wiring up a 220 volt 15 amp female socket

You would think the directions on the packaging would be clear.

No problem with the ground.

I now have two wires:  white (neutral) and black (hot). 

And those wires map to



I'm going to assume that I am staring at a female socket.  I'm going to call the two horizontal slots "A" and "B".  So .... which one is hot and which one is neutral?

I've found out that this is called a "nema 6-15R" ...

I think I found the answer here:  http://www.quail.com/seriesPage.cfm?seriesID=121

Well, I've screwed that all up.

I wired something that looked like 220v connector.  It turned out to actually be a 30 amp 125v connector.  Green to green, black to black, white to white - no problem.  After it is all together, I notice that it says right on it "30a 125v".  That isn't gonna do me a lick of good.

I bought two more connectors.  They are definitely 220.  As I am getting ready to wire them up, there is no green wire.  In reading through the bits of paper ...  it sounds like these plugs expect there to be no ground.  Is that right?  One neutral and two hots?

If that's the case, is my 6-15R just not gonna connect to that?  I'm guessing that the green is ground on this, right? 

A 220V receptacle (6-15R) has two hots and a ground. One of the terminals will have conductivity to the semi-circular opening on the face of the plug. That's the grounding conductor which should be green in color. The flat openings are both hot conductors and it doesn't matter which hot wire goes where. The hot conductors will terminate into a 15A two pole circuit breaker so if I assume you are using Romex you will use the black and white wires for hot conductors. Go ahead and put some black tape on the white conductor to show it's no longer a neutral. If my memory is correct and this electrician hasn't had to many beers in aluminum cans, what I just typed should be correct.

I am going to answer this one, even though it is very old, in case this thread comes up in a search. 220, 230 or 240 single phase receptacles ( all the same thing basically )  have two live wires and a ground.
In your case Paul, as I hope you found out, the white goes to either live connection and black  goes on to the other and the green or bare copper goes to the ground. The white should be identified with black or red tape at both ends to let the next person know it is not being used as a neutral.  In the electrical panel the white wire, identified with black or red tape, would go on one half of a double breaker, shared with the black, to get the 240 volts.

You may already know this, but when you get to the breaker panel, all neutrals are tied to ground. They may serve different purposes, but electrically they are the same.

Brett Hammond wrote:You may already know this, but when you get to the breaker panel, all neutrals are tied to ground. They may serve different purposes, but electrically they are the same.

At least in California you can only tie the neutral to the ground in a sub-panel. The main panel has to have the neutral un-bonded to the panel. We saw a house burn up after snow pushed the main wires down to the neutral and it went through to a house with a bonded panel and you could not open the panel to try to stop anything because it shocked you. So the house went up in flames. So I now un-bond any neutral bars in the main panel whenever I see it.

I'm not sure why they allow sub-panels to still be connected. Also I've been shocked before by a neutral that had feedback. Really annoying.

I am sure different localities have different rules and regulations to follow.
However, if the neutral and ground are bonded together into the panel, as is the status quo over here, AND there is a properly sized ground bond leaving the panel AND there is proper grounding to earth, it is not possible for the panel to shock you.
The only way you will get shocked is if the ground to earth is insufficient or absent entirely.
Most of the time when shocks occur through so-called grounded panels, it is because the earth ground has failed due to a broken wire or excess resistance to the ground path.
In layman's terms this usually is due to too dry of a soil or too small of an earth grounding rod which fails to bleed the voltage safely to the soil (earth-ground).
I have had to install multiple ground rods for electric fencing due to poor earth grounding and have myself been shocked pretty good due to a high-resistance ground path on supposedly grounded fixtures.
Since our bodies conduct electricity quite well, and a strong enough shock is quite capable of stopping our hearts, always check for voltage before starting work, always try to only touch wiring with one hand, always wear good rubber-soled shoes around potentially live wires, always assume power may be present while working with electricity.
The key to this is to prevent yourself from becoming part of the circuit, or a path to ground yourself.
If in the slightest bit of doubt, please, please, get a qualified electrician to guide and help you do a safe electrical installation.
I am all for learning and teaching new skills, just make sure you have the proper teachers for your task.
Wyatt and Joseph are both correct, just make sure when in the main panel you don't accidentally mount the double-pole breaker on the same panel leg.
There should be left and right main legs - did this in my youth and could not get the 220V hot water heater to work!

Jason Learned wrote:
At least in California you can only tie the neutral to the ground in a sub-panel. The main panel has to have the neutral un-bonded to the panel. We saw a house burn up after snow pushed the main wires down to the neutral and it went through to a house with a bonded panel and you could not open the panel to try to stop anything because it shocked you. So the house went up in flames. So I now un-bond any neutral bars in the main panel whenever I see it.

I'm not sure why they allow sub-panels to still be connected. Also I've been shocked before by a neutral that had feedback. Really annoying.

The neutral circuit is actually a return line for the electricity, so if any live load is energized, the neutral will have power flowing thru it.
Always treat your neutral circuits as potentially live to prevent shocks.
I have been lazy replacing devices without killing the entire circuit in the past, and have been "bit" by a neutral that had a return load from another hot "feeding back" thru it.
(I was too lazy to hold a flashlight and had another room light on to see what I was doing.)
This is why we are supposed to kill the main power when working with wiring in order to prevent such unpleasant surprises.

Yeah I know all that now. I did that many years ago when I was first learning. California is quite dry that may be why the grounds can behave as they do. I still take precautions now, especially because I learned electrical wiring in California and now I have to wire three phase all in 220/50 cycles because I live in Europe. And 220 bites easier. So maybe the neutral won't behave that way over here with wetter earth, but I still don't trust any wire at first. I do the quick swipe or I use a sensor to make sure the line is truly dead. Thanks for you advise. Good to know it may have been due to the dryness of my fatherland.

If you are getting electricity shunted to ground through yourself when in contact with any grounded equipment or equipment grounding conductor, there is likely a ground loop. This is generally caused by there being more than one point in the system where neutral and grounding systems are bonded.

Sublanels and multiple sub-panels in especially older homes that had who knows how many people fiddling with things are suspect along with appliance or mechanical that has been hack wired or left with stripped neutral and groung conductors making contact with the enclosure and or effectively, each other.

Allow a lower resistance to ground path that does not include yourself in it and only bond neutral and equipment grounding systems at one point in the service/distribution system and touch that stuff without flinching!