wire to the silver. But for 220V applications that doesn't really matter because both the white and black are "hot".

The neutral wires and ground wires are bonded together in the breaker box. This is the ONLY location where they are allowed to bond together. Once you open the breaker panel it will be fairly obvious where to install the green wire. But even if you bond it to the neutral bus within the breaker panel it will still be grounded and safe.

Make sure you use a "double-ganged" breaker. It's 2 single breakers joined together with a tab. And make sure you install it such that one breaker contacts phase 1 of the main and the other breaker contacts phase 2 of the main. If you don't you'll wind up with only 120V at the outlet.

Thanks guys, got it all hooked up and it works great <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> Just finished bobbing/boxing the rear of my frame for a sick rugged bumper I got.

-Scerb

TO be in line with code rules, fixed 220 volt wiring should use black and red hot wires from the breaker box, like this:


White conductor, when used for live voltage, can be tolerated if covered with black or red plastic tape at both ends to signal any third party that it is not at ground voltage. I understand you are using flexible wiring though that is not available in red/black combinaison.
For feeding voltage, it makes no difference, of course.