by Tony » Thu Jan 03, 2008 4:50 pm
Stevenford, the whole thing is fairly complicated.
The vacuum motors, if running at full 240v will draw less current when pulling a reasonable test pressure, than just running with full open flow.
As far as knowing what your power feed is capable of, the maximum current draw will be limited by the main fuse or circuit breaker rating feeding that particular sub circuit. Whoever installed it in the first place would have fitted overload protection appropriate to the cable size.
I am not an electrical contractor, but I do have a copy of the "Standards Association of Australia" wiring rules, which is the Bible for all this stuff, in front of me right now.
Suitable plugs and sockets rated to 40 amps are readily available, that is no problem. Anything larger than that is not usually fitted with a removable plug, but wired in permanently.
Also known as the infamous "Warpspeed" on some other Forums.