Homemade Load Bank

[155mm]

I have an Essex electro engineers A698 60kw load bank available...... pm for details

Z

thats almost as good as phone sex right there.... pm inbound

 

[ZiggyO]

thats almost as good as phone sex right there.... pm inbound

HUH?

 

[155mm]

HUH?

it was intended as a funny, since I found the right tool for the right job, without having to enginerd it myself, thats what makes it good

 

[maniatopoulosg]

I used your design in some way,Thanks!
View attachment 716856View attachment 716857View attachment 716858

Well I made a green building something like this great why doesn’t everyone actually use the generator for what it’s for running the house
I really get the load bank thing I really do I understand but it seems like everybody put a lot of time and this load banks and money


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jcollings]

I built mine to put a controlled load 78% to 120% for break in.
The ease of controlling with a load bank is the best way IMO

Thank you

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk

 

[155mm]

Well I made a green building something like this great why doesn’t everyone actually use the generator for what it’s for running the house
I really get the load bank thing I really do I understand but it seems like everybody put a lot of time and this load banks and money


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

so what do you suggest for a cheaper way? I will throw a 'pinch of safety' is required in.

 

[kendive]

I bought this 3 to 6 kw 240VAC heater to load test my 802a. Works great and will keep your hands warm. Paid $40 found it on the local CL.

 

[izzug]

so what do you suggest for a cheaper way? I will throw a 'pinch of safety' is required in.

Look on Craigslist for a free working stove/ovens, people are always trying to give them away. You can control the load by turning on more burners and the oven. Two stoves will give you more than a 110% load on a 803. Free controllable load tester.

 

[Light in the Dark]

Thats great for an 803... but the last machine being talked about was a 60kw rated unit. Whole different ball game.

 

[155mm]

Look on Craigslist for a free working stove/ovens, people are always trying to give them away. You can control the load by turning on more burners and the oven. Two stoves will give you more than a 110% load on a 803. Free controllable load tester.

x 12, that would be a birdsnest of wiring.

Thats great for an 803... but the last machine being talked about was a 60kw rated unit. Whole different ball game.

60kw + 10%, so say 70kw should do a good load.

So why is it so much fun to make these machine work? I mean all we are doing is converting fuel to heat, but its oh so much fun.

I did get the proper tool for the proper job, just needs to be delivered the rest of the way home. Thanks Ziggy

 

[leedawg]

x 12, that would be a birdsnest of wiring.

60kw + 10%, so say 70kw should do a good load.

So why is it so much fun to make these machine work? I mean all we are doing is converting fuel to heat, but its oh so much fun.

I did get the proper tool for the proper job, just needs to be delivered the rest of the way home. Thanks Ziggy

Well stated I get so much joy watchin all my sets laboring away at 100% load and meanwhile holding engine temp fq and voltage.

My load bank was pretty cheap just bought 6 4500 watt hot water heater elements. Took an old blown pressure tank cut the top off and welded in 6 couplings around the sides hooked some breakers up in a cheap square d box to each element. Maybe 120 bucks into it and loads my 005 up to good 80 percent. Boils about 80 gallons of water in 5 minutes lol

 

[Chainbreaker]

Well I made a green building something like this great why doesn’t everyone actually use the generator for what it’s for running the house
I really get the load bank thing I really do I understand but it seems like everybody put a lot of time and this load banks and money

There are a lot of benefits to using a load bank to exercise and troubleshoot one's generator(s):

- Safety factor. Your not risking exposing your house wiring and appliances, etc. to potential fluctuating voltage/hertz issues. Let's say you had a malfunction where your generator voltage went way out of spec. (ex: voltage goes very high) and you made repairs and "think" you repaired the problem. Do you really want to hook it up to your house not knowing 100% that your repair fixed the problem and only test it under house load risking an uncertain outcome?

- Variable stepped loads. You can allow the generator to warm up to temp and then apply known ascending loads to test and condition the inner workings of the engine (burn off carbon deposits under high sustained loads) while safely monitoring AC output.

- Convenience Factor. You don't have to interrupt your homes power and do not have to reset clocks on appliances if your not subjecting it to back-up generator power (Microwave, Oven etc.)


- The DIY Fun Factor. Some people just like building things and bringing their creation to life. Satisfaction of a job well done when all turns out according to plan & design parameters.


