Easy. Leave the cable but replace the breaker with either a single 15A or single 20A, depending on what you need. For 15A the cable must be 14/2 or thicker, for 20A the cable must be 12/2 or greater. Cover the open slot in your panel cover with a blank filler, or alternatively, add another 120V circuit. Your heater was probably 240V using a double pole breaker. You only need a single pole breaker for 120V.

yes you can do it.

you change the 2pole breaker out to a single pole, move the white wire to teh neutral bus, and put an outlet on teh end. the existing wire is likely #10, and that can be tricky bending around the screws on teh outlet. what i do is use a short pigtail of #12 from teh outlet and wire nut the pigtail to the #10.

oh, and if your house is like mine you will need to put the cable in a box. mine is 10/2 just sticking thru a small hole in the sheetrock!

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response- question 2 - Could I run more than one outlet off of that wire? - i.e. I know that many of my circuits have a number of different outlets on them.

NO restriction on the number of receptacles.

Don't forget to remark the wire white you're using as the grounded conductor.

Thank you all for your responses.

"NO restriction on the number of receptacles.
Don't forget to remark the wire white you're using as the grounded conductor."

The OP is in Canada. There is a restriction as to the number of devices in a circuit, that being no more than 12.
Why would he remark a white wire as being white? I have never seen a professionally installed 240V circuit than had a white wire remarked as a hot in a panel or at the load. It's obvious to any pro when a white is being used as a hot in a two wire 240V circuit.

bigbird, you have it backward: i.e. the original circuit had TWO reds (or one red, one color OTHER THAN white or green)--both hot, on opposite legs--adding up to 240V. OP now needs to use one of the former hot wires as neutral (to get 120V), thus the white tape on each end of the new neutral.

oh, and if your house is like mine you will need to put the cable in a box. mine is 10/2 just sticking thru a small hole in the sheetrock!

Ah, an illegal immigrant special! EXTREMELY "non-NEC-compliant"... Ole'!! Please tell us who the builder is, so we can all add to our "gotcha" database. ;')

"bigbird, you have it backward: i.e. the original circuit had TWO reds (or one red, one color OTHER THAN white or green)--both hot, on opposite legs--adding up to 240V"

How do you know the original heater wire had 2 reds or anything else, for that matter? The OP never stated anything about the color of the wire's insulation. I've seen many water heaters connected with 12/2 regular Romex with the white used as hot.

There is no mention that I can see about what colour the original wires are.

oh, and if your house is like mine you will need to put the cable in a box. mine is 10/2 just sticking thru a small hole in the sheetrock!

Ah, an illegal immigrant special! EXTREMELY "non-NEC-compliant"... Ole'!! Please tell us who the builder is, so we can all add to our "gotcha" database. ;')
----------------------------------------------------------

And why would this be illegal?

If this was an older installation it could very well be legal and installed by a non-immigrant legal electrician.

Hedricus is correct. It's legal even today. Junctions need to be made in boxes. If the connection was made inside the the appliance no box was required.

"Ah, an illegal immigrant special! EXTREMELY "non-NEC-compliant"... Ole'!!"

I find that comment offensive and in extremely bad taste. Pull your head out and at least know what the hell you're talking about before you start popping off like that.

Bigbird, it is quite obvious to a pro to know that the white wire is being used as a "hot" leg, but it isn't so clear to an amateur, which look at these circuits also. I was an industrial electrician for 30 yrs & it was part of our "code" per say to always mark a white wire with black tape that was used as a "hot". It is a very good practice.

Hedricus is correct. It's legal even today. Junctions need to be made in boxes. If the connection was made inside the the appliance no box was required.

Umm, STRAIN RELIEF? Abrasion prevention? Best practices vs. banana republic?

I've seen many water heaters connected with 12/2 regular Romex with the white used as hot.

Really, AWG 12? That would limit the WH to what, 3300W?... kinda slow on the re-heat, but would work I guess...

... Just say NO to illegal UNlicensed immigrant electricians... yes, I've seen their fine fire hazards first-hand, when I lived in NV and AZ.

"Really, AWG 12? That would limit the WH to what, 3300W?... kinda slow on the re-heat, but would work I guess..."

Do you even know how an electric water heater works? You never get both elements on at the same time. They alternate. Yes, most electric water heaters are double pole 20A and require 12/2. I am not usually a rude guy but you really are getting annoying. I question your electrical expertise by making statements that just aren't true.

A 240 volt water heater supplied with #12 conductors would be limited by the NEC to 3500 watts.

