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Do cheap used load banks exist?

larboc

larboc

Limestone cowboy
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Do my work for me! Trying to find a 480v 450kw+ resistive load bank that's mostly ready to go for a decent price and I've only found one, on ebay, for $10k. Why the hell do these hold their value so well? I don't want to keep renting, that's not cheap either.
 
grandpappy used to load test gensets in the early '40s with a barrel of water and a couple big copper plates
more load = more salt in the water

480v might be a bit biteyer than what he was working with, but who knows, he died a boring depressing death of oldness just a couple years ago
 
[486 said:
;n277970]grandpappy used to load test gensets in the early '40s with a barrel of water and a couple big copper plates
more load = more salt in the water

480v might be a bit biteyer than what he was working with, but who knows, he died a boring depressing death of oldness just a couple years ago
Click to expand...

I have done a few of these at Caterpillar facilities, a giant tank of water, with some salt, and a way to raise and lower the plates.
 
[486 said:
;n277970]grandpappy used to load test gensets in the early '40s with a barrel of water and a couple big copper plates
more load = more salt in the water

480v might be a bit biteyer than what he was working with, but who knows, he died a boring depressing death of oldness just a couple years ago
Click to expand...

AvE did that recently with a trashcan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5PZb6HtwIE



OK, bucket.
 
[486 said:
;n277970]grandpappy used to load test gensets in the early '40s with a barrel of water and a couple big copper plates
more load = more salt in the water

480v might be a bit biteyer than what he was working with, but who knows, he died a boring depressing death of oldness just a couple years ago
Click to expand...

450kw=600hp. That barrel of water would be going ape shit.
 
larboc said:
450kw=600hp. That barrel of water would be going ape shit.
Click to expand...
he said that it boiled pretty good, but these were iirc like 400hp or so tank engines they were loading down to test exhaust stuff (he worked at donaldson)

I'd imagine it could have easily been a fabricated tank of "suitable size" just being called a "rain barrel" for brevity's sake.
Maybe use an IBC tote with the top chopped off.
 
subybaja said:
AvE did that recently with a trashcan. twIE[/video][/URL]

OK, bucket.
Click to expand...

I just can't watch his shit.
Last video I watched he was breaking off friction drills trying to run them in a bridgeport series 1 with nowhere near enough HP
 
Call a heater company, and ask them to build you one. It’s a heater and breakers, not exactly rocket surgery.
 
I worked in a large computer facility back in the day. We sometimes had to go into the power room (big fucking switch gear) and reset a UPS or MG set. Didn't wear any PPE and was lucky that we didn't get hit with an arc flash. Watch a few youtube 's on arc flash and it was "NOPE, get somebody else to move that switch". Down the road; the company implemented a policy where only qualified people wearing PPE were allowed in those rooms.
 
[486 said:
;n278002]
he said that it boiled pretty good, but these were iirc like 400hp or so tank engines they were loading down to test exhaust stuff (he worked at donaldson)

I'd imagine it could have easily been a fabricated tank of "suitable size" just being called a "rain barrel" for brevity's sake.
Maybe use an IBC tote with the top chopped off.
Click to expand...

Depends if this is backyard stuff or "official work" stuff, and also depends how cool your boss is.

My boss isn't cool with fun shenanigans. I've been trying to talk them into letting me set up a "trailing cable test facility" so I can find microscopic faults in our 600 volt GGC jumbo cable. It's a shielded conductor cable and it gets steel hairs stuck into it sometimes. Causes a ground fault that cannot be felt by simply giving the cable a hand job.

My plan is to set up a rig where we lay the entire length of cable on beach sand or whatever, connect 600 volts across the faulted conductor and ground and let the fucker burn. Smoke=the problem.

Nope. I'm the kook and instead we just keep cutting lengths off the cable until it's too short to be useful.
 
Most load banks are adjustable so you can step load the gen-set. Also they seem to weigh a ton. Most of the trailers they are bolted to seem stout.
 
cj3a said:
Most load banks are adjustable so you can step load the gen-set. Also they seem to weigh a ton. Most of the trailers they are bolted to seem stout.
Click to expand...

