I'm remodeling a section of my house to add a second kitchen, but I don't have a 240v outlet in the room (I'm in North America). To my surprise the 120v North American outlet next to the future stove is already capable of comfortably supporting more than 6,000 watts! I suppose that means it can carry a current of ~50 amps. The former owner of my house was an electrician, so I guess he must've made the wiring really beefy for some reason.
Is it possible for me to simply buy a portable transformer to step up the voltage from 120v to 240v and then plug the ~40 amp stove into the transformer? On paper it sounds like a good idea, but is there anything I'm missing here? Do North American stoves require something more complicated than just 240v and enough amps, or should this simple idea work?
Best Answer
6000W at 110VAC would equate to ~54.5A. It would be extremely unusual to see an 110VAC outlet supporting that level of current. You really need to show a picture of the outlet to allow members here to verify that this is a compatible outlet.
A 55A circuit would require feed wires of at least 6 awg copper wire. You need to show evidence that the "really beefy wiring" is actually connected with 6 awg copper or larger diameter. In addition we need evidence that this circuit is being fed from a circuit breaker not exceeding 55A.
If your power feed is indeed rated for 6000W at 110VAC then a transformer (assuming 100% efficiency which they are not really 100% efficient) would not be able to convert to more than 6000W at 220VAC. This would result in a maximum converted current not exceeding ~27A. Clearly this is not enough to supply current on a circuit to a stove that requires a 220VAC feed at 40A.