Is The Load Bank resistive Or Inductive, Air-cooled Or Water-cooled, AC Or DC?
1. What is a load bank?
When it comes to load bank, many people have never heard of it. In fact, load bank is a kind of detection equipment that generates controllable electrical false load on power supply equipment. Therefore, the most common type of load bank (portable air-cooled AC resistive load bank) is like an industrial size hair dryer. It has built-in resistance heating elements to achieve the cooling effect through the air volume of the fan. In addition, the virtual load can be increased or reduced through the load switch. The specifications and dimensions of different load banks are different. Generally, the AC resistive load bank is calculated in kW.
As mentioned above, "portable air-cooled AC resistive load bank" is a very popular product. Many people don't know what it is and how it works. Next, I will decompose it in simple terms and let you know more about the load bank through the following knowledge.
2. Is the load bank movable, portable or permanently fixed?
load banks can usually be produced into permanent fixed installation and movable portable. The permanent fixed load bank is usually an independent fixed device, which can be used to load test all power supply equipment in the surrounding area. Usually, this kind of load bank will be installed around the radiator of diesel generator, which is usually used to test the performance of the generator.
The load bank can also be movable and portable, but the word portable is not just portable in our imagination. They can be as small as a load device with a telescopic handle in a suitcase, or as large as a high-power high-voltage load bank installed on a 48 foot Trailer. Although it is large, it has become a portable load bank because it is equipped with wheels.
3. Is the load bank air-cooled or water-cooled?
In China, about 99% of the load banks are air-cooled load banks. The advantage of air-cooled load bank lies in its simple principle and reliable equipment. All you need is a cool and well ventilated space (preferably outdoors), and you can start the load test.
In addition, some load banks are water-cooled load banks, which can also be called liquid cooled load banks. These water-cooled load banks can be used for mechanical system commissioning. The load bank is not used to test electrical equipment, but to test the heat generated by electrical equipment, and the load bank will be directly put into the cooling environment of the building, which may be chilled water or ethylene glycol, which involves a lot of materials and a considerable number of process flows.
4. Is the load bank resistive or inductive?
We may use resistive load banks most of the time. At the same time, you can also use reactive load bank together. When used with resistive load bank, the load equipment will produce false load with power factor not equal to 1.0 (lagging or leading). In this case, almost all of these tests will be combined with inductive loads, resulting in power factor lag. This is common in factory testing of motor generators and UPS or field testing after maintenance. When it comes to parallel switchgear, testers prefer to use inductive loads so that they can adjust the sharing mode of this total load between parallel generators.
5. Is the load bank AC or DC?
In daily life, we all know that there are two current modes: alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC). In general, the power transmission mode of battery is DC. In addition, the current provided by power supply equipment is AC. According to different test objects, you need a load bank with rated AC voltage or DC voltage. AC load bank and DC load bank work differently according to different test objects, and they cannot be used in general.
