What draws the power in your shops?

[Gary S]

I can tell you right now they're not all drawn equally. My dryer is fed into a fuse box cutoff switch with a fuse for each hot leg. I had one fuse go, and the dryer still ran but would not get hot. Replaced fuse, elements worked. A few weeks later, the other fuse went, and the dryer wouldn't turn on at all. So, at least for my old dryer, it appears that the heating elements are on one leg, and the controls/drum motor/blower are on the other leg.

That's the way it has to work. The heating element is 240v, so it is across the two hot legs to get 240v. If either leg drops a fuse, you get 0 volts to the heating element because you have an open circuit, so you get no heat.
The motor is 120v so it is wired between one hot leg and neutral. If you drop the fuse on the leg that powers it, you get no motor action. If you drop the other leg that it isn't using, the motor will run normally.

 

[checkthisout]

Yes 100A means 100A per leg. For example, my shop heater draws 22A - 5000w @ 220V. Measure each 220V leg, it's pulling 21.x amps at full bore. The compressor pulls 15A on 110v, wired for 220 it pulls 7.5A on each leg (total same as 110V). You don't get something for nothing

Ok, so 100 amp service = 2 legs of 110 @ 100 amps = 11,000 X 2 or 22,000 Watts total.

Ok, so 200 amp service = 2 legs of 110 @ 200 amps or 22,000 x 2 or 44,000 watts total.

 

[sberry]

Some dryers have low setting, they use 115 on low.