Take your typical electric motor that has one on/off speed. Suppose I plugged it into a variable power supply regulator and ran it at half power. Would running the motor at less than it’s rated power damage it in any way?
It depends. There’s a lot of different types of motors.
If it is a DC motor that’s basically how the blower fan in your car’s AC/heater works (they usually use resistors instead of a regulator to cut the voltage down but it’s the same basic idea). Depending on the load though the motor can stall and the windings can overheat, so it depends a bit on the motor’s design and what the motor is connected to.
Your typical AC motor runs at a speed proportional to the line frequency. Reducing the voltage reduces the torque but doesn’t reduce the speed, although the motor will start to slip as it loses torque. It’s not a good way to regulate the speed of this type of motor though.
AC motor
what do you mean by half power?
If you meanhalf voltage then the amps will go up the motor will over heat and probably burn up.
If you mean reducing the voltage and the cycles. Then if you keep them in proper ballance the motor will turn slower.
On a DC motor depending on the type of motor if you reduce the voltage the motor wil slow down and consume less power.
An electric motor draws the highest current when it’s starting. If the voltage is low enough that the motor won’t come up to speed, it will continue to draw high current indefinitely. This can cause the motor to overheat, and possibly even burn the windings.
This is more likely if the motor has a load on it. For example, the motor in a refrigerator runs the compressor. If you try to operate the refrigerator on half voltage, the motor may never develop the torque to turn the compressor. The stalled motor will continue to draw high current, and may eventually burn out.