On Oct 25, 11:08*pm, (Doug Miller) wrote:
In article , Sam E wrote:
[snip]

You have a SERIES circuit (considering that the neutral is effectively
disconnected).

[snip]

Wrong. The neutral is "effectively disconnected" *only* if the loads on the
two legs are exactly the same.


But a balanced load is exactly what was shown in the simple circuit
example above that he understood and is discussing.



Which they are (either in the 200A+200A example or the 1A+1A one).

And that almost never happens in real life, either....

Which matters not a wit. Unless of course you are trying to get
close to the maximum capacity of the service. If it's totally
unbalanced, guess what? You get 200 amps at 120V, or exactly half
the power capacity of the service. Gee, I wonder why? Could it be
that it's because the service can only handle 200AMPS? And that with
a 200 amp unbalanced load at 120V, 200 amps is coming in on one hot
and it's all going back on the neutral?








The two legs function as two parallel circuits
with respect to 120V loads.

In a parallel circuit BOTH ends of the loads are connected together
(or at least to identical voltages). Neither is true here.

Wrong -- both are true.

Wow, it's getting really strange here. Of course, by definition, a
parallel circuit is one where the ends of the individual elements are
connected together. A series circuit is one where elements are
connected one after the other, in series.








Obviously they are indeed in series WRT 240V
loads.

Strangely, I get the idea that you actually know this stuff.

In this 200A *service there are THREE current-carrying conductors.
Each of these conductors is of the proper size to carry 200A. OK so
far?

OK



You say (when this service is fully loaded) that two of these
conductors is carrying 200A (for a total of 400A, as you say).

400A @ 120V, or 200A @ 240V, yes.

And there you go again, inserting voltage into a question of
amperage. Amperage is a measure of the charge, ie electrons passing
through the conductor and IS NOT LINKED TO VOLTAGE.








Then where is that 400A going? The only remaining conductor is the
neutral, a big enough conductor for 200A (yes, this 400A was at 120V
but current is still current and voltage doesn't change the
conductor's current capacity).

Somehow I'm imagining a bridge that can handle 200 cars per minute,
but that can be 400 if half the cars are blue :-)

Cute. Just answer these questions; assume a 240V 200A service.

What is the maximum power that service can provide?


You;ve asked that question multiple times and it's always been
answered the same: 48KVA

Now answer his question that you avoided. Apply Kirchoff's law and
tell us where current is flowing in a 200 amp service cable that
totals up to 400 amps. All of us here agree and can account for
200amps. So explaing the missing 200.




If all the loads supplied by that service are 120V loads (e.g. blender,
toaster, light bulbs, range hood, stereo, TV, computer, etc.) what do you get
when you divide that maximum power by 120V?

If it's a balanced load, you get 400 amps because half the load is in
SERIES with the other half. As I've outlined about 6 times now, you
have 200 amps coming in on one hot, going through the loads in series
and then out the other hot. 200 amps is flowing in the service. If
you say it's 400, then why isn't it 2 amps that flows in a 120watt
light bulb plugged into an outlet? 1 amp comes in one wire, 1 amp
goes out the other wire. Yet the world agrees that only 1 amp is
flowing, not 2.

If it's a totally unbalanced 120V load, then you can't just divide the
power by 120 as youu imply, because you have 200 amps flowing in on
one hot, and 200 amps flowing out on the neutral. So you have a
120V, 200 amp load and only a power of 24KVA.

No matter how you slice and dice it, there is a max of 200 amps
flowing in the service. Since you believe otherwise, outline the
current flows as I have here and how it adds up to greater than 200
amps flowing in the service conductors.