30 amp RV outlet at home

I recently converted from a dual hot water tank setup in my house to a single tank resulting in an unused 30amp double pole breaker. I would like to use this breaker and the 10ga wire to power a TTL-30 outlet for my RV when it's in the driveway. Since the double pole is 240V through 2 conductors and I only need 120v is it acceptable to terminate the red conductor and just use the black (hot) white (neutral) and bare (ground) on the double pole breaker?

Thanks

 

Welcome to the forums!

No. That will give you 240V at the receptacle.

What does your RV require as input power?

 

I beleive Nash misunderstood what you wrote. Yes, that would give you 120v but best practice would be to replace the double pole with a single pole breaker.

 

I was going to leave the red hot wire unterminated and just use the black as the RV only requires 30amp 120v. RV's use the NEMA TT-30R, 3-Wire receptacle.

 

That seems to be the general consensus that I bust into the main panel and replace the double pole with a single. Would the 30 amp breaker still trip when overloaded on one leg of the circuit?

 

Possibly, but I don't think so. What you wrote was Now you're saying thatfor one. OK, let's say that resolves that.

But the rest of your question led me to believe that you were planning to terminate the black and the white wires to the 30A 240V 2-pole breaker. That, as I said, would give you 240V.

I see now that you're clarifying what you're asking. What you really want to know is whether it would be acceptable to remove the red wire from the 2-pole breaker and use that breaker to supply a 30A hot-to-neutral 120V circuit to a receptacle for your RV. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

The answer is no, that isn't acceptable for a variety of reasons, including that doing that is not in conformity with your adopted electrical code. The primary reason, though, is that your existing 2-polw breaker wasn't built or tested for single-pole service and isn't rated or listed for that. Therefore the answer to your question,is "No one knows."

You need to change the breaker.

I don't know how you're seeing a consensus unless you've asked this question on more than one forum. Regardless, the answer is yes. Replace the 2-pole 240V 30A breaker with a single-pole 120V 30A breaker. Buy a panel blank at the same time and use that to fill the gap in your deadfront.

 

Thanks Nash, It was my intention to clarify from my original "terminate" the red wire with a wire nut as it will still be hot to unterminated as this is probably more descriptive of what I actually had in mind. You are also correct in stating that I posted in this on another forum first as I did so at rv.net but decided to get a more in depth answer here. Based on your last post I will install a 30 amp single pole and cover the remaining gap with a spare 15 amp breaker. Thanks Again!

 

Wait a minute!

Isn't the same kind of double pole (and double wide) 240 volt rated breaker set customarily used for 120/240 volt circuits including multiwire branch circuits in which an overload on either pole trips both poles?

So the existing double pole breaker is perfectly okay to use.

The only disadvantage of the double pole breaker is if it is used to protect two unrelated 120 volt branch circuits in which case an overload on one circuit also kills the other resulting in minor inconvenience.

I hopefully read correctly that you (to me subtlely) said that the original cable to the water heater was 3 conductor (including a white wire). No problem converting the circuit originally using red and black only for 240 volts only to white and black only for 120 volts only for now.

The red wire could be returned to service if you wanted to install a second 30 amp 120 volt receptacle (sharing the white wire) or install a subpanel out there for subcircuits of lesser amperage..

 

Why? .................................

 

Yes black(hot), red (hot), white (common)

This was my original understanding. There sure has been a lot of resistance to doing it this way,

Exactly, I have to use this circuit or pull it out so why not use the existing configuration for something useful and reconfigure as needs change.

 

Got me. Maybe I carried that in from some other thread.

It's fixed now. Thanks for the catch.