"Stormin Mormon" wrote in message
. ..

Well, supposing I'm running a space heater (15 amps) on the black wire and
the bare wire. And running a hair dryer (14 amps) on the white wire and
the
bare wire. That's 29amps in a bare piece of 12 ga.

How would you wire it differently?

--

Christopher A. Young
You can't shout down a troll.
You have to starve them.
.

"Doug Miller" wrote in message
.com...
In article , "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

With two hots and one neutral, you'd be possible to overheat the neutral
in
a big way.

Not if they're connected properly.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)



Sounds like Stormy fell asleep in Basic Electricity 101 or even junior high
Science class...

Steve Scott wrote:
Actually he's right on this one. This fails code on two points.

You can't have a ground act as a current carrying wire.

You can't run two circuits off one neutral. You used to but it hasn't
met code in some time.

On Sat, 07 Jan 2006 17:16:19 GMT, "Oscar_Lives"
wrote:



Article 100 Definitions.
Branch Circuit, Multiwire. A branch circuit that consists of two or more
ungrounded conductors that have a voltage between them, and a grounded
conductor that has equal voltage between it and each ungrounded
conductor of the circuit and that is connected to the neutral or
grounded conductor of the system.

It is a little like running one twelve volt bulb and two six volt bulbs
from two six volt batteries connected in series. I can ground the
common point of the two batteries to make the example even more
representative. If I want to run a six volt load I connect it across
only one battery by applying it between the outer end and common point
of either battery. If I want to run a twelve volt load I connect it to
the outer ends of both batteries. For this arrangement to work the
batteries must be connected in series with one batteries negative
connected to the other batteries positive. If the two batteries are
connected with both positive poles or both negative poles together than
the voltage across the non common ends of the two batteries is zero.

The original Edison circuits had DC on them but instead of batteries
they had two DC generators running in series with their common point
grounded. Originally used to reduce voltage drop in distribution Edison
circuits continue to be used today as a labor and materials conservation
technique. DC batteries arranged in Edison arrays are still used to
supply single phase emergency lighting panels in older buildings. When
the power fails the contactor supplying AC 208/120 single phase power to
those panels drops out and connects the three conductors of the single
phase feeder to 120 two volt wet cells connected in series and grounded
at the common point between batteries sixty and sixty one. That leaves
120 volts between each ungrounded conductor and the neutral and 240
volts between the two ungrounded conductors.
--
Tom Horne

"This alternating current stuff is just a fad. It is much too dangerous
for general use." Thomas Alva Edison