ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area 220v Electrical Question

I want to install a 220v outlet for a electric dryer. My home was built in 1993 and I didn't pay for the option so the builder left the wire hanging in the electrical panel box.

I have included a picture of my electrical box and was wondering if anyone could tell me if it would be a simple job to install or a complex one. Im not planning on doing it myself either way, just trying to get a guesstimate on how much its going to cost to do.

Thanks for the help!

Picture not giving clear eniough view, and the size, and number of wires in the cable is unkown. someone would have to look at the job.

But don't wait too long to call someone, what i can see in the picture is some neutral wires cooking, have this looked at before it developes into a fire.

It almost appears as if that "panel" was pieced together with left over parts. Definately want to get that looked at by a trained professional.

I wanted to say that the panel looks OK, and all the hard work is already done .... BUT ...

WHERE are the ground wires????

And how do those wires terminate on the other end?

Even if the house was wired in pipe .... rare as that is ... you need a neutral wire to the dryer. The panel is rather crowded as well ... a few more projects, and you'll have no choice but to set another panel. Something to think about.

Gotta agree with Les, get someone out there before that neutral bar decides that it's had enough!

Ian A.

This "work" was performed by trained individuals. In fact, these highly trained individuals did our entire housing area consisting of 75 homes...lol

The picture doesn't show it well, but the black 220v wire is capped off behind the red at the top of the panel.

Could I combine several of the circuit breakers to open a spot for a 220v breaker and have one plugged in, or what?

Thanks for all the responses!

You're asking a lot ... the panel suggests other problems that NEED to be addressed first; we can't be sure, because there is so much we can't see.

IF you have four wires -black, red, white, and bare- coming from the installed dryer receptacle, you're good to go.

IF the panel is designed to accept additional 'skinny' breakers, you're good to go.

Beyond that .... this is not a DIY forum, and we really think you ought to have a real sparky do the work. It's not just about 'making it work;' do that often enough, and there's a real mess to sort out.

I will echo's other guys comments about this panelbox and this is a pretty serious issue there because i can tell some of the breakers are sitting pretty loose.

it is far much eaiser to get the electrician to take care of this matter because there is a open bussbar on the right side of breaker box if not carefull it will do pretty serious damage there.

that the reason why we recomoned get a electrician to comeout and take care of this matter.

Merci, Marc