120 volt outlet vs 240 volt outlet9/8/2023 ![]() ![]() You can have a great wood shop and do wonderful work without 240V circuits. That will not affect how well it cuts through that nice piece of maple that you’ve been saving. There is no practical benefit to rewiring your 120V contractor saw to run on 240 volts. Whether it’s 120 volts or 240 volts, it’s horsepower that counts. (Don’t get me started on hand held routers that supposedly produce 3 horsepower!) The Bottom Line ![]() Other examples of this would be stationary power tools with more than a 1.75 horsepower motor. Examples of this would be an electric range or an electric dryer. Typically, 240-volts is used if a particular load requires more power than a 20-amp, 115-volt circuit can provide. That same motor wired for 220V would only draw 12.5 amps and could run with smaller and less expensive wires.Ī 120V circuit in most American homes are rated at either 15 or 20 amps. That would require relatively large and expensive wires from the breaker box to the receptacle. A 3 hp motor wired for 110 volts might draw 25 amps. Electric wire is rated for the maximum amperage that it will carry. It’s also about industry standards and costs. Great question! It goes back to amperage. If 120v isn’t better than 240v, and vice versa, why are there two options? Hypothetically, a similar 115V motor that produces 3 horsepower would draw up to 25.6 amps. This particular motor is designed to only run on 230 volts. It produces 3 horsepower, and it draws up to 12.8 amps. This is the nameplate on the motor in my table saw, and it’s an example of a typical 230V motor. ![]() You can also see that running it on double the voltage decreases the amperage by exactly 50%. You can see that it produces 1-1/2 horsepower regardless of the voltage that it is wired to run on. Some motors, like this one on my Delta belt sander, can run on either 120 or 240 volts. Therefore, a 240-volt motor that produces 1200 watts of power will draw 5 amps.
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