[Boatanchors] Running European 230 VAC on our AC

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

I know that some codes say it's OK but doing this (depending upon the 
conduit for a safety ground) is extremely bad practice regardless of what the 
local code says..  Many years ago, we had 277/440 service pulled for an office 
trailer (used as photographic darkrooms) inside of our main building.  The 
conduit ran around three walls of a steel building and you might expect that 
that would provide an adequate safety ground.  In the event, the numbnuts 
electrician didn't pull either a copper ground or a copper neutral (so not to 
code anywhere anyway).  To get lights to come on in the trailer you had to 
turn on two strings, one on one leg and one on the other.  If you turned on 
three, one was VERY bright and the other two quite dim.

In a message dated 10/21/2012 16:02:58 PM Central Daylight Time, 
etgreeley at earthlink.net writes: 
> Sometimes the steel 
> metal conduit enclosing the Hot and Neutral acts as the grounding 
> conductor.

Robert Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480