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We are pulling the old and broken built in oven and cook top out of our daughters 1940's house. It has a crawl space but no basement. We want to put the new free standing range in the spot where the cook top is. Is moving the 220 outlet something a basic handyman can do or does this require an electrician? Would the wiring be on the ceiling of the crawl space?
On this you should seek a qualified electrician. New Ranges are 220 four wire. The old stuff was two wire or if you a were lucky two wire with ground in that time frame. What you may save trying to DIY you could lose and more due to a fire or loss of life if it's not wired correctly. Pulling and the location of a new circuit would depend on access and location of the existing or new electrical panel.
I haven't looked at new ranges lately, but was wondering what the 4th wire was for. I know 3 phase service uses 4 wires, but thought all single phase service was 3 wire (with two hots and a ground.)
The four wire system contains a neutral in addition to the ground. To be in compliance with the National Electrical Code the receptacle should be changed to a four wire. It has to do with the separation of bonding and grounding with current carrying conductors which confuses a lot of people. A reputable electrician will always inform you as to what is and isn't required by the NEC and local codes even if it means losing a job because you think it's: A) too expensive or B) that they're trying to rip you off. That being said, most new ranges, and dryers come with a tag attached that explain how to make the connection to a three wire system and there are a lot of them out there that haven't hurt anybody ...yet. On some products it will say that an extra kit of parts is needed to connect to a three wire system. To the best of my knowledge, if the receptacle isn't moved or extended, the code, as it is written does not apply. However some of the new high end equipment that contain computer chips and the like, may require a neutral to operate correctly. Hope this helps.
