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On Oct 26, 7:18 pm, (Doug Miller) wrote:
In article
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wrote:

On Oct 25, 2:45=A0pm, (Doug Miller) wrote:

Also, you only get those 400 amps if the load is balanced so that it
appears as a series load.

You're right. If the the two 120V loads are perfectly balanced, then it's
the equivalent to two 120V 0.6 ohm loads in series across 240V each pulling
200 amps, and you can disregard the neutral or even disconnect it. The
neutral is there to
hold the voltage on each leg or side to 120V when the loads aren't perfectly
balanced.

The 200 amp current flows in one hot and
out the other.

True

If you had a single 120V 400 amp load, it would sit
between one hot leg and neutral, where the capacity is limited to 200
amps and the cables would melt. Gee, I wonder why? Could it be
because the actual current in a 200 amp service circuit is only 200
amps?

No, the main breaker would open long before any melting

You can divide and get any answer you want. I could divide 48KVA by
10volts and get 4800 amps. So a 200 amp service could support a
total 4800 amp, 10 volt load too. But how much max current is
actually flowing in the service cable entering the house?

A whole bunch for a few microseconds. A breaker isn't instantaneous.