You can rent them fairly reasonably: http://www.comrent.com/Catalog/Resistive/ <http://www.comrent.com/Catalog/Resistive/>
Certified data centers need to load test generators on a fairly regular basis to maintain certifications. There is a rental market for them. Another suggestion would be replacement heating elements for stoves or water heaters. 2-4kW isn’t too hard to find. They are usually rated for 220VAC so I have no idea what they will do on low voltage DC. They will either have too much resistance to draw much of a load and won’t heat up, or the cold resistance will be low enough that they will get hot and regulate the current. It should only cost you about $30 to find out. Better yet - buy the replacement element for your water heater at your house. If it doesn’t work out as a load bank keep it next to your water heater. The spare heating element will guarantee the tank will rust out and spray water all over your basement before the installed element burns up. Mark > On Dec 31, 2014, at 2:11 PM, TJ Trout via Af <af@afmug.com> wrote: > > Anyone know of a inexpensive do it yourself way to make a dc constant current > electric load for testing power supplies, lithium batteries , etc ? Looking > for something maybe 2kw+ and the cheapest premade thing I can find is $3500. > Maybe I'll just use a carbon pile load but that will be much less accurate. >