There are several options for procuring a load bank... Buy a Commercially Available Off the Shelf load bank $$$...Or, if your lucky find a used one in working condition for less $. Or, DIY build your own $$. Or, buy something like a "Comfort Zone" Garage Heater $ (5 kW - 7kW units typically go from around $140 - $260 on "Amazon" and even less when they go on sale at places like "Rural King" online. They seem well made based on my experience with the one I am using:

https://www.ruralking.com/catalogse... zone garage heater&rows=24&view=grid&start=0

 

[pclausen]

Digged up this old thread.

I just ordered 4 of these:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P66L54T?psc=1&smid=A3K0MKFIP79CN&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp

They are rated for the standard 5,400 watts each. So in theory I should be able to configure for the following loads:

2,700 watts (2 in series)
5,400 watts (single unit)
7,200 watts (3 in series and 1 in parallel)
8,100 watts (2 in series and 1 in parallel)
10,800 watts (2 in parallel)
13,500 watts (2 in series and 2 in parallel)
16,200 watts (3 in parallel)
21,600 watts (4 in parallel)

I have 802s, a 803 and a 20kw Kubota. I'd like to load test them all on a semi regular basis.

Basically this is how I would wire them:



Rather than using 8 30A manual light switches, I'm thinking about getting 8 30A 240 VAC relays with low voltage coils and then use an 8 channel controller with low voltage relays to control the 30A relays.

Something like this:

Cheap and Easy Control of 8 Relays through Home Assistant

Following up on my previous post of the Cheap and Easy series, I'm going to show you how you can control 8 relay channels for about 25 bucks and in about 30 minutes. If you're not familiar with Home Assistant or ESPHome, check out my previous post. In this project, I use a Wemos D1 Mini as the...

khaz.me

I'm already running Home Assistant with all kinds of stuff. So I could create another "tab" with 8 buttons, one for each of the above combinations. HA would then automatically turn on the required relays for each load. That eliminated user error of throwing the wrong switches and it would be a neat project where I would basically use my phone to pick the load I wanted on the fly.

I have this 735 cfm fan laying around that should be able to move plenty of air through the elements:

Amazon.com

Thoughts?

 

[pclausen]

Ok, scrap my thoughts about mixing parallel and series wiring for various loads and using computer controlled relays. A much simpler option would be to get more heating elements and wire some of them in series permanently as follows:



Would be much easier to wire and I wouldn't have to worry about blowing anything up and I would have quite the range of loads I could select via those 5 breakers.

If they made 1,800 and 2,700 watt 240V heating elements, that would be even sweeter, but I wasn't able to find any.

 

[reallybigboat]

Nice job on building your load bank! I certainly need one, versus using my entire house as a load bank. If you ever decide to produce and sell this type of load bank, put me on the list! Great work!

 

[patracy]

One of my other hobbies is high voltage/telsa coils/other electrical oddities. And we're constantly looking for a better means to ballast pole transformers and such. The other day I saw where someone cannibalized a electric stove range and use the heating elements and sockets to make a adjustable/switchable ballast array. This could be used in this same capacity here and the upside is you could arrange it in a vertical column and simply allow it to convection cool with no fans or anything. I plan to move to this type of ballasting in the future. A lot more simple. And in the event it fails, it simply opens the circuit.

 

[pclausen]

Started actually building my load bank tonight. I'm using an old Carrier 2 ton outdoor unit to house the whole thing. Its 240V motor and fan will provide all the cooling I'll need.







And here's the outer shell I'll drop the above contraption into:



I will of course remove the compressor and coil first. The breaker panel will be fitted into that rectangular space to allow adjusting the load.

I'll put 4 caster wheels under the bottom to make it easy to move around.

 

[Mullaney]

Started actually building my load bank tonight. I'm using an old Carrier 2 ton outdoor unit to house the whole thing. Its 240V motor and fan will provide all the cooling I'll need.

View attachment 859024

View attachment 859025

View attachment 859026

And here's the outer shell I'll drop the above contraption into:

View attachment 859027

I will of course remove the compressor and coil first. The breaker panel will be fitted into that rectangular space to allow adjusting the load.

I'll put 4 caster wheels under the bottom to make it easy to move around.

.
And your plan is to be able to power on some of the load, then a little more?
Really neat looking way to create a load bank too!

 

[pclausen]

Yes. There will be 4 breakers and a double pole double throw switch. It will be wired as follows:



So 3 of the elements will each be wired directly to a 30A breaker. 2 of the remaining ones will be wired in series, with an option to add the 3rd one in series with the first 2.

The table at the bottom of the above diagram shows the possible combinations and loads that I can set.

This is the double pole double throw switch I got:

Amazon.com

 

[Chainbreaker]

Now... if you could only use that as a toaster oven while load testing!

Nice repurposing of an AC compressor housing!