HELP !!!!

[Crg0813]

I bought an old abonded house in need of much repair...I attempting everything myself.
Here's my situation:
I removed an eletric wall unit that was wired with 10/2 wire and connected in the service to a 40/40 singlepole breaker ( wrong I know...but what isn't in this house :-)
Questions: Is it a 220 circuit? Can I split it into 2 110 circuits...if it was 10/3 I could use a common common and split the hots and use a common ground and put 2 -20 amp single pole breakers back in the service but how do I plit this one????
Thanks for any help

[LazyPup]

I am sure that Hayzee will be able to give us much more detail on this, but back in the 50's & 60's it was common to install a non-grounded 220v line by only running two conductors, both of which were hot.

if you have a 40/40 breaker it may not have the required bonding clip across the trip handles, but whenever two breakers are placed side by side they are on opposite legs which would provide 220v.

A double pole breaker is basically two single pole breakers sharing a common housing and the trip handles are bonded together so that if either leg trips it will also trip the opposite leg.

[kactuskid]

It is a 220 volts circuit. Electric wall heaters do not use a neutral wire, just two hots. Are these wires run in conduit? If they're not, then you cannot add another conductor and split this circuit into 2 separate 110 volt circuits. And you wouldn't want to install a multiwire circuit anyhow, they're not really safe for DIYer's. It's always better to run 2 circuits with they're own neutral wire.

So, you will have to use this cable to supply just one 110 volt circuit and protect the cable with one 20 amp breaker.

[Crg0813]

Hi all case closed... Thanks so much for the input and help...
decided to forego spliting the circuit and instead connect one hot to the common bar and used the other as the hot lead. Can't run the additional circuit I WANTED...but can make do with what I have

[kactuskid]

Good idea, you did the right thing. Thanks for the feedback.

[HayZee518]

there's nothing wrong with backfeeding a breaker to energize the panel. Just make sure the wire is for the rating of the breaker or higher. In the case of a two pole forty, #8 would be the required feed. Some two pole breakers have a single handle but with an internal common trip. Others use a plastic or metal tie-bar between the two handles. I agree with Kactus. Leave multiwire for the experts. Two single pole 20's or 15's are in the scope of the DIYer. That way you know you have a neutral and a hot - no second guessing.