Laurav wrote:
On Jun 14, 6:59 am, "Dave M" wrote:

Before you go to the trouble and expense of upgrading your service,
you need to focus more on what and where the problem is. Your
original post isn't clear about where the slowing motor is... is it
in the dryer or a different appliance?

This is actually a followup to an old thread from April/May. It's an
air turbine, it consumes about 2 amps. It's very voltage-sensitive,
once the electrician measured voltage at the outlet when I turned my
electric dryer on, the voltage went down by 2 volts, and the speed
went down noticeably. I just got it put on its own circuit, so I'm
sure the circuit breaker is OK.

So I was thinking of measuring the voltage at the outlet. Is this
reasonably safe?

Could the voltage at the outlet be varying more than the voltage at
the weatherhead? The recording voltmeter was recording voltage at
both sides. Could uneven load cause the voltage at the outlet to
change more than voltage at the weatherhead?

Laura

Yes, the voltage at an outlet can vary more than at the weatherhead because
there are seveeral wire connections in the line before getting to the
outlet.
First, there's the breaker panel where the breakers tap off the main line
from the weatherhead.
Then, there's the wire that connects to the load side of the breaker.
Then, there are one or more connections that split off to multiple outlets.
Any of these connection points could be causing a voltage drop if any of the
wiring connections are loose or if the wire is too small for the service.
In either case, there exists the possibly of overheating and fire.

Having said all that, your statement that an electrician measured a 2-volt
voltage drop at the outlet when the dryer turned on leads me to another
thought. What gauge wire is used to supply the outlets? Normally, a 15-amp
circuit should be wired with 14-gauge copper wire or 12-gauge aluminum.
Is it copper wire or aluminum? If it's aluminum, you really should have
someone check all of the outlets in your house to make sure the screws are
all still tight.
I used to live in a house in Florida (built in 1976), that was wired with
aluminum wire, but the ends of the wire was stuffed into the quick-connect
hole in the receptacle. I had trouble almost from the day I moved into the
house with arcing, sparking, and smoke coming from the outlets. I had to
pull out every receptacle in my house and put the wires under the screws, as
they should be.
It could be that the turbine motor is just very sensitive to voltage change,
and nothing short of replacing the motor or the entire turbine unit will fix
it. Did the electrician tell you what the actual voltages at the turbine
were, with the dryer running and not running?

--
Dave M
A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after
that is the beginning of a new argument.