Not strictly related, but a question about multiwire circuits. On a normal three-wire circuit, say 12-3 NMB on a two-pole 20A breaker, each leg could be drawing 20A line-to-neutral without opening the breaker. That would mean 40A on the neutral leg, way too much for 12-gauge, except that the currents, being 180° out-of-phase, cancel on the neutral.
That's really true only if the loads have the same reactance -- zero, for example, if they're both only resistive. What if I run a capacitor-start motor on one leg and a transformer on the other? Couldn't I then exceed 20A on the neutral? And wouldn't that be hazardous? What am I missing here?
Thanks. Craig Appel
|