I recently got a new roommate to live in the basement of my duplex apartment and he has an electric oven/range that he wants to use down there, the problem is that the three pronged 220v outlet is (as far as I know) meant to be used for an electric dryer (that's what the previous tenants had on it anyway). He already bought a 3 pronged, 10 gauge, 30 amp power cord and wired it to the range and had it plugged in (at least a couple weeks), but he said he's only used it a couple times.

When he told me about this I asked him to unplug it because I didn't know if the wiring to that outlet is adequate to supply the power needed for the range. I told him that we needed to talk to our landlord before he could use it again. I also told him that his best bet would be to sell that range and buy one that uses a standard 120v outlet, to which he agreed.

I've looked in the breaker box (which has nothing labeled, not surprising in a rental house in a college town). The box has only 1 50 amp breaker, most likely for the oven/range in my apartment upstairs and about 5 30 amp breakers, my guess is they go to the electric dryer upstairs, two for the central air conditioning, and the last 2 are that outlet and possibly the furnace.

I've tried doing a little research on this, but everything i can find is on people wanting to use a dryer on an outlet meant for a range, not the other way around.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I have severe reservations about it, but would it be okay for him to keep using the range? I'm pretty sure the breaker would trip before anything bad happened, but I'm just not 100% on this.

TL/DR: New roommate has a oven/range plugged into a 220v outlet that I'm pretty sure is meant for an electric dryer. Asked him to stop using it until I had a chance to talk to the landlord, he agreed, but he would like to keep using it if he can.

The worst thing that can happen is that the breaker will pop.

Circuit protection devices are designed to interupt the flow of power before the wires can begin to smoke.

You should probably also ask your landlord and not a starwars forum if you can put an electric oven in the basement.

Hypothetical situation:

He calls his landlord to ask whether he can put an electric oven in the basement.

Except...said landlord is on a starwars forum while also being on the phone to Stormtrooper.

THEN WHAT

Well, I plan on asking him anyway, but it's a little easier to post it here at 3 in the morning than it is calling my landlord at 3 in the morning. I just wanted to here some other peoples thoughts on it. It's not like I was gonna go completely by what someone on a forum told me.

Chicken.

I prefer duck.

Switch out the breaker to a 40 amp 220 volt (that is after all the main power is shut off) The Range will draw more amperage than the dryer, but you guys knew that already. If you feel safer about it consult the landlord first if hes not the tyrannt type.

Ovens usually are placed on a 50A breaker. When something is 220V it is usually one of those double breakers you see in your panel. It's called two-phase wiring. If you're really serious about putting an oven there, you're going to have to change out 1) circuit breaker to 50A and 2) rewire that section. 10 AWG won't handle 50A and you can REALLY cause a fire hazard. You'd have to rewire with 8 AWG.

There is a chart that tells you what size breaker is best for what size wire AWG to be sure it will break BEFORE the wire begins to smoke.

For residential, I've always gone by:

14 AWG = 15A (std. residential recepticals and switches, usually in 14-2 romex)
12 AWG = 20A (kitchens, bathrooms)
10 AWG = 30A (dryers)
8 AWG = 40-50A (ovens, etc.)
6 AWG = 100A (service feed)

Commercial it's always 20A and you use MC cable. Industrial...well sky's the limit on that one. I've wired up 3ϕ motors.

No, the worst thing that can happen is that the breaker is defective and doesn't pop. Then your 2-10 nmd bursts into flames inside the wall and your entire building becomes a blistering inferno.