House Heater blower Motor

[BIGNASTY]

Although we dont use it much we have a technician come out and check out the Forced air heater for the house. He checks it in the summer for air conditioner and the winter to make sure its A-OK. He did his thing and told me that the Heater Blower motor was drawing like a 1/2 amp more actually it wasn't quite a half amp, than what it should which means its on its way out!! All you electrical nuts agree with this or his he BS. Seems there could be that much of a difference between motors!! I wouldn't think that they would be THAT EXACT!



BIG

 

[B.G. Smith]

If he had the cover off/door to the unit the fan was probably able to get more air than it does in service which would cause it to pull higher amps. Doubt that you have a problem. I am not electrical, just nut. bg

 

[BIGNASTY]

He did in fact have the cover off the unit looking like he was doing something to earn his yearly service charge. The unit is only going on 4 years old.



Thanks

BIG

 

[DavidC]

I have been working with motors for 42 years and have not ever seen one run at name tag amps. They usually run a little lower but as stated it depends on the load and if it is moving more air it will run higher. If your voltage is low for any number of reasons the amperage will be higher. All motors have a service factor number which is the highest amperage the motor should run at for a brief amount of time and that SF # is usually a 1 or 1. 15. To find that amperage it would be name plate full load amps * SF #. I would not worry with your situation unless the fan does not spin freely by hand and there is slop in the fan which would show bearing failure which would cause drag and higher amps.

Dave

 

[NIsaacs]

Like others said if your volts are a little low the amp draw will increase some. With your off grid power system you might have been a little low on volts. Put another log on the fire



Nick

 

[JJPage]

Big, I would say your furnace motor is fine. As other's have stated, say for example motor nameplate states 130 volts/12 amps, and your voltage supply is 122 volts, then your amperage draw could be slightly higher than 12 amps. Even if amperage draw was excessive, more than likely a run capacitor would be suspect rather than the motor itself. Unless the motor was exposed to sheet rock dust, like during construction on your home, that fine dust will quickly destroy bearings on a furnace motor.

 

[EMAC2]

Amp draw is not the only answer. Need to know what the normal amp draw is. Checking the motor nameplate will give you the power draw (P=I x E) in watts and then use your voltage (E) to figure out what your amps (I) should be. I agree with the earlier posts that if your voltage was a little low the amps will go up (again power equals amps times volts) so it depends on whether the tech checked the voltage at the time also. If he did not, then that amp rating really doesn't mean much since you have no idea what the voltage was at the time he made his reading.....

 

[BIGNASTY]

I have finally got in touch with my Nephews in So Calif they are Master Electricians and have been out for the holidays. They are some of the ones that built our house and installed our off grid power systems. YOU GUYS NEED TO LOOK INTO THIS as a career they said the same thing as you did. We have had extended COLD, BIG TIME COLD and that could have negative affects on the batteries temporary. Wife keeps the closet where the furnace is vacuumed out. I change the filter 4 times a year even thou we dont use it much if at all lately (I have been putting more logs on the fire) and like you and they said these are all different they could be manufactured in the same plant same day and still be different.



Thanks for your help This again is why im glad that the wife renewed my Subscription as a Christmas present



BIG