[Tman1]

As a motor engineer, I could spend all day correcting the incorrect statements in this thread. But, I'm not going to even try. I will say that 3hp peak is feasible on a 120V, 15A circuit. 3hp continuous is not. The key is that a 15A circuit can handle higher current for very short periods of time. (If you have a gas dryer, it draws around 40-50A until the motor gets up to speed on a 15 or 20 A breaker.) This means that if you have a temporary load spike on your power tool due to a knot, binding or some other reason, the tool has more power to get through it. But, if you try to use that power for very long, such as by taking too aggressive of a cut, you will trip the breaker.

Now, you still may not get the 3hp, because when they do their dynamometer testing, they test it with 120V at the tool. As has been stated, when you draw high current, the voltage drops and that drops (which is why your lights dim).

Compressor companies got in trouble because their compressors never run at the peak horse power, except for a fraction of a second as the motor starts. So, they were advertising compressors as better when they knew they provided no benefit to the consumer.