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You people are awesome. You need to simplify and optamise a load bank between you, and sell it. I might be ready to toss in some seed money.
Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!
Yes three circuits via double pole breakers in the grey load center bolted to the front of the rolling rig. 1 Element EA on the first two 25A circuits, and 2 elements in series on the third 15A circuit. All wired up with 10 gauge. Input cable is 6/3, and the separate grounding cable is 6AWG.I think I'd put a roof on it out of paranoia, but the basic idea looks really good. I presume you're planning on series/parallel and switching the elements in and out for different wattages?
If that fits your bill of needs, go for it. It is practical, portable and will provide some load for the generator. If you build a distribution box you could plug in multiples to bring the load up to work the generator a little harder.Not so amazed this thread has lived so long; series of zombie posts/resurrections helped.
JUST got around to reading about "wet stacking" and load testing.
I've had my 802A with about 90hrs on it since tier 2 reset at Letterkenney for almost two years and I've put almost 50 hours on it since; the most load I've put on it was a 1500 watt space heater.
Starts, runs great, want it to start and run great for a longer time.
Building a 30x50 garage on farm in TN, will have several open bays (about 2/3 of the garage, 1/3 to workshop/temp living space) and will buy one of these this week:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Dimplex...rtable-Construction-Heater-DCH4831L/203568956
There ARE other, similar, options, like an in-wall heater but those only go up to about 2,000W.
Thing is, yeah, it would be cheap, easy to use water heater elements, trash can full of water, barrels, etc., or old oven heating element, but time and money equation and functionality/practicality leads me to this space heater. I can use it locally, or take it with me to the farm and will have it for future use too.
Lot of good ideas here, brainstorming, improvisation, suggestions, help, feedback; makes me proud(er) to be an American.
Carry on.
Ran this setup today for about an hour. The 4800 Watt space heater. At first the generator kind of “bogged down” when the heater came on, and all kinds of black smoke came out of the genset like it was a municipal/city bus pulling away from a stop. Did this for about ten minutes, then the exhaust started looking clearer, smelling “sweeter” and I even leaned over the “plume” and took a sniff.
Hey, I smoked for about twenty years, quit 21 years ago, pulmonologist says my lungs are like they’re 25 and I lived in Southern California for 12 years, Code red days you couldn’t see 50 yards away and I’d be out running with a lot of other idiots; a little whiff of some clean diesel exhaust isn’t going to do me in all of a sudden.
Percent power was right at 74%. For a heater that’s supposed to pull 4800 watts. On 240? 74% on a 5kW genset.
Is that like a metric to SAE conversion I’m missing the correction factor for?
Anyway, it seems to work. Next time I’ll put a small bathroom spaceheater on the 120V “convenience” outlet on medium, should pull another kW without tripping the CB.
If the power meter was correct, how much power SHOULD I get out of this thing?
Thanks in advance.
Norm
Search fleabay for 5400w dryer element and look for this picture. The prices are all over the place so pick one that suits your pocketbook.Can you share part number or link to the hearing elements you use? Do they have thermostats on them? Or do you bypass them?