Need an electricians help please! "240V only" Lumatek ballast outlet wiring, 2 q's

Hey everyone...and back again do I go to RIU for help...


Ok, I have 2 questions on this one.

First off, I have a lu;matek "240V only" (US) 1k watt ballast. The plug is the same shape as this diagram. So, I went to Home Depot and bought the only one I could find there that looked like that, thinking "This one looks too big for the plug I have, but I can't imagine there would be 2 outlet/plug styles that are the same shape, but just a different size"

Well, yeah, the outlet is too big, the whole scale of it I mean.

So, first question is does anyone know exactly what style I need to get/order/whatever? (Like NEMA 6-30, or some exact model number would be real good)...I cant find any thing on this in the stuff that came with the ballast.


The second question is about the stuff that I did find in the paperwork for the ballast. It says "...may malfunction if the 240V circuit has a NEUTRAL. The input for your ballast is 2 HOT WIRES and 1 GROUND WIRE. If you are going to use a light controller ONLY bring a ground wire and 2 hot leads from your electrical panel. "

That threw a lot of doubt on the installation as I understood it, mainly because the neutral and ground wires, according to the reading I have done, are connected in the panel. I opened my panel and looked in there (I am not touching shit inside there myself) and it does seem that ground and neutral are connected.


So...to sum it all up, the 2 q's re: what kind of outlet do I need, and how the hell do I wire it?

( I am tapping off of the dryer circuit, by the way)

I can take pics of whatever anyone would need . Thanks!

Your dryer circuit is either 3 wire or 4 wire. If its 3 wire its two hots and a ground, if its 4 wire its 2 hots a ground and a neutral. Back at the main service panel the ground and neutral are tied together, but after the panel they exist as separate entities. Its called grounding and bonding. At your main panel the NEC requires that the Neutral be bonded to the grounding conductor, which effectively makes the Neutral also grounded. The ground, otherwise known as the equipment grounding conductor is used for nothing except safety. It's meant to carry fault current to ground which will trip the breaker. Your ground and neutral should ONLY be bonded at the panel, beyond the panel at all of your outlets and appliances these two wires are considered different, even though they are at the same voltage potential. You MUST bring a ground wire to your ballast, this will ensure that IF your ballast's metal enclosure became energized with 240V it would have a path back to ground that would cause the breaker to trip. Its there to save your life in a fault condition.

In short, if your dryer outlet has 4 wires, use the black, and red as your ungrounded "HOT" 240V wires, and the green equipment grounding conductor as the ground, do not use the white Neutral conductor. If your dryer outlet only has 3 wires... use the 2 hot ungrounded 240v wires, and the green equipment conductor.

I'm surprised you were unable to find an outlet, they are pretty standard. I would check a different store.

well this is simple just be careful and run dryer on low dont want to draw too many amps.

you need what know as a "240v duplex receptacle"

in the case of 120 you have three wires, x1 live(black), x1 neutral(white) x1 ground(green). live and neutral is all that metter ground is a saftey, but some devices must be grounded in order to function so ALWAYS GROUND the ground just needs to attach to the device near where the live meets the device. then its black to black white to white.

okay now thats out of the way this is 240v. you have x2 live wire(black and white or yellow) and a neutral, and then sometimes a ground in addition. i think this is required now days but its just extra safety precaution. so you will have three wires, 2 lives and a ground. both lives will work as a neutral for each other and is the same situation as above black to black and white to white and ground attached on metal surface of device near the wire connections.

The NEC requires new 240V outlets to include all four wires. The two hots, the neutral, and the ground.

polyarcturus said:

well this is simple just be careful and run dryer on low dont want to draw too many amps.

you need what know as a "240v duplex receptacle"

in the case of 120 you have three wires, x1 live(black), x1 neutral(white) x1 ground(green). live and neutral is all that metter ground is a saftey, but some devices must be grounded in order to function so ALWAYS GROUND the ground just needs to attach to the device near where the live meets the device. then its black to black white to white.

okay now thats out of the way this is 240v. you have x2 live wire(black and white or yellow) and a neutral, and then sometimes a ground in addition. i think this is required now days but its just extra safety precaution. so you will have three wires, 2 lives and a ground. both lives will work as a neutral for each other and is the same situation as above black to black and white to white and ground attached on metal surface of device near the wire connections.

