"wallster" wrote in message
...
I am somewhat ignorant when it comes to more than basic wiring so here's a
question for all you electrically gifted folks. My boss has a 30 gallon
emglo compressor he would like to use for home purpose. It came out of our
shop and was replaced with an 80 gallon (when he was starting out he
didn't
have the need for more capacity) so there it sits. He asked his
electrician
if he could wire it in to his panel at home and the electrician said
because
it was a 3 phase motor, he couldn't do it. This is a new home with at
least
250 service. Is there anyway this can be done or does he need to swap out
the motor with a 230 volt single phase motor? What would the 3 phase be
needed for?

thanks,
electrically challenged,
walt



Unless he has a very unusual house with 3-phase service he'll need to change
to a suitable single-phase motor. Sorry. I have no idea of compressors
have trouble with this, but single-phase motors don't provide as much
start-up torque as otherwise equivalent 3-phase units, someone else will be
happy to fill in my lack of practical experience.

Single-phase power provides "pulsating" power, because the line voltage
drops to zero twice a cycle. 3-phase power provides continuous power,
because as one phase drops of there's another one that's coming up. So
3-phase is better for running motors and other big industry stuff --
anything with a single-phase power needs to be able to store that energy for
the 1/200th of a second when there's no useful power.