220v from Old Baseboard Heater

[Neil Steininger]

I have a new lathe coming that is 220v (Laguna Revo, pretty excited), the room I current have my lathe doesn’t have a 220 outlet however it does have an old baseboard heater that got broken while I tore out the old flooring. 3 Alaska winters, including one that I had to keep the window open for, and I haven’t really missed the heater. I am thinking if I replace the thermostat with a switch and replace the heater with a plug I can avoid rearranging my shop too much and put the new lathe in the same spot. I would like whatever I do to be reversable, the shop is a basement apartment on our house and any future owner may want to go back to renting it out.

Any thoughts, worst idea ever, best idea ever? My primary concern is if the heater in the other room is on the same breaker which is something I need to check.

Also, this seems like something I can do myself, I have done plenty of 110 outlets and switches and a few 220 thermostats, or are 220 switches and outlets a more complicated beast?

thanks!

[Brice Rogers]

In general, it should be a relatively easy job. The good news is that you have 220 volts where you need it. Check the amp rating of that circuit to make sure that it can handle the lathe and you (in general) should be in good shape. Of course, there are some details you need to address, but they aren't overly complicated.

[Jim Becker]

Your plan should work if the circuit is good and has an amperage rating that's at least as high as your new lathe requires. Rather than the switch to replace the thermostat, just treat that box as a J-box and connect through to the 240v receptacle.

[Neil Steininger]

Got home and checked the breaker box. Looks like that room is tied to the heater in the main room of the shop. But there is a separate breaker for the bathroom heater. So I could possibly rewire the bathroom and main room together and be left with a 20amp circuit dedicated to the lathe.

[Paul F Franklin]

You will want to check if the lathe requires a neutral connection and if it does, you will need to check if the circuit to the heater includes a neutral wire or just the 240 legs and ground. In my area at least it is fairly common to see baseboard circuits with no neutral wire.

[Jim Becker]

It would be very unusual for the lathe to require 120/240v and the neutral connection required to supply that. The only tool I have that is setup that way is my CNC machine; the spindle requires 240v, but the controller circuitry runs on 120v.

Neil, if there's any way to run a new circuit, that actually may be in your best interest as is sounds like the heating circuits may add some complexity and/or surprises as is the case many times with repurposing existing from one use to another. If you can get the wire there without ripping down the house, that would certainly be my choice here!

[Wade Lippman]

If you are concerned with code, 120v bathroom circuits can't be combined with anything else. I have no idea if that applies to 240v circuits as well as 120v circuits, but you might want to look into it.

If it is, then what you have is a code violation but might be grandfathered in. If you change anything, the grandfathering goes away.

[Jim Becker]

Wade, I don't believe that the heater circuit would be included in the bathroom rules.

[Julie Moriarty]

As far as code, only your local electrical inspector is guaranteed to give you the right answer. A baseboard heater usually has a dedicated circuit feeding it. And they usually fall into a different category as general circuitry.

If there is no neutral (typical with baseboard feeds) and you know your lathe does not require a neutral, check to make sure the wiring going back to the panel doesn't feed anything else. If there are any junction boxes on the way back, check to make sure some weekend warrior didn't tap into one leg of the 240v circuit. You want to know the wiring back to the panel hasn't been tapped for any reason and that the gauge is #12 or larger all the way back.