So my dryer circuit 240V/30A currently has 2x50A CTs wired to 2 inputs. I would like to free up and input by using a headphone splitter. No wire slack to loop one wire back through. I also really would rather not shoe horn 2x100A CTs in that location, already have 2x100A CTs on the breaker just next to it.
The dryer combined current on the 2 CTs maxes out at 40A. Obviously if we replace the dryer that could cause issues.
If you graph the two inputs during a cycle, do they match? If they do, everything in your dryer uses the full 240v instead of some on 120, some in 240. In that case, you could use one CT on a single conductor and enable the ‘double’ setting.
If not, two CTs with a headphone splitter into one input should be just fine.
The motor uses 120V and the heater elements are on 240V.
Concern with the splitter is technically I would need to move to 100A CTs to do that route just curious how much an issue uses 50A on a 240V/30A circuit would be when the combined current could reach 40A.
If it’s a 30A breaker, peak load available is 60A (30A/conductor) but the actual peak is usually lower. My dryer peaks at 39A checking just now.
You should be fine with 50A CTs.
50A is fine for a typical 120V/240V US dryer. Circuit breakers should allow for 120% of expected load, so maximum normal load is expected to be 25Amps or less.
Your 40Amp total is the sum of the currents in each 120V leg, so each of your individual CTs is actually reading ~20Amps,
Right just making sure it is OKAY to combine the 2x50A on a single input using a splitter.
From the docs:“Two individual CTs can also be combined with a common headphone splitter and fed into a single IotaWatt input. When combining this way, both CTs must be the same model with an individual capacity sufficient to measure the combined capacity of the two circuit breakers.”