"... Just say NO to illegal UNlicensed immigrant electricians... yes, I've seen their fine fire hazards first-hand, when I lived in NV and AZ."

can you point out exactly where in this thread anyone other than yourself stated anything at all that the work in question was done by either someone unlicensed or someone who is an illegal immigrant.
You just decide something is done wrong and unsafe so it must have been done by an illegal immigrant? It's pretty obvious you don't even know what you're talking about from your first post.
Do you have a confederate flag in the back of your pickup truck window too?

no. most water heaters are 4500w or more..per element. and yes.both elements don't come on at the same time. so with a single 4500w element it exceeds 12/2 wiring per code!

most are wired with 10/2 wiring not 12/2

while 12/2 would actually carry the current. a 20Amp breaker will not..remember the 80% rule..20*0.8=16 more than the 18amps or so a 4500+watt element

-dkenny

"no. most water heaters are 4500w or more..per element. and yes.both elements don't come on at the same time. so with a single 4500w element it exceeds 12/2 wiring per code!"

Where I live most electric water heaters are 40 US gallons and they use twin 3kW elements. Most are wired with 20A breakers because of the 80% continuous load rule. It's a matter of what's used most commonly in your area. You are obviously referring to 60 US gallon heaters. The OP never once told us what gauge wire he had running to his heater.

Whew, this whole post is scary. Most every 240 volt with 4500 watt elements are required to be on a 30 amp breaker with at least #10awg wire. The wire size would not limit the wattage!! The wattage doesn't care what size wire it is going thru-if it is too small it will overload it and start a fire. Your breaker is sized to the appliance, but actually protects the awg. wire that is used, which is sized to the appliance.

my house was built in 1978-79 and in a rural area with NO codes beyodn the health dept regulating the septic. but even so, the wire comes out the wall and right thru the plate on teh WH. i doubt it was illegal aliens doing the work back then, as we had none here in the late 70's.

We have switched our Hot water heater from Electrical to Natural Gas. What I would like to do is use the wiring that used to go to the water heater to now be the source for an electrical outlet.

Can I do this? Is there any downside to this?

Interesting how a simple question (with no mention of wire size, breaker size, who installed, when it was installed, etc) can generate such a stir on this forum!
Why don't we all stick to answering the question asked by the OP, and leave the personnal (mostly assumptions/guesses) thoughts out of the answers.
If we don't have all the data needed to make an educated and simple answer to the OP, ask the OP for more data-Let's not assume things (you know what they always say about assume------"it makes an a** of u and me").

Keep it friendly guys (and gals)-that's what this is about-friendly assistance!
And yes, we do appreciate all the advice given by the true sparky's on the board!

Well, since this thread seems to have alienated itself from the OP's legal questions, did it ever occur to anyone that the water heater in question was as likely installed by an illegal immigrant plumber as an illegal immigrant electrician? More to the point, it may have been installed by a non-immigrant plumber who, despite being legal, may nevertheless be an alien.

This is an important point. While I don't have definitive stats, I'd be willing to bet that more water heater replacements are performed by legal plumbers than illegal electricians. While electricity may run uphill as easily as downhill, it's a black water letter inalienable principle that $h1t runs downhill.

Hence, this thread. I rest my case.

Well this whole diversion got started by an ignorant legal board poster who doesn't appear to understand squat about the code. The post where those invictive words appeared revolved around a legal, safe, and common place installation method.

"More to the point, it may have been installed by a non-immigrant plumber who, despite being legal, may nevertheless be an alien. "

Finally, someone who knows what they are talking about!

it's the martians.

they've got some really weird code up there, and due to the lower ambient temperature, they can run two 4500W heater elements off a piece of 16AWG wire.

This whole thread should have stopped before this nutjob fixizin started with his off topic racism and stating what colors were on the OP's heater cable. I suspect he's an old guy who thinks he's seen everything.

bigbird, I hate to be the one to inform you of this, but "immigrant" is hardly a racial slur.

Ah, an illegal immigrant special! EXTREMELY "non-NEC-compliant"... Ole'!! Please tell us who the builder is, so we can all add to our "gotcha" database. ;')

... Just say NO to illegal UNlicensed immigrant electricians... yes, I've seen their fine fire hazards first-hand, when I lived in NV and AZ.

I am not going to go to Germany and start working as an electrician. Why? Because I don't know German codes, standards, equipment, etc.

Likewise, someone from another country should NOT just randomly move here (as ILLEGAL immigrants often do) and decide to pick up a skilled trade, for that same reason. I personally have no hatred for illegal immigrants - I just don't want them doing my electrical work - nor do I have an issue with immigrant electricians who have the proper education or experience. Education and/or experience would tend to imply some higher level of planning and organization than the concept of an illegal immigrant would seem consistent with.

