Should proly be 3 amps unloaded. 1 1/8 hp rating is kinda odd, eh?
I just bought a killawatt. I'll fool around some in the next cupla days. I'm curious as to how it handles power factors. If it is just calc'ing amps x volts, it's not really reading true watts.
Someone here once posted on how Con Ed type watt-meters work, in some detail, most of which ran over my head, but I'd like to take another look at that post, if someone has it marked. It was complicated enough (using some kind of hysteresis saturation of metal or sumpn, ie, intrinsically mechanical) that I wonder how a solidstate device can duplicate this. I guess if it calc'd the voltage wave form and the current waveform sep'ly, like on an oscilloscope, and determined the phase angle, it could be done electronically, but I'll find out by comparing with a clamp-on meter.
Hi, That is easy if voltage leadning current vice versa, measuring phase angle. Cosine Phi is power factor, right? Cosine 0 degree is 1 where V and A is in phase which never happens in real world since most load is inductive.
Yes, I've compared them to reading from my Fluke 87 and they agree nicely. The Kill-a-Watt is a very handy and economical gadget. They are particularly handy when used with a Honda EU2000i generator camping.
*With one horsepower equaling 746 watts even the nameplate rating sounds a little high. If it is still high with your ammeter you could have a bad bearing, but you should be able to hear that.
Is it brand new, or been around a while? Might be the berrings are dry, and it's under a bit of a load, trying to spin. Give it a couple drops of ND-30 oil in the berrings, and see if that works better.
Someone else also mentioned using clamp on ammeter. That might give different number.
The table in the NEC gives 16 amps for an "average" 1 HP 120V motor. That, along with the nameplate value of 13A is for a fully loaded motor. Are you operating with a mechanical load?
Watts might also be of interest. A 1 1/8 HP mechanical load is 840 watts. Then there are losses that add. I never looked at the watts of an unloaded motor. Should be far less - most of the current is reactive.
The strait answer, is that it's a path from Alaska to Russia.
It could also be plain, needle, or sleeve. (Sounds like the start of a joke. A man has a plain, needle and sleeve. His boss asks him to make a berring...)
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