Originally Posted by
Wade Lippman
Of course there is. A 120v 1hp motor has (approximately) 10a on 1 leg. A 240v 1hp motor has (approximately) 5a on each of two legs.
You are free to use any model that works for you, but there is nothing wrong with the one I like.
Absolutely not. A 120V motor has 10 amps on both wires. There has to be two wires to complete a circuit and the same amperage flows through both wires.
Same with a 240V circuit: the same amperage flows through both wires.
I think you are calling the "hot" wire (the wire that is 120V to ground) a "leg". But even if you do, there is the same current in both wires that make up a circuit. You can't ignore the neutral wire if you want to have a working circuit. The fact that one wire is at approximately ground potential in a 120V circuit is completely immaterial to the function of the circuit.
What you're doing that's illogical is that you're only looking at one wire in the 120V circuit but you look at both wires in the 240V circuit. In any complete, single phase circuit, each wire will carry exactly the same current.
The correct statement would be that there is 10 amps flowing in the 120V circuit and 5 amps flowing in the 240V circuit.
Mike
Last edited by Mike Henderson; 05-07-2015 at 9:25 PM.
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