I am in 100% agreement with fixizin that ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ELECTRICIANS are a bad idea.

As far as his other posts: 12 AWG is the wrong wire to use for an electric water heater, as a 20A circuit cannot supply a continuous load of 4500W.

I personally am an african/portugese mix, and my friend next to me is... well we haven't figured out what he is. I think I am quite qualified to be offended when it comes to true racism, which fixizin's posts do not contain.

Search for forum for his name. He asks plenty of valid questions. His assumption that the original poster had two red wires in a conduit may (or may not!) have been inaccurate, but, based on his asking many questions, I do believe he realizes that he doesn't know everything, and I suspect he merely made the assumption that everyone's water heater was hooked up the same way as his. I have often made such assumptions about other devices and arrangements, in addition to drawing electronics theory into electrical wiring. I am thankful when people correct my assumptions, but not when they get pissed off at me for making them.

In no case have I ever seen one of these hate-filled threads where only one party is at fault.

RELAX, MOVE ON.

The "Ole" was the racial slur. It implied that we were dealing with a Spanish speaking migrant from Mexico. Not very nice.
I'm very relaxed today.

If you read the thread. The crack comment came over the fact that the wire ran into the heater without a junction box. None is required.

The discussion of wire gauges came later after the thread degenerated.

Well, my bad on the OP's extant wiring... had several related tabs open simultaneously--some w/ pics--and a touchy touchpad... there's a federal crime in there somewhere, ixnay, ixnay, lol. The silver lining is that some folks gained essential knowledge on where to employ AWG #10 vs. #12... and thus several fire depts. can rest easier tonight. ;')

But racism? Confederate flags? No such thing was ever mentioned or implied. Ole' is an expression borrowed, as is, from the Spanish language, not necessarily Mexico, just as we use faux pas, untranslated, from French, specific to neither Paris nor Montreal. Having been away for a while, I inadvertantly committed a forum faux pas. <:o>What's REALLY scary in that vein, is not racism itself--real or imagined--but rather the level of abject (media-conveyed) BRAINWASHING which literally triggers folks to make all sorts of IRrational leaps of illogic, when keyed with a repetitively-implanted phrase, such as "illegal immigrant". General Propaganda Model, anyone?

See Edward S. Herman, see Chomsky, see Pavlov... scary stuff.

Can some RKI point me to the NEC sections which sanction (or IGNORE)--if I understand correctly--the following:

NM-B cable, not in any sort of sleeve or raceway, emerges from an UNfinished hole in the wall, stapled/fastened some distance from that hole, travels some DISTANCE through free air, and finally terminates at the WH, not necessarily in a dedicated, doored-off WH closet, but even adjacent to high-traffic areas like laundry machines...

This hole is NOT rimmed with any sort of bushing or grommet.

This hole has no SIZE specification: size of a nickel? size of a baseball?

This hole might be in a plaster-LATHE wall, i.e. SHARP METAL LATHE EDGE-POINTS... ??

Now I understand the hole in the wall in the case of a FIXTURE, e.g. stove hood, which is FLUSH against wall, and qualifies as a j-box... but can you see why this WH situation puts my common sense gauge into the yellow?

Geez, I thought we were done here. Guess not.

The hole does not need to be rimmed with anything. Drywall will not damage the gypsum. We wire stationary appliances like this all the time as long as the NM isn't going to be damaged.

A plaster/lathe wall isn't drywall. Drywall implies NO PLASTER. That's where
the "Dry" part comes from.

fixizin, no argument that it's not the best practice in the world - but, afaik, it is legal.

What I like to see done, is to end the romex inside a single-gang box. Cover it with a blank-but-with-one-knockout plate, then stranded conductors through a right-angle clamp into that flexible metal spiral stuff, which then goes to the appliance..

Still curious to know what the upper limit on this raw hole size is, and how close to hole (inside the wall) the NM-B has to be anchored, and how far from WH the cable can emerge from the hole??? Does the hole have to be HIGHER than top of WH?

Kinda funny that you can't have exposed Romex, running along the walls of a garage/workshop, even 7' off the ground, but you can have a piece of 10/2, rated for 30A @ 240V, just drooping out in space... waiting for a kid to use it as a clothesline, and drape his wet swimsuit over it... <:o lennar lobbyists at work squeezing nickels>What I like to see done, is to end the romex inside a single-gang box. Cover it with a blank-but-with-one-knockout plate, then stranded conductors through a right-angle clamp into that flexible metal spiral stuff, which then goes to the appliance...

BINGO!... you can wire my WH any day of the week. If the OP had this setup, his conversion to a receptacle outlet would be a snap.

"flexible metal spiral stuff"

AC flex conduit