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yeah i kinda descibed that wrong 2 lives a neutral and a ground. neutral is a ground in essence. before the new code grounds where tied in with neutrals.

pretty sure it's a standard NEMA 10-30P outlet you need.

polyarcturus said:

yeah i kinda descibed that wrong 2 lives a neutral and a ground. neutral is a ground in essence. before the new code grounds where tied in with neutrals.

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Neutral is at the same potential as ground... it is not your grounding equipment conductor. The neutral carries the unbalanced load between your two ungrounded conductors. If you have a perfectly balanced load in your home, the neutral running back to the utility carries ZERO current. The equipment grounding conductor (green) is NEVER meant to carry current. If its carrying current that means a fault condition exists.

While the two are technically, mechanically bonded at the service entrance, you should always think of them as being separate. It will save your life.

i do i never knew the reason but i know i dont fuck around with elec, had my share of bad exp, but so far so good for a while now(now zaps or nothing) ive always went with code regardless of what ive been told. the paper is a very long and droll read. thats good info to know.

You guys fuckin rock, thanks!

btw, It is a 3 wire run (the dryer, that is), theres white, red, and black). So I am going back to (a different) Home depot, with the cover story of an air conditioner, and also with MEASUREMENTS of the male side of the plug this time (just in case). Will be askin for a "240v duplex receptacle" AKA "NEMA 10-30P receptacle"

The wiring of it shouldn't be too much of an issue, but I do have one more q, since I have your attention already...Where the power is "tapping into" the dryer circuit, inside the newly mounted box, I have wire nuts holding the connections together.


Do the stripped parts of the wires in the wire nuts have to be touching all the way to the insulation before the wire nuts are put on? (3 wires per wire nut, btw). In other words, all 3 touch at or very near the inside of the tip of the wire nut. I don't know how far down the length of the wire nut they continue to touch, but I can tell you for certain that if I look up into the hole of the wire nut after its screwed on as tight as I can get it by hand (pretty fuckin tight, btw), I can see the conductors separating. There is no bare conductor sticking out of the nuts, though.

I know that the junctions like in a wire nut are often the weak link, and are most likely to get hot, so I want them to be super fuckin duper overkill good connections. If the nuts are a prob as they are now, is there another code approved way to join the 3 wires? Like maybe some kind of screw terminal?

Thanks again, guys, I will def sleep better knowing I have consulted with pro's on this.

polyarcturus said:

well this is simple just be careful and run dryer on low dont want to draw too many amps..

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My plan was to not run the dryer at all unless the light on this circuit is off. I was thinking about putting it on a timer, but that prob won't be needed. It's good to know I can still most likely run the dryer during lights on if I really need to, though. thx man

SaneLawsMake4SaneSociety said:

Thanks again, guys, I will def sleep better knowing I have consulted with pro's on this.

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Just so its said. Asking people online how to do electrical work you are unfamiliar with is not the same as getting a licensed electrician to do or at least check the work. Yes, I know all the security concerns, its not necessary, blah, blah. But at least its been said before he does one of these...

yeah a timer for the dryer might be a good idea but not necessary if your the only one doing laundry just pay attention. the wires need to just make good contact you wan the wire nut to cover the entire exposed area of wire/s. you probably need a bigger wire nut. TURN OFF BREAKER B4 DOIN ANY WORK!

just saying for the guy above^^^

The lumatek plug is a NEMA 6-15P. It needs to be plugged into a 6-15R. You probably bought a 6-30R. It is the same configuration just bigger.
NEMA plug and receptacles.

Your dryer receptacle is probably a 10-30R. It is 125/250V 3 pole 3 wire non-grounding receptacle.

You have a 3 wire run with white, red and black. If there is no ground wire (green) you can not wire it to a 6-15R unless you use neutral (white) as ground.

CharlieBud said:

Just so its said. Asking people online how to do electrical work you are unfamiliar with is not the same as getting a licensed electrician to do or at least check the work. Yes, I know all the security concerns, its not necessary, blah, blah. But at least its been said before he does one of these...

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Appreciate the input, and the gentleness with which it was delivered. Thanks man. I should be fine, I have a goodly amount of electric/electronic theory under my belt, but since I don't know how these elctronic ballasts are wired inside, and that little insert in the ballast was really counter intuitive, I wanted to ask.

Again, though, thanks for the input.