Power consumption of 1/10 HP motor.

Can anyone comment the power consumption of this motor? Is this at all typical. The application is a 800 CFM attic fan.

"1.2.2 Motor: 1/10th HP, thermally protected shaded pole type, 1100 RPM,

3.4 AMPS." - used at 115 VAC - 391 VA

My concern is not with peak load, but typical consumption when running in that application. By comparison I measured my 1/2 HP rated air handler motor at 3.0 Amps 230 VAC. 690 VA

Given that this is 1/5 the motor as the one used in my airhandler I would expect it to consume only about 138 VA or 1.2 A at 115 VAC.

Reply to
RFI-EMI-GUY
Loading thread data ...

You need to know the power factor in order to get a meaningful number here, it may only be around 0.5. One of those $20 Kill A Watt devices is perfectly adequate for measuring the true power consumption.

Shaded pole motors are not very efficient, you'll notice they tend to run very hot. Still, without knowing the actual load or the power factor you're flying blind and anything is just a guess, but it's easy to measure.

Reply to
James Sweet

True but I have neither the motor or a Kill A Watt meter on hand.

Reply to
RFI-EMI-GUY

1/10 HP is only about 75W. Obviously, the power factor and most likely the efficiency is going to be piss poor. How much did this thing cost? My guess is that any price is too high for what you are getting.

Bill

Reply to
Salmon Egg

The 3.4 amp specs are typical for attic exhaust fans. Should I assume that the nameplate current draw is "locked rotor" value provided in case someone decides to install 5 of these on one 15 amp circuit?

I am only interested in what the motor normally draws while running. If two of these fans require nearly 800 watts to exhaust and cool my attic, I am concerned. If its only 300 watts I am less concerned. Does anyone have a ballpark on this?

Reply to
RFI-EMI-GUY

I would guess about 140W, but that's only a guess. The power factor if uncorrected is probably only about 0.5, so the VA will be around double what the wattage is, and the label is for worst case conditions. In the real world, the fan is probably not pushing the motor to produce its max rated horsepower.

Reply to
James Sweet

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.