Amps on the neutral at panel?
- Thread starter Allspark
- Start date
- Status
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
Yes, assuming the load is not perfectly balanced.
JohnJ0906
Senior Member
- Location
- Baltimore, MD
I really think you need to look at all the amp readings as a group.
L1, L2, L3, N
L1, L2, L3, N
RonPecinaJr
Senior Member
- Location
- Rahway, NJ
Is this single phase or three phase?
JohnJ0906
Senior Member
- Location
- Baltimore, MD
You need to look at the neutral current in relation to the current readings on L1, L2, and L3.
You can't really say that a certain neutral reading is high, without taking it as a whole.
The nominal current on any the neutral is the unbalanced current of the loads it supplies. Any current other than that is a from leakage or fault condition.
Pierre C Belarge
Senior Member
- Location
- Westchester County, New York
Some panels you will see a grounded conductor X 2. If there is unbalanced loads and a large nonlinear load, the grounded conductor may have a very large load on it.
If you are reading significant current (10-30% or more) of the load on the neutral, there is a probability that something th the system is causing harmonics. If a large percentage of the load on the panel is non-linear (drives, other items with switching power supplies, especially single phase) harmonics can be a significant issue.
Good Luck!
Good Luck!
catchtwentytwo
Senior Member
What types of loads are on the panel? Is it an office with a lot of 3 phase 4-wire circuiting?
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
But only on a three phase system. The harmonics do not cause increased neutral current on single phase systems.
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
Yes, when the current is greater than the ampacity of the conductor.
jrannis
Senior Member
- Location
- Fort Lauderdale/ Miami
That would be true for single phase 120/ 240.
Some considerations should be made for 120/208 and other three phase WYE systems.
catchtwentytwo
Senior Member
What types of loads are on the panel? Is it an office with a lot of 3 phase 4-wire circuiting?
brian john
Senior Member
- Location
- Leesburg, VA
Actually you will seldom have leakage current on the neutral generally this is on the ground, fault current should be for a short duration for a phase to neutral fault, that is till the OCP operates to clear the fault.
brian john
Senior Member
- Location
- Leesburg, VA
And this is not necessarily true. DEPENDS ON the load in the panel and how well they are balanced. Few drives are single phase and will not contributer to the neutral current.
If you cannot find the problem you have overlooked the problem. This should be one of 3 maybe 4 things all noted above (that I can think of). RECHECK EVERYTHING
Last edited:
It is true for any neutral conductor, it carries [under normal operating conditions] the unbalanced current only, period. And that even includes harmonics, as that current is also unbalanced. Doesn't matter if its single phase, split phase, or three phase.
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