Help! Power question

@pcc67 it is clear that you are pretending to know much more about electricity than you really do. Please, before you get yourself or someone else hurt due to misinformation, stop promulgating this nonsense. The “phasing” issues you are yammering about are imaginary. Perhaps you’ve confused this with three-phase, where phase imbalance can occur, but all domestic electrical service in North America is known as “split phase”, the secondary is center-tapped. The center tap is known as neutral, and is bonded at the service panel to earth ground.  By the way, circuits over 20 amps are usually 240 volt circuits, which uses both legs, and therefore are inherently not creating an imbalance. 

Sleepwalker it is possible to have unbalanced load. When electricians setup panels in residential they do balance loads.  Also I did not say anything in my message that could hurt anyone.  I don't need to pretend,  i have done my share of basic electrical work.  I believe this forum is for sharing experience,  correcting or helping others. There is really no place to attempt to humiliate or condescend others who are trying to give solutions. Better response would be, sorry fellow audiogon member you are wrong and this is the correct way according to my credentials and experience.  No need to impune others. All this creates is a diminished conversation to reply for fear of ridicule. 

I’m usually a lot more easy going when it comes to people who are making technically inaccurate statements. No personal malice, just trying to send a clear message about the risks of untrained people handling electrcity.

When it comes to electricity, because I am an electronics engineer, I have the perspective from formal training that most other people don’t. You can easily create a dangerous situation with 120 volts AC, (even with lower voltages, it comes down to the amount of energy that can be (mis)-directed) if you don’t fully understand the nature of it. 

I see examples every day of people doing dangerous things with electricity: failing to connect ground wires, failing to properly terminate wires to terminals, failure to put junctions in junction boxes, failure to use adequate conductors for a given circuit capacity, failure to use materials that are UL/ ULc / CSA certified, etc.... 

Bottom line is people who aren’t trained as professional electricians should hire the services of a professional electrician, as well as be aware of other requirements in their municipality such as obtaining permits and having appropriate inspections done by the ESA or other prevailing electrical authority as it may apply.