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Electrical amps vs volts

Poke

Poke

I’m condescending
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
763
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1,393
Needed spin off. The transformer on my house went bad, they thought it was my neutral going in but upon further review it was in fact the transformer.

Electricians/Utility company were reading 150-180 AMPs going into my house.

No blown breakers. Main breaker is 200amp in the top of my box.

The electrician who re-did the service wiring from 3 to 4 wire said that they must have meant volts not amps.

But they, the initial readers who turned my power off for safety reasons, insisted on AMP’s.

What’s going on with this amps or volts? Could it have been volts? The transformer was hot, 158 degrees.
 
150 to 180 amps is big dollar power, my house runs on less than 100 amps even in the dead of winter with electric heat running.

he must have meant volts, no way you were drawing that many amps. think of volts as pressure and amps as volume. that is how my electrician buddy explained it to me as a dumb plumber 35 years ago.
 
gunracer1 said:
150 to 180 amps is big dollar power, my house runs on less than 100 amps even in the dead of winter with electric heat running.

he must have meant volts, no way you were drawing that many amps. think of volts as pressure and amps as volume. that is how my electrician buddy explained it to me as a dumb plumber 35 years ago.
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Could a bad transformer push ams out at that level?
 
watts=volts*amps
if your load remains the same and volts goes down, amps goes up.
2000W load @ 240V that's 8.3 amps. Basically a running air conditioner.
Now drop it to 200V, air conditioner still has to do the same amount of work, so now to get it's wattage it just pulls more current @ 10 amps.

so if you had low voltage the amps will go up.
that's a shit ton of amps though.

You own a clamp meter? Clamp the legs at the box and see what it says now that it's been fixed.
 
You would have had 150-180 amps flowing if something was requiring that much juice or you had a short.

In mechanical terms, amps equals flow. Voltage equals pressure. If your air compressor is full but you aren't using any air tools, your air line has pressure but no flow.
 
The problem with these threads is there are so many factors and variables to consider and without the knowledge and understanding of an electrical system and the vocabulary to describe it no one is going to know what the fuck is going on.
 
Animalmother said:
The problem with these threads is there are so many factors and variables to consider and without the knowledge and understanding of an electrical system and the vocabulary to describe it no one is going to know what the fuck is going on.
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Like me:lmao:
 
Poke said:
Could a bad transformer push ams out at that level?
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back to the " think of the amps" as volume, the amps would have had to gone some where. and he didn't have any need for them so they never went to his house. now they may have turned into a bad ass heater in the transformer though. but that would all be on their side.
 
gunracer1 said:
back to the " think of the amps" as volume, the amps would have had to gone some where. and he didn't have any need for them so they never went to his house. now they may have turned into a bad ass heater in the transformer though. but that would all be on their side.
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The transformer was 158 degrees when they tested it after a few min of use
 
I was just doing a job where I had to explain how to balance 3 phase correctly to the power company (PPL) service tech and 4 electricians that were on the job. They all said the same thing, make sure the motor turns in the right direction and your good to go. I told them it may be time to go back to the class room. :lmao:
 
gunracer1 said:
he must have meant volts, no way you were drawing that many amps. think of volts as pressure and amps as volume. that is how my electrician buddy explained it to me as a dumb plumber 35 years agago.
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This is how it works
Screenshot_20231026_123451_Amazon Shopping.jpg

Fun fact, it only takes 1/10th of an amp to kill you
 
It would burn down the service
And the transformer would be huge. 160 degrees is not that hot , the transformer is oil filled and they are built to cycle, I would be more interested in what total loading was.
 
Sounds like a game of telephone, no yelling what was found or what info was relayed
 
Poke said:
Could a bad transformer push ams out at that level?
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Transformers step voltage up or down. It turns 12,470v into 240 ish for your incoming power .Higher voltage equals lower amps and lower voltage equals higher amps.
 
anyway, a clamp meter on the legs will tell you exactly how much current you're pulling that second, and there's several options with installed amp shunts that will data log your usage these days if you really want to know.
 
tracyb said:
they probably where saying 150-180 amps correctly. was it 'going into your house' likely not.


bad transformer building heat was likely using most that. if your home is drawing 150-180 amps on a 200 amp service i would be surprised
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My homes uses 2x the average home in electric. I’ve had 3 solar companies say that when getting quotes. And these guys working also said the same.

Edit, it was pulling 153 yesterday when tested.
 
Poke said:
My homes uses 2x the average home in electric. I’ve had 3 solar companies say that when getting quotes. And these guys working also said the same.

Edit, it was pulling 153 yesterday when tested.
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You need to go around and take stock of what's running, and compare those wattages to the watts you calculate at the panel with an amp clamp.
take it around to your big load devices and check to see their current draw.
maybe your AC is working stupid hard because it has an issue. You don't know until you know.

amp clamp is your friend. you can buy a OK one for a hundred dollars.
it will answer all of your current draw questions, per circuit or in total.
 
gunracer1 said:
heated pool, in the artic?
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Indoor heated pool room, 80-83 degree water and air temp. 2 geothermal systems, hot tub, sauna, industrial dehumidifier (big enough for 25000 square feet), pool pump is 24/7 and then normal house stuff.
 
87manche said:
You need to go around and take stock of what's running, and compare those wattages to the watts you calculate at the panel with an amp clamp.
take it around to your big load devices and check to see their current draw.
maybe your AC is working stupid hard because it has an issue. You don't know until you know.

amp clamp is your friend. you can buy a OK one for a hundred dollars.
it will answer all of your current draw questions, per circuit or in total.
Click to expand...
I have had energy audits over the electric bill. Nobody finds anything. Even tried with a meter plugged into one appliance at a time and logging the readings
 
That's a lot of amps. At full voltage that is a lot of watts. You would know where the problem was if it was real. Look or smell around for whatever is burning up. Won't be hard to find.
 
Poke said:
I have had energy audits over the electric bill. Nobody finds anything. Even tried with a meter plugged into one appliance at a time and logging the readings
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What's your panel schedule like? All electric heat, stove, dryer, etc. and a large square footage it could make sense.
 
You guys and your massive power consumption. LOL I'm literally sitting here offgrid completely comfortable while my ENTIRE house is using 3.2 AMPS at 120V which is 384 WATTS. I could get that number down to ~300 watts if I turned off the TV that nobody is watching.
 
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