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Idle watts of motor

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RUSO

Mechanical
Jul 12, 2002
29
I'm trying to find out what "Idle watts" on a motor name plate means. Does it mean watts of the motor under no load, or watts of the motor in a locked (stalled) condition???
 
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I agree with peebee based on normal useage of the term idle.

But I've never seen that terminology on a motor nameplate. Out of curiousity do you know what type of motor it is?
 
Mr Electricpete is right. I haven't seen idle watts on name plate of the motors. Anyway this must be no load watts. Lock rotor amperes are some times mentioned on name plate as "LRA ___".
 
Suggestion: IEEE Std 100-2000 indicates that "idle bar" (rotating machinery) is an open circuited conductor bar, in the rotor of a squirrel-cage motor, used to give a low starting current in a moderate torque motor. Then, the idle current could also mean the current that motor is drawing when the idle bar is in effect. However, the expression of the idle run with respect to the rotating machinery (may be coming from some other engineering disciplines) is often linked with no-load rotating machinery state.
 
The motor is for a shaded pole motor with squirrel cage rotor. I occasionally asked about idle watts by some customers.
 
Suggestion: They probably meant no-load watts, which are usually small.
 
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