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Is it possible to wire a 240v outlet so that after I don't need 240v anymore I will have two 120v circuits?

Home Improvement Asked by brentonstrine on March 14, 2021

I’m in the US.

I will be installing a 240v outdoor outlet for an EVSE (electric car charger). However, in a few years I will have a garage built (elsewhere) and will move the EVSE to the garage, so won’t need the 240v outlet anymore. At that point, I will instead use that outlet for my workshop and would like to have two 120v circuits: one for lights and a 120v air conditioner, one for power tools.

[Edit: the workshop will be for power tools and the garage will be for parking/charging the car. They are not the same structure, the garage is unrelated to this question and will be far far away.]

Is this possible with a single 240v cable? Alternatively, would it be possible to start with two 120v circuits of opposite phases, and wire them together to create 240v and then later go back to two 120v?

Image for clarity

One Answer

Yes, just be sure to run a 4 wire circuit (2 hots, neutral and ground), if the current garage is attached you don't need extra ground rods. In fact, since you are planning for the future, you might install a sub-panel now that would supply your EVSE outlet as well as other circuits in the future. As many others have said here, go bigger than you expect to need on the sub-panel, they are cheap compared to upgrading later. It's OK for the sub-panel to have greater capacity than the feed to it...no problem. Just make sure the breaker is appropriately sized for the wires feeding it.

You can't do this with 2 separate 120v cables, not code allowed.

EDIT: Of course be sure the wires or cable are of sufficient size to feed the EV charger and future needs. (should have included that with my answer). I also got ahead of myself regarding needing ground rods or not because I was already thinking about sub-panel. Clearly you wouldn't need additional ground rods if it was just an EV charging outlet.

Answered by George Anderson on March 14, 2021

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