Residential wiring advice

[WACK]

Hello all. I am trying to put in a new air conditioner in my apartment. I have been running an 8000btu portable a/c since I moved in with no problems. When the compressor kicks on it dims the lights in the room for a split second but other than that it works great. I recently won a gift certificate at work and decided to buy a new, more energy efficient a/c. I have been told that a window style a/c is more efficient by design and on paper the new unit draws less power. When I installed the new unit and powered it up it seemed to run as designed (no weird noises or anything and it blew cold air) but when the compressor kicks on the lights in the room dim considerably and stay dim while the compressor is running. Looking at my electrical panel it appears that all of the outlets and lighting for the entire top floor are on one 15a breaker. Sometimes when the compressor first kicks on it will set off all of the smoke alarms in the house. I assume that the smoke alarms are on the same circuit and the sudden large draw from the compressor trying to start sets off the alarms. The breaker has never tripped and the GFCI on the plug of the unit has never tripped. In the instructions for the new unit it says that the a/c should be plugged into a dedicated circuit due to the risk of overloading the wiring and creating a fire hazard. In My situation it is not possible to pull a new line. Looking at my electrical box I see 5 15a breakers labled "heat" and there are 5 heaters in my house so I have to assume that each baseboard has its own breaker. I am considering unhooking the baseboard heater in my room and using that wiring to install a surface mount outlet box and outlet to power my a/c. I will not need heat in this room. I have been given a lot of sketchy advice on my quest to get a/c in this room and do not want to create any safety hazards. I know people who are more capable than myself when it comes to electrical who can do the wiring for me but am just looking for some other opinions before I go ahead. If anyone has a better suggestion I am all ears. My hope is that by taking the a/c in this room off of the current circuit I can put the old portable in the other bedroom. The only other thing that confuses me slightly is that the heater runs off of a thermostat on the wall. Can we just unhook the thermostat and heater and then hook up the aforementioned surface mount box and be good to go? This seems like the best option as it minimizes damage to my apartment, is safe, and easily reversible when I move out. Your thoughts?

Also, for what its worth here are the specs listed for bot units=
Old model New Model
Volts 115 Volts 115
Hz 60 HZ Not listed
BTU/h 8000 BTU/h 8000
Watts 980 Watts Not Listed
Amps 9.3 Amps Draws 7.4
EER 8.2 EER 9.8
Design Pressure Design Pressure
High 380 Low 150 psig Not Listed
R22 15.9 Oz.

Thanks for any info.
-Riley

[Smiliesafari]

I'm by no means a professional electrician but your idea of removing the baseboard heater and using that circuit sounds good. It won't hurt anything to try it. At 7.4 amps you are well within the safe limits of a 15 amp circuit.

[rlsllc]

I am also no expert, but this is how I would look at it:

If you are runnings a 120v air conditioner, it should be on it's own circuit. You may or may not be able to use the heating circuit. For that matter, anything with a compressor (A/C, freezer, refrigerator, Air compressor, etc) should be on it;s own circuit due to the surge at start up could theroretically damage other things on the circuit, blow the breaker (overloaded) or damage the compressor itself.

Normally on baseboard heaters, the circuit comes from the breaker box to the thermostat, and from the thermostat to the heater. They are line voltage thermostats, not like those for a regular furnace. Most are 220V, and some thermostats are 2 pole and some are one. Many baseboard heaters, and other 220-240v appliances for that matter, do not use a neutral wire, but instead have a wire from each pole and a ground. If the A/C is 120V, it would not be a good idea to wire it up without a neutral, although in many areas, the ground and neutral are simply bonded at the service entrance.

It would work easier if the A/C was 220-240v, IF the baseboard is 220-240v. If you happen to have 120v baseboard heaters, rare but they do exist, it would be fairly easy to do what you describe, and yes, remove the thermostat and wire nut the line and load wires.

FYI, GFCI and overloading are not related, a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter will open the circuit when it faults (shorts) to ground, not when it is overloaded.

EDIT: I missed that the A/C was listed in your post as 120v...so some of the things I posted may seem redundant, I'm not awake yet and have a polyurethane hangover.

Let me know if I can be of any more "help", LOL.

[sfeaver]

Make sure that heater is only 115volt. Most up here are 220 but if its not that cold where you are maybe they are only 115 volt. As long as the voltage matches and then it will work just fine.

If the heater breaker is just a single then you should be good. If it is two tied together than its a 220volt circuit.

Scott

[WACK]

Thanks for the advice and suggestions so far guys. It sounds like what I need to do is have someone who knows what they are looking at come over and help me make sense of what I have. I don't know too much about electrical so it is probably best to not mess with it. Luckily I carpool with a guy who is going to school and apprenticing to become an electrician who said he would look at it for me. Hopefully we can get something figured out, I will let you all know how it comes out.

[mdmead]

Yeah, the big question I'd have is whether you are dealing with 120v or 240v at the heater. 120v baseboard heaters aren't too common. In theory, if the wiring is dedicated as indicated, you could rewire from 240v to 120v at the panel and install a 120v outlet as mentioned. (You'd need to deal with the wall thermostat too of course.)

As the owner of a rental property, my concern would be my tenant making changes without authorization. As a renter in the past, I've done certain things, but always knew I needed to put things back as I found them and not leave a trace when I moved. And in this case, dealing with electrical, you could be creating a safety hazard for the landlord or next tenant if things aren't returned back the way you found them.

[LiftedAWDAstro]

I would get permission from the owner first thing. He may even have an electrician who works for him do it for liability reasons.

All the info is correct so far. I would just add to a portion of what Matt said about just re-wiring at the panel from 220V to 110V. You must be aware of wiring color codes. Most likely the baseboard heater is 220V and was probably wired with 12/2 wire. In this case you should have a black, white (with black tape if 220V), and green or bare for ground. You may have black, red, white and ground if the builder wasn't cheap or was planning for a neutral. If you re-wire the heater's 220V to a 110 circuit, you MUST be aware of the proper color and be sure only the black goes to the 110V breaker, white to the neutral bus and the ground to the ground bus.

Post up what you have (pics would be awesome) and we can help you more.

[rlsllc]

....white (with black tape if 220V).... you MUST be aware of the proper color and be sure only the black goes to the 110V breaker, white to the neutral bus and the ground to the ground bus.

Almost no one does this, and it is SO important for safety reasons, whether it is in a panel, J-box for a switch tail, traveller, etc.

Good call!

[WACK]

Thanks to all for the advice. After having my buddy look at it we determined that my master plan is a no-go. I have since re-installed my old (working) portable unit and I will return the new one. As for the other room we were hoping to cool, I have tinted the window facing the hill and installed a twin window fan which made a huge difference. Again, thanks for all the suggestions!