Neautral wire overheating
A while back the neutral wire coming OUT of my EMS-HW30C surge protector was over heating. On 2 separate occasions I cut/cleaned the wire and secured as tight as i could in the terminal. Now the neutr...
Forum Discussion
Chris Bryant wrote:
I'll point out that basic electrical theory states that the current will be the same at all points in a circuit like that- the hot is carrying the same current as the neutral, and the current is the same at the plug, outlet, cord, etc. It is just a bad connection at the point of failure, and once it has overheated, you need to replace everything that got hot. The only thing a longer cord would do is drop the voltage a bit, causing just the air conditioner to draw more current, but it will not draw enough to burn up the wire- a breaker would trip far before that happened due to an over current situation.
Absolutely true-- for 30 amp service which is what the OP has.
But, with properly wired 50 amp service, the neutral carries only the DIFFERENCE between amps on L1 and L2. So there can be a very large difference in current, if for example both roof A/C's are running.
