Why your home’s (120v 15 circuit) does not overload tools that only use 1 amp, 2 amps, 3 amps (etc. anything less than the 15)?

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For example if I connect a 90v motor to a 120v battery source doesn’t that overheat and blow my motor?

Why is it though when it’s 120v from the wall then the motor is still fine?

In: Engineering

10 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

My background is fluids, helps me to think of electricity as a water analog. Maybe it will help you too.  Voltage is like water pressure. Put 120psi (volts) in something designed for 90psi and it will come apart. Voltage is an electrical potential, pressure is a hydraulic potential. 

 Amperage is like water flow. If I want 5gpm water flow, I need a certain pressure to get that much water to flow through the pipe. Flow may be limited by an upstream valve (circuit breaker) that will restrict flow (current). 

 A motor will only draw the amps it needs to spin at its design speed. So a 15A saw motor may only use 2 A when it’s free spinning and doing no work. When you start a cut, the blade slows down and the motor pulls more amps to try to stay at the design speed. So a 120V device will always use 120V, it will have a varying amount of current flow. 

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