On Oct 28, 5:43*pm, wrote:
On Oct 28, 4:30*pm, JIMMIE wrote:





On Oct 28, 3:59*pm, wrote:

On Oct 28, 1:37*pm, bud-- wrote:

wrote:

Yes. * You have a 3 wire service cable coming into the house. * Use
Kirchoff's law and add up the current coming into the house at any
point in time under any conditions through that cable any you have a
max of 200 amps. * Add up all the current leaving the house at the
same point in time and you have a max of 200 amps. * *In my world,
that's a 200 amp service. * You don't measure 300, or 400 by counting
electrons twice.

And also, to support a max of 400 amps of 120volt load in the house
which is the hot topic, you have to have the special case where the
loads are perfectly balanced so that 200 amps is on each side.

To get the max of 200A of 240V load you have to have the special case
where the loads add up to 200A. The discussion is about the special
cases of a fully loaded service.

*And
then you in fact have a SINGLE circuit with 200 amps flowing in on one
hot leg, throught the loads in series, and back out the other hot
leg. *Nothing flows in the neutral. * *Again, in my world, that's 200
amps flowing in the service, not 400.

What did the OP want to know?
IMHO, the OP was asking how many amps of 120V load you can hang on a
200A 240V service. The correct answer is 400.

--
bud--

The correct answer is actually 400 amps of 120volt load IF THE LOAD IS
PERFECTLY BALANCED. * IF it's anything less than perfectly balanced,
you can not support 400amps of load. *If it's totally unbalanced, you
only get 200 amps.. *Partially ballanced, you get between 200 and
400. * *The only way you can get 400 is if it is perfectly balanced so
that the 120volt loads are in SERIES and appear as a 200 amp 240volt
load.

Agree?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

No, if the load is balanced there is no 120 volt loads just 240s. 240
X 20 also equal 48KW.

If what you were saying is true you could hang your ammeter on the
neutral line and measure 400 amps.

It doesnt just appear to be a 240 volt 200 amp load IT IS. The two
loads are in series, same electrons going through both of them. Its
not fair to count electrons twice.

Jimmie- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I'm not counting electrons twice. * Neither is Bud. * I take 200 amps
worth of 120Volt eqpt and plug it into outlets that are driven off of
one hot leg of the 240Volt 200 amp service. * * I take 200 amps worth
of 120volt eqpt and plug it into outlets that are driven off the
second hot leg. * * I am now supporting 400 amps of 120volt loads.
It doesn't get any more basic than that. * I agree the current is
flowing in series and is actually a 240Volt total load and the service
is running 200 amps. *That is what I have been saying all along when
others were saying that you have conductors in parallel, a second
conductor carrying more current, etc. * But from any reasonable
perspective, if I can plug 400 amps worth of 120volt eqpt into the
house, then I am in fact driving those loads.

If the homeowner asked you how many amps worth of 120Volt eqpt is the
max that the 200 amp service can support, what would your answer be?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

200 AMPS, 200 amps x 240 volts also equals 48000 watts. I suggest you
post this to one of the engineering groups. This is a classic question
that has been in electical course for years. Ive been thru three such
courses in the last 22 years and havent missed the question yet. One
course was for power distribution, one was for HVAC and the other was
for power generation.

And yes you are counting electrons twice. And your perspective is
wrong because the loads are not across 120, there return path is not
through the neutral. You have 2 120vac loads connected in series
across 240 vac.

Jimmie