Load Bank?

Guyfang · Aug 29, 2017

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.

Light in the Dark · Aug 29, 2017

I do know I have to stop at Lowes tonight and find a good wire crimper. In working a bit on the internal wiring over the weekend, my basic tool was making real crappy crimps on the .312 connectors. Not a good spot for a poor crimp!

fcbrants · Aug 29, 2017

Change of plans.

Bought four of these beasties:

https://www.sunbeltrentals.com/equipment/detail/1082/0100540/30kw-electric-heater-480v-3ph/

...and towing it all down to Houston (with my 40' RV) to do some drying work.

Wish me luck!!

Franko

Light in the Dark · Sep 3, 2017

Well I drove the ground rod yesterday and proceeded to give my 803 a nice workout.... performed like a charm. No sheet metal on the load bank yet (in case something wasn't right... I didn't want to be undoing all those self tapping sheet metal screws. I only ran it for an hour or so, but the fan kept the 2 5400w elements happy seemingly, and the generator barely noticed they were there. Same goes for the third leg of elements, but I only let them run a few minutes to test for functionality... Im not sure the 550cfm fan I am using is quite up to the task for long term burn of all three circuits (based on some info I read yesterday).

All the same though, works great. Just gotta fully finish it now. Will provide photos of it wrapped in sheet. Thanks

Light in the Dark · Sep 3, 2017

steelypip said:
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?

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.

csheath · Sep 3, 2017

I only run all 3 circuits briefly on mine. Have run the two 5400 watt circuits for a couple hours at a time with that fan and no issues. Elements glow dim so I think they are protected.

I wouldn't see a need to run all 3 circuts for an extended period.

Hard Head · Sep 3, 2017

I also use a Reactive Load bank. Single and 3 phase motors do the trick. My buddy in the shop next to me repairs industrial fans so I borrow some fans from small to about 25 hp to test my generators. When you mix motors into the loads you will really see how well the generator reacts. Load transitions are not as smooth as just resistance loads and you get a better idea of how well the control circuitry responds. Besides, fans are always welcome in my shop!

Reactive/Inductive Load – An inductive load converts current into a magnetic field. Inductive reactance resists the change to current, causing the circuit current to lag voltage. Examples of devices producing reactive/inductive loads include motors, transformers and chokes. When used in combination with resistive load banks, reactive/inductive load bank solutions can simulate real-life mixed commercial loads consisting of lighting, heating, motors, transformers and chokes. In other words, you’re able to evaluate performance of the full power system, including generators, voltage regulators, conductors, switchgear and other equipment.

NormB · Feb 18, 2018

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.

Farmitall · Feb 18, 2018

NormB said:
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.

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.

I'm going with the four 5400w dryer elements for mine. Two in parallel and two in series, cooled by a 240v 10 inch Rotron fan. They will be housed in a home made cabinet of 3/4 aluminum angle stock and some aluminum panels I repurposed.

The fan is just sitting on top of the elements for sizing purposes. It will provide a great air flow through the box from the end. The other end will have some type of screen on it with holes large enough so as not to impede air flow and far enough from the elements that it won't get hot enough to sag or melt.

And yes, that's a gun mount ring in the background.

NormB · Feb 26, 2018

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

CapePrep · Feb 27, 2018

You will see ".8 power factor", which is at 5k watts you still have another 20% to go, which depending on how you do the math, you can get up to 6250 watts out of it. I saw 25amps on each leg when I load test mine. Others have said they are able to squeeze a little more out of them. Of course there are much smarter people here that will probably shoot my explanation full of holes! But, the gist of it is there for you.

NormB said:
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

Hard Head · Feb 27, 2018

Generator sets are rated in kVA at 0.8 power factor lagging.
This 0.8 power factor is not the load power factor. It is a nominal power factor used to calculate the kW output of an engine to supply the power for a particular kVA output.
Example:
output (kVA) : 100 kVA
Engine power output (kW) : 100 kVA x 0.8 = 80kW

The standard power factor for a three phase generator is .8.

Farmitall · Feb 27, 2018

For anyone using the 5400w dryer elements as their load, these are the connector's you will need to slip over the terminals. They are 7.62mm(.312) blade width (female) and will take a #10 wire, possibly a #8 if careful about your crimp.

I used a Thomas&Betts crimping tool and they crimp up nicely on #10 ga stranded wire. They are a little pricey to some but it beats the heck out of trying to use a smaller .250 blade width female connector and spending too much time refabricating it. You only need 8 of them to hook up four elements, maybe a dozen if you want a spare in case a crimp goes bad in the process.

The link: https://www.digikey.com/products/en?keywords=63820-1

lonesouth · Oct 4, 2018

It may be a bit much for an 803

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

bosko · Oct 17, 2018

Can you share part number or link to the hearing elements you use? Do they have thermostats on them? Or do you bypass them?

Farmitall · Oct 17, 2018

bosko said:
Can you share part number or link to the hearing elements you use? Do they have thermostats on them? Or do you bypass them?

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.

I didn't use any thermostats, just a fan.

See my above post for the correct terminal ends for the wire.

lonesouth · Oct 17, 2018

[h=1]GARP DC47-00019A[/h]
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MGMXXAY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I got three of these.

Light in the Dark · Oct 17, 2018

I used the kind Farmitall talks about... $20 something each on ebay (I feel like they were less than that, but I dont recall at the moment) is what I see for them now. They have the nice durable shell around them, which allowed in my case to mount them all together. Someday soon I might actually mount all the side panels up to enclose the tunnel, and give it a bit of camo paint.

DieselAddict · Oct 17, 2018

Man, you guys are tempting me to build a new air cooled load bank.

CURSE YOU ALL! :evil:

csheath · Oct 17, 2018

When I search ebay I always check the USA only box, the buy it now box, then sort by price to find the lowest cost. My elements cost $71.80 which comes out to $17.95 each shipped,

My homemade load bank is nice but if I were doing it over I would probably consider a couple of 240V garage heaters.

Load Bank?

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