Air compressor Gee Whiz info

You definitely want a 1P-20A c'bkr & #12AWG wire for your compressor; however, the plug and receptacle are 100% rated to handle 15A all day long.

OTOH, 1 c'bkr is only rated to handle 80% of nameplate rating on a continuous basis, thus a 1P-20A device is only rated at 16A under continuous load.

HTH

Not really. On all cord and plug connected equipment you are limited to 80% of circuit ampacity. The plug should be sized to 125% of the equipment load.

The breaker can handle 100%, you just have to adjust the circuit ampacity for any continous load.

From NEC 2002 210-23(A)(1) (1) Cord-and-Plug-Connected Equipment. The rating of any one cord-and-plug-connected utilization equipment shall not exceed 80 percent of the branch-circuit ampere rating.

I doubt Table Table 210.21(B)(2) will post but it says on a 15 or 20a circuit a

You really need a dedicated 20a circuit. If there is only one receptacle and it serves the compressor you don't need the GFCI. I will be putting mine in tomorrow.

Greg wrote: As it approaches 80PSI the amps is 15 and around

Counter EMF. My guess is it's coming under a load that actually 'pushes back' and restricts loading.

Another thing is we would need voltage readings to know more of what was going on. If the Buss isn't pushing the needed voltage under load your amperage will be higher.

Truth is I can't bring something into the house and plug it into it's

In my shop the 15 amp plug may never approach 15 amps but in the house it may not be able to run on a 15 amps because of the old voltage-amp-watt thing.

So much for practical application verses theory. Hey, it all looks good. On paper.

And even when installing a 20 amp breaker, you may STILL kick it. DAMHIKT. You should get a high magnetic trip breaker to serve 120v motor loads, or be prepared to reset the damned thing at the most inopportune times. I have a CH '6HP' model that runs on 120V, can't be rewired for 240 (crap!), on a dedicated 20 amp circuit with 10 gauge wire about 20 feet from an 80 amp Square-D sub-panel wired #4. Kicks the breaker on startup about 15% of the time, especially when cold. The motor MFG blanked out the true HP rating with "SPEC" but the FLAs are listed as 15, same as yours. May even be the same model. A temporary solution is... never mind... I don't want to go there.

Breakers higher than 20 amp are generally not 'fast trip', but generic

Greg G.

This is on one of my 20a shop circuits that are about 5' of #12 away from the

I'm in Estero, I know about the heat.

Get more bang for your buck on your electrical service - do some 220 volt and convert your heavy users to 220 volt. It doesn't cost any more and you can run more tools and accessories from your 50 amp service without worrying about tripping a breaker. If you are going to air condition it, you'll be adding 220 volt anyway (assuming you do some kind of dedicated air conditioner).

Bob

It means "I learned this the hard way"

Tim Douglass