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Clare Snyder Clare Snyder is offline
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Default Generator wiring question

On Sun, 27 May 2018 11:54:00 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Sun, 27 May 2018 10:54:59 -0700, wrote:

On Sat, 26 May 2018 21:38:22 -0500, Terry Coombs
wrote:

On 5/26/2018 8:01 PM,
wrote:
On Sat, 26 May 2018 12:11:44 -0500, Terry Coombs
wrote:

On 5/26/2018 11:53 AM,
wrote:
On Sat, 26 May 2018 05:41:56 -0000 (UTC), James Waldby
wrote:

On Fri, 25 May 2018 17:38:09 -0700, etpm wrote:
On Fri, 25 May 2018 08:40:22 -0700 (PDT), "Dave, I can't do that" wrote:
I have a 1-1/2HP, 220v motor running from the dryer socket, all good.
...
The house wiring uses the 3-wire 110-0-110 for the 220/240 but the gen
has three pins for the 240-out. I am guessing one is Ground and the
others are Neutral and 240v.
...
The reason neutral wires are called that is because they are tied to
ground in the breaker panel which means there is no potential voltage
between the neutral wire and the ground wire, at least in the breaker
panel. So there is no neutral on the generator unless [...]
"The reason neutral wires are called that is because they are tied to
ground" seems to me to be incorrect. True, in US wiring, neutral wires
usually have near-ground voltages on them, but more generally a neutral
wire is one with no current flowing in it when a system is in balance.
In US wiring the neutral CAN have current running through it.
Eric
* In a properly balanced load center that current will be minimized ...
so I corrected your statement .
Greetings Terry,
Maybe you can educate me a little. After reading posts in reply to
my post I got out the amp clamp and measured the current on both wires
of the 125 volt receptacles in my shop. Plugging in a motor and
turning it on the meter shows the same current draw on both the
neutral and hot wires.In this case approximately 2.8 amps. I wired my
shop with wire ways so it is easy to make measurements as the wire way
covers come off easily and the wires just lay in the wire way.
All the 125 volt receptacles on one wall are fed from the same
breaker, on another wall another breaker, and so on. I did balance the
load in the breaker panel so that two walls are fed from one leg of
the 250 volt supply and two walls from the the other leg.
I don't understand how the neutral can be balanced and show less
current than the hot except at the breaker panel where the power comes
in. What am I missing? What don't I understand?
I did wire the shop myself but I was helped by a licensed
electrician, the electrical code book, and the wiring was inspected
and bought off by a particularly picky inspector.
Thanks,
Eric

* Picture this , two identical grinders that operate on 110 volts ,
each on one leg of the 220 power supply and to neutral . Putting your
meter on the neutral should show zero or very close to it . Look at it
like you've put 2 110 volt loads in series across a 220 supply with the
connection between motors hooked to neutral . If the two loads are
unequal the difference is carried by the neutral . If the two loads are
the same neutral current will be zero .

I get that Terry. But since only one grinder is plugged in the neutral
has current on it. So in my shop the load is almost never balanced.
This is because even though the receptacles may be the same number on
each leg the stuff plugged into them and running is almost never the
same load. I'm glad I got that cleared up in my mind.
Eric


One can NEVER balance the loads. One can try..but its nearly
impossible.

Putting all the high current stuff on one leg and the bathroom fart
fan on the other is to be avoided..but getting it "equalized" is never
going to happen.


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If it was we wouldn't need a neutral wire, but the fact remains the
neutral will NEVER carry ALL of the load current if any of the load is
devided between lines. If that were not true the neutral would need
to be double the capacity of the "line" conductors.