In America, a 30A and 50A receptacle is now required to have three wires in addition to the ground. Two of the wires are hot wires and the third will be a ground. These are not used anymore in new work but are common in old work. I suggest for safety sake rewiring and using a 4 wire outlet. The problem with a three wire outlet is that you do not have a neutral to carry any unbalanced part of the load back to the source safely therefore creating a potential for electrocution!!
Electricity should only be messed with by a professional. It is advised that a electrician is contacted to hook up the plug.
You will have to check to make sure. Normally, with 4 wires, the black and red are both power for 220. White for neutral and bare for ground. If you are only using one leg of it, you would use the black, white, bare ones and cap the red one. Someone may have used the 4 strand because they had it or 220 was planned but not done or both the red and black are hot. You should be able to tell in the panel. Do the red and black both connect to separate breakers or to one or is the red not connected?
I am guessing this is a 220-240 Volt plug. There is 220-240 V between Black and Red and the Green is ground.
It may be a 220 Dryer, and you will need a new outlet installed. There should be no extra wires when connecting the Power cord to the plug
The local current is 220 volts and ground connection is made by a 2 pin plug.
I am guessing that the dryer is 220-240 VAC as is the compressor. I also assume that the third wire on the dryer is a ground. You need to make sure that the metal chassis on the compressor is not connected to the two wires. You then need to create a covered junction box where you have the two existing wires and a ground wire that you connect to the compressor metal chassis with a screw type connector. Ground wire should be 10 AWG. Now you have three wires. Connect the two hot wires of supply to two original wires on compressor and ground wire to the chassis ground.
Black and red are the hot wires, white is the neutral and if there is a bare one, that is the ground. The plug and receptacle should be in the shape of a Y. The top two prongs are the hot and the single bottom one is the neutral. Black and red can go to either of the top ones.
Electrical plug hot wireThe smaller blade of the plug is the hot wire, but both wires are in a way hot. This is because you are working with alternating current. Alternating current changes its direction of flow 120 times a second in the United States. An electrical cord can have different plug types. The most popular are the two and three prong type with the three prong type the smaller straight piece is hot, the larger straight piece is called neutral and the round one is ground. With the two prong you don't have a ground.
Two wires are needed for 220 volts.
Depending on the configuration of the cord cap, the green wire is ground, the white wire is the neutral and red and black wires are the 220 volt source.
Hot and neutral, or hot and hot, plus ground. (2 + 1) 2 hots a neutral and a ground 3+1
The AC condensing unit needs two 24 volt low voltage control wires, the high voltage will be 220 - 230 volts and requires 3 wires , 2 hot legs and a ground. You can buy pre made whips as they are called cheaper than making one.