Double Pole Circuit Breakers

[~^Johnny^~]

Better yet, Look at it this way: If I hang ten 12V lamps in series across a 120V line, and each lamp is 120 watts, am I pulling a total of 100 amps? I am not! I am drawing ten amps! Each lamp gets 12V at 10A. 100A doesn't ever flow, anywhere in the circuit. But I'm still consuming

1200W: 120V at 10A, _NOT_ 12V at 100A. If the lamps were in parallel, they would require 100A at 12V. But they're not. That's a load calculation only.

An Edison circuit is just a 240 volt circuit with a grounded center-tap. In theory, if loads are balanced, the neutral drops out of the circuit, as the individial loads become a series-parallel voltage divider network. Each load receives 120V at its rated =power=.

[Jimmie D]

Assume you have a 200 amp 240 vac breaker with max load, you measure the current on each leg and it is 200amps.This DOES NOT add up to 400 amps. The current you measure on one leg is the SAME current you are measuring on the other leg. Dont confuse same as meaning equal. Same means same as in you read the curent on a conductor and slide the clamp on amp meter down the wire a couple of inches and read the SAME current again.

If the currents in each side are not equal then the current in the low side combined with the current in the neutral will be the SAME as the current in the high side.. Kirchoff's law explains this a lot more easily using math than English.