AC load bank

kaiser715

kaiser715

Doing hard time
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Location
7, Pocket, NC
Looking to build an AC load bank to put a load on my generators for my monthly run-in.

Any ideas for cheap/efficient to get about 15kw?

Found this today on weldingweb, uses water heater elements, but would have to use a load of city water each time (or just leave it to fester). AC Load Bank

DP
 
a 100kW suitcase from simplex or avtron will run around $1,500.

But...for 15kW...why not just power up what they are going to run? or find a way to connect them to the house and load shed. Otherwise you are spending money to spend money (burn fuel) at least get something out of it.

BTW super critical operations require 1 annual load bank test for 4 hour ONLY if outages dont include that amount.
 
BTW is this for a home generator, a camper generator or an office building.

My answer will be different for all 3. Also I'm assuming itrs single phase and we don't need to get into resistive\reactive conversations?
 
I got 4 generators at the house, biggest is a MEP003. Exercise once a month, would like to do it with a load. Couple of them have 3 phase, only use it for a couple of shop tools.
 
kaiser715 said:
10 heaters = $$$ plus storage space.
Click to expand...

It was a tongue-in-cheek response. Obviously, Ron is the man to answer this. A big 3-phase motor could give it a startup load then drop down some once running for a continuous load, but it won't be much unless you have something running off it.
 
If it were me Id crank them and let them idle 30 minutes or so 1x a month. And use them heartily 1x per year.

Again NO ONE not hospitals, not data centers, not front line military load bank monthly.

The best answer is to transfer them to the load you intend on carrying.

If you REALLY want a load bank, generator joe has suitcases for under $1,000.
Dont build a water tank. I lost a mentor 15 years ago to that stupidity. Sure it used to be the norm, we know better now.
 
One more thought.
If you know anyone in the national guard they are on GSA schedulle: GSA GS-07F-5964R...
 
Ron said:
Again NO ONE not hospitals, not data centers, not front line military load bank monthly.
Click to expand...

I work at a nuclear power plant. We have 2 emergency diesel generators per reactor. (4 total). We run and load each one once per month. Quarterly we run each one loaded for a full 24 hours. We sync to the grid for load.
Nuclear is special.
 
VortecJeep said:
I work at a nuclear power plant. We have 2 emergency diesel generators per reactor. (4 total). We run and load each one once per month. Quarterly we run each one loaded for a full 24 hours. We sync to the grid for load.
Nuclear is special.
Click to expand...

Right.
Understood. But you dont LOAD BANK monthly.
I know a few other sites that do similar monthly load runs. But I know of no one that load banks monthly.
 
Well, each ton of AC cooling in a house is ~3.5kW. How big is/are your unit(s)? That adds up fast. Emergency heat strips in a heat-pump system also eat power like crazy. If you have a heat pump, check your tag. I agree with simply transferring your house and running it on the gen.
 
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