Motors differ from other types of loads in one important way: The motor needs much more current to start than to run. This temporary, but significant, inrush current is what complicates motor circuit ...

Thank you for visiting one of our most popular classic articles. If you’d like to see updated information on this topic, please check out this recently published article, Load Calculations — Part 2.

The usual way of preventing a small motor from drawing too much current is to install overcurrent protection in the form of a circuit breaker or some other kind of limiter. But installations that ...