The 500kw unit I'm looking at on ebay for 10k is 1000lbs and fits in a shortbed pickup
 
Muckin_Slusher said:
Depends if this is backyard stuff or "official work" stuff, and also depends how cool your boss is.

My boss isn't cool with fun shenanigans. I've been trying to talk them into letting me set up a "trailing cable test facility" so I can find microscopic faults in our 600 volt GGC jumbo cable. It's a shielded conductor cable and it gets steel hairs stuck into it sometimes. Causes a ground fault that cannot be felt by simply giving the cable a hand job.

My plan is to set up a rig where we lay the entire length of cable on beach sand or whatever, connect 600 volts across the faulted conductor and ground and let the fucker burn. Smoke=the problem.

Nope. I'm the kook and instead we just keep cutting lengths off the cable until it's too short to be useful.
Click to expand...

My boss would be cool with it but the sponsor would give a WTF look and a half wondering what he paid for.
 
Muckin_Slusher said:
Depends if this is backyard stuff or "official work" stuff, and also depends how cool your boss is.

My boss isn't cool with fun shenanigans. I've been trying to talk them into letting me set up a "trailing cable test facility" so I can find microscopic faults in our 600 volt GGC jumbo cable. It's a shielded conductor cable and it gets steel hairs stuck into it sometimes. Causes a ground fault that cannot be felt by simply giving the cable a hand job.

My plan is to set up a rig where we lay the entire length of cable on beach sand or whatever, connect 600 volts across the faulted conductor and ground and let the fucker burn. Smoke=the problem.

Nope. I'm the kook and instead we just keep cutting lengths off the cable until it's too short to be useful.
Click to expand...

Just get a Megger hipot. Should be able to thump the cable and find the fault with out destroying it. Or you can set it to proof/burn and pretty much smoke it out. Doesn't really work well for pilot wires. But any phase or ground it should. Our dragline cables are 8k after a splice I proof/burn them to 16k.
To the op, resistor bank out of a large locomotive or haul truck should work you'll just need a big rectifier too, unless your going to build three separate banks.
 
hooligan shmulligan said:
Just get a Megger hipot. Should be able to thump the cable and find the fault with out destroying it. Or you can set it to proof/burn and pretty much smoke it out. Doesn't really work well for pilot wires. But any phase or ground it should. Our dragline cables are 8k after a splice I proof/burn them to 16k.
To the op, resistor bank out of a large locomotive or haul truck should work you'll just need a big rectifier too, unless your going to build three separate banks.
Click to expand...

There is a cool instrument called a Time Domain Reflectometer. If the cable is shielded this instrument will zero in on the fault to within a few inches. I have done a poor mans version using a pulse driver and an oscilloscope. This works well if you have two or three cables of the same type and known length. :smokin:
 
larboc said:
Do my work for me! Trying to find a 480v 450kw+ resistive load bank that's mostly ready to go for a decent price and I've only found one, on ebay, for $10k. Why the hell do these hold their value so well? I don't want to keep renting, that's not cheap either.
Click to expand...

Don’t seem like a bad price if it is in good condition. If fans and motors, controls for step change, temp monitors, and associated breakers work.

I use them often and when you look at all that is going on with them I see why they rent and cost so much. Supply and demand also.
I use both resistive and reactive depending on what the customer wants to see on the test.

Hooking to a motor like has been said would work but your going to have to load it with a brake or some kind of water pump and then the associated equipment to get your load after start up.

Tying to the utility is always easiest but syncing, protective relaying, and breakers always are not in place.

Please take video if you go the 55 gal drum test.

Quite positive that a certain company mentioned earlier in this thread don’t use water tanks.
Just tested six 5 mW generators for them and used a reactive load bank.
 
I was going to suggest the salt water tank myself, but not for 400 kW. If I did the math right, that much energy will boil about 3 gal/min..... need a pretty big tank for that to have any hope of providing a stable load for any length of time.

Biggest problem I think you'd have trying to cobble something up would be load regulation and adjustment as well as stability of the load.
 
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