Time To Add More Load

[CT-Mike]

Loaded up the -803A today to blow the dust out of it. Running 2 - 2.5T heat pumps, well pump, refrigerator, pellet stove, and lighting only got me up to 50% load (55% when the well pump cycled on). Adding in the range hood (2 - 175 watt heat lamps, 2 - 600 cfm blowers, and two halogen spots) got me up to 60%.

Planning to add the washer, dryer, and electric stove and just practice load management.

This thing is a hacker.

Anyone nearby have a load bank I can borrow?

I also added the MOV to help protect the quad circuit.

 

[Light in the Dark]

Where in CT are you? You should check out the load bank I threw together just for this exact thing. Choice of 5.4kw, 8.1kw, 10.8kw, or 13.5kw loads (all approximate). I need to update that thread with some finalized pictures of it wrapped in metal (though I suppose I should actually wrap the tunnel in metal first! )

 

[CT-Mike]

In the Southeast corner near Foxwoods.

 

[Bmxenbrett]

With all that running i doubt your gauge is accurate. Do you have a amp gauge? There a few bucks at harbor freight. There a good tool to have.

 

[CT-Mike]

With all that running i doubt your gauge is accurate. Do you have a amp gauge? There a few bucks at harbor freight. There a good tool to have.

I do have a clamp-on meter, just couldn't find it today. I have checked it in the past though and found the installed gauge to be pretty accurate.

 

[Suprman]

I bet the meter is right. Here is a 5k running 2x 1800w heaters, 2x 1500w heaters and 2 blowers. Right at 100%.

 

[Daybreak]

Loaded up the -803A today to blow the dust out of it. Running 2 - 2.5T heat pumps, well pump, refrigerator, pellet stove, and lighting only got me up to 50% load (55% when the well pump cycled on). Adding in the range hood (2 - 175 watt heat lamps, 2 - 600 cfm blowers, and two halogen spots) got me up to 60%.

Planning to add the washer, dryer, and electric stove and just practice load management.

This thing is a hacker.

Anyone nearby have a load bank I can borrow?

I also added the MOV to help protect the quad circuit.

Howdy,
Yes, the MEP-803A can take a lot to load it up. You think you are running lots of stuff, and come back and look at the gauge... ummm, I thought that would be 100% at least...

 

[fcbrants]

Load bank

<Snip>
Anyone nearby have a load bank I can borrow?

1 50kW load bank: $250 for a week.

Not having to move said load bank out of the way for the rest of the year: Priceless

https://www.sunbeltrentals.com/equipment/detail/1560/1150010/50kw-a-c-resistive-load-bank/

Cheers!!

Franko

 

[Guyfang]

I bet the meter is right. Here is a 5k running 2x 1800w heaters, 2x 1500w heaters and 2 blowers. Right at 100%.
View attachment 702368View attachment 702369

Looks like you robbed a second hand store. We did it the same way in the 70's. Every little heater on the missile site disappeared when i need to load bank the small gen sets!

 

[Suprman]

I have nice ac with heater that makes a great load for the 10s but it's too big for the 5. I need to find a load bank but they are few and far between.

 

[CT-Mike]

I have nice ac with heater that makes a great load for the 10s but it's too big for the 5. I need to find a load bank but they are few and far between.

I built a load bank using a plastic 55 gal drum, 10 Kw worth of water heater elements, and a garden hose when I first got the beast up and running. Wasn't the safest thing in the world (actually not safe at all) so I won't be doing that again.

I may make an air cooled one out of dryer elements similar to what Light In The Dark made.

 

[Suprman]

I found a couple 220v 5k heaters cheap online. Was thinking about just ordering one and trying that. I do mostly the 10k gens and I have one for that already.

 

[millerm13]

I was lucky and found a coworker who was getting rid of an electric range. Price was right- Free. With all the burners and the broiler going peaked out at 46 amps at 220v single phase. I think that works out to 88% but the gauge only read about 75%. So, I will be calibrating the gauge when my son comes home from school over Thanksgiving. He has a 803a as well and he wants to load test his.

 

[CT-Mike]

I was lucky and found a coworker who was getting rid of an electric range. Price was right- Free. With all the burners and the broiler going peaked out at 46 amps at 220v single phase. I think that works out to 88% but the gauge only read about 75%. So, I will be calibrating the gauge when my son comes home from school over Thanksgiving. He has a 803a as well and he wants to load test his.

That heater element is a purely resistive load, i.e. it has a power factor pF of 1.0. The meter on your MEP (well actually the entire MEP) is designed for a system with a pF of 0.8. If you divide the 75% indicated by 0.8, you come up with around 94% load.

46 amps divided by 52 (nameplate data 100% load at 220 volts) comes up to 88%. Divide that by 0.8 and you get 110%.

Some food for for thought before you go tweaking the adjust on your meter.

 

[Guyfang]

Load planning and calulations

Morning!

There is probably a better place to post this, and if there is, tell me, and I can move it. Since you all are talking about loads and such, I extracted the Military "Party Line" on load planning and calculations. This is but a small part of the information available in the main document. It's got some real good info, and I will post it if there is anyone wanting to read it. Some of the info has no bearing on what you may be upto. But some of it sure will. Computing cabe size for instance. And on and on.



View attachment Info0001.pdfView attachment Info0002.pdfView attachment Info0003.pdfView attachment Info0004.pdf

 

[Chainbreaker]

Morning!

There is probably a better place to post this, and if there is, tell me, and I can move it. Since you all are talking about loads and such, I extracted the Military "Party Line" on load planning and calculations. This is but a small part of the information available in the main document. It's got some real good info, and I will post it if there is anyone wanting to read it. Some of the info has no bearing on what you may be upto. But some of it sure will. Computing cabe size for instance. And on and on.



View attachment 702544View attachment 702545View attachment 702546View attachment 702547

There are some real jewels in there! Example: In the 0004 pg there is a paragraph about voltage loss and potential consequences...conductor failure! I would say to post the whole document as you never know what information may be beneficial to others that have unique situations they are dealing with. Maybe post in TM section or as a sticky with your post heading: "Load Planning & Calculations".

 

[Guyfang]

I think the TM section is best, because it has Much, Much more info then just concerning loads. I had to read something very similar in AIT, in early 1973, to this document for our final test.

Just uploaded it in the TM Upload section Its FM 5-424

 

[jcollings]

What brand are those 1500 and 1800 watt heaters? And do they continue to run or do they shut down on overheat temp with the safety.

Thank you,

 

[SCSG-G4]

I'm running 1 ga to run the 40 feet between my MEP003a and the Manual Transfer Switch. Black, Red, White and Green - all 1 GA wire. Calculator I found on-line said it should be able to handle 119 amps per leg without too much loss (and this is welding cable grade wire, not the stiff stuff).