Building a 200 watt dump load

A dump load is used to drain off excess power. This design uses a few 50watt light bulbs and
with some parts from the junk pile, shouldn't cost more that $20 to build

One of our forum members has put together this excelent article on building high power
encapsualted resistors from common heater elements. Encapsulated resistors can disipate a
lot of heat without destroying themselves, making them perfect for dump loads.

This was a project to show how old electrical elements from stove ovens, dishwashers and
clothes dryers etc. can be used to fabricate good quality load resistors. It is extremely easy
and in most cases free of charge (if you can find one in council hard rubbish or hanging in
the back shed).
First find an element, the longer the overall length the better. This one was rated at 2000
watts (2Kw) at 240 volts. Or 8.3 amp.

There is a steel conductor inserted in each end that the terminals attach to. The conductor
goes approx 75mm (3”) into the element . It can be easy checked with a magnet where it
stops, as the element itself is non magnetic. The section with the steel conductor in it is of no
use.

Measure the overall lineal length of the element between the two steel conductors each end.
(use a piece of string) The element above gave me 1100mm of element between the
conductors.

It is better to calculate the amps per resistor lower than required, as the resistance can be
lowered later to increase the amps but cannot be done vice versa.

If we have an element rated at 2400 watts for 240 volts, and wish to use it with 24 volts then
we could cut it into 10 sections and have 10 x 240 watt resistors. I would recommend that the
resistors be only made to half their rated wattage to keep the heat per resistor lower and use
2 in parallel to gain the same wattage. For this reason we would cut the element into 5
sections only, and get a total of 1200 watts with 5 resistors in parallel (5 amp per resistor)
Under full rated load (10 amp) they will glow red as they would normally if used in your oven.
For a element of 2000 watts at 240 volts, with a total length of 1100mm

watts = volts squared divided by ohms

therefore ohms = volts squared divided by watts, so
(240 x 240) / 2000 = 28.8 ohms. (total length resistance)

You want 4 amps at 29 volts = 116 watts.

ohms = (29 x 29)/116 = 7.25 (same formula as above)

length of 29 volt resistor = total length of element x (7.25 / 28.8)
which is total length x 0.251 or approx 1/4 of the total length.

For different wattage and length elements, substitute actual values in the above formulae.
Next is to cut the element each end, where the steel conductor stops. This is easy done with
a hacksaw and a cut made “around” the outer casing for about half the circumference, and
with a gentle back and forth bending to snap the outer in half.

Gently pull some of the nichrome wire out of the mineral lining by about 20mm. Cut the
nichrome wire so 10mm is protruding out of the element both sides. Gently straighten out the
bends in the element so it is one straight length. This is easy to do by hand, then lastly, tap it
straight with a rubber mallet.

Measure and mark the element into the calculated resistor lengths required. Cut element into
sections with hacksaw as previous. Note keep the nichrome wire short as it gets caught in
everything when working with it and can/will be stretched out longer later. This gave me 5
resistors around 220mm long.
The resistors were buffed on a wire wheel as It is intended to silver solder onto them later. At
this point it is up to you, how you choose to mount them. Here is two simple examples.

Holes drilled in a ceramic floor tile for 3/16 bolts

This looked a little boring and I decided to take it further to show what can be done and how
easy it is to do. The next intension was to mount the resistors in a old atx psu casing. The fan
was to remain, so space is tight.
To make the resistors more compact to fit the resistors were bent around a piece of 30mm
tube to form a horse shoe. To aid in the bending two short bits of ½” tube were slide over the
resistors and then hand bent around the 30mm tube held in the vice.

A mount is made by punching holes through a piece of sheet metal and inserting the
resistors into the holes. The resistors was then silver soldered into place.

I think the outer casing of the elements is a form of stainless steel and silver solders very
easy if clean. There is no risk of damaging the resistor with heat, if heat is only applied to the
outside casing. (they do glow red in your oven)
TESTING AND ADJUSTING THE RESISTORS

Connect one resistor to the required voltage, with a suitable amp meter in the line. Switch on
power and record the amp meter reading. Switch off power. If the resistor amps is lower than
desired this is good. It is easy to increase the amps per resistor by simply stretching/pulling
more nichrome wire out from the inside of the mineral core.. Pull out 50mm (stretched) of
wire and move the supply wire back in close to the resistor and retest the amps. Repeat the
process to the desired amps is obtained. Repeat procedure for other resistors. This way all
resistors can be adjusted to be close to equal to one another.

As can be seen in the photo below the nichrome wire outside the element will glow red in
operation (6.4 amps in this case). This was a less than desired situation as it generated heat
out near the terminal.

To reduce the resistance outside the element a short piece of 1mm dia. Copper wire was
inserted into the ceramic core 5-10 mm and the nichrome wire wound around it tightly out to
the terminal. This reduced the heat here greatly and gave support to the nichrome wire as it
gets very soft when its hot.

In an earlier element made, some of the mineral core was scratched out, and the ends
packed with Teflon tape (standard plumber thread tape) this worked well and gave better
support to the copper wire and formed an insulator out to the end which handled the
temperature very well. Pink Teflon tape used

Note:- the pink tape is a much thicker tape than the white plumbing tape. Either will work fine
just need more layers with the white.