Re: Big oops ... need suggestions
Originally posted by jwelectric:Either the box on the motor is the outlet . . . (or) . . . the disconnect and controller are outlets. . . Give me some help here?
Based on the related question posted earlier in this thread, I would say that the box on the motor is the one and only outlet in this circuit. I would also say that there can be only one outlet for any given piece of utilization equipment. Let me take us back to this earlier post of mine:
Originally posted by charlie b: I submit that current can leave the wiring system, return to it, leave it again, and return to it again, as often as you like. You may think this a common thing, or you may think it rare . . . (but) . . . it may happen.
Speaking first about single (not multi-wire) branch circuits, I now submit that this circumstance is rare. In fact, I can't say that I've ever seen it. Here is what I mean:
For the sake of discussion, pretend for a moment (and let's disregard all notions of "electron drift") that the way current flows is that individual electrons move through a wire at the speed of light, and go around the complete path (source to load and back again) many, many times per second.
I submit that on any single round trip, a single electron can pass through only one outlet.
A branch circuit supplying, for example, receptacle outlets, can serve a dozen or more such receptacle outlets. Suppose there is a lamp plugged into each, and all are turned on. On one round trip, a single electron might go through the receptacle outlet serving "lamp #1," and on the next round trip it might go through the receptacle outlet serving "lamp #2." The lamps (and the outlets) are in parallel, and a single electron might go through any one of the outlets on any given round trip. However, one the electron goes through the outlet, then through the lamp, then back to that same outlet (now on the neutral), it will not pass through another outlet until after it has first returned to the source.
For a single branch circuit, the only circumstance that will allow a single electron to pass through two or more outlets on a single round trip would be if the two or more pieces of utilization equipment are in series with each other. That would give each piece of equipment less than the full rated voltage of the supply. That is why I would call this circumstance "rare."
Now let us turn to multi-wire branch circuits. Consider a 120/240V panel. Consider two breakers, two hot conductors, and one neutral conductor, leaving the panel together. Run this set of conductors through a number of receptacle outlets. Plug lamps into two outlets (from different phases), and turn them on. A single electron can leave the source via one breaker, go to one outlet, go through the lamp, return to the same outlet (i.e., is now back within the premises wiring system), follow the neutral wire to the nearest point at which the circuit neutrals are tied together, go "backwards" through that neutral wire to the other outlet, backwards through the other lamp, out the "hot conductor" serving the second lamp, back to the second outlet, and back to the source (going "backwards" through the second breaker). In this instance, the same electron passed through two outlets in a single round trip.
