Good ideas for DIY Generator load bank OR how to feed 25kw back to the grid?

[SmallCog]

What's the best way to tell? Rumor has it Generac are moving this model to their own custom engine. Booo. Wouldn't purchase that

It is a later-model (2000-ish) 4G64 SOHC 16V.  There was a 115HP LPG version and this is probably pretty much exactly that just slowed down to 1800RPM and derated.

Fingers crossed it lasts a long time! I really like it, its SO much quieter than the 3600RPM air cooled models

Those motors were (are?) very common in delivery vehicles here.

Also frequently used in forklifts and the like, as well as mitsubishi sport / rally cars

[Berni]

I have a lot of loud, fast, server fans kicking around. So my thinking would be to mount a bunch of those up, and have them blow the air. a 15K RPM 80mm fan moves quite a lot of air. I think I could build something cool with them

I do have a pool actually, how would you suggest I get the water through? Divert pipes or just dump something in the pool?

Might still need a few of those ridiculusly fast fans to cool it, id guess one of those is about the blowing power of a hair drier. The suggestion of using electric oven heating elements is a good one, those should be able to pull 2kW each, So you could make a box with an array of these and a fan to blow air trough it. Not sure how good ones from a junkyard might be since these heaters do die with age. Perhaps you can find a cheep crappy electric grill at your local hardware store, buy a bunch of those and rip the elements out.

As for the pool idea you could just dip some of those big water heater replacement elements directly into the pool. Tho you will want to mount them to a protective board to let you submerge them whole without the water getting to the electrical connections on the back of them. Or i suppose a hacky redneck solution could be to dip the connections in some of that "liquid electrical tape" stuff to protect them from water and just dunk the heater completely. The use of the pool pump is a more permanent type of option that you could leave hooked up. Get something along the lines of a large metal can (some chemicals and bulk paint come in them), mount 5 to 10 of those water heaters all around it (likely on the lid and bottom sides) and put two water ports on opposite sides. Then just put it inline with the pool pump to push water trough the metal can. However you probably want to add some safety cutoff to this (like temperature or flowrate) since if the pump is not pushing water this thing will quickly start to boil and push all the water out due to steam, meaning the heaters are no longer submersed and you get a 'meltdown'

[edpalmer42]

I wouldn't recommend using heat guns or water-cooled heaters in the swimming pool.

The heat guns probably aren't rated for continuous use over a long period of time.

As for the swimming pool, let's see ...... a 220V high power source connected to a big, grounded pool of water that has lots of electrical stuff connected to it.  What could possibly go wrong?