To give a detailed and beneficial illustrations from different angles about this question: load bank Funtions, Categories & Applications.
Load Bank Functions: Validating the conditions & outputs comprehensively of the critical standby power system say UPS(uninterrupted power supply), battery bank, generator, transformers, PV system, inverter etc to see if the standby power system operate in their rated technical parameters.
Load Bank Categories & Differences:
- Pure resistive AC load bank(R)
- Most commonly used for cross applications, only serve as the active load power, testing current, voltage, power, energy, power factor(should close to “1”). Generator testing.
- processes includes: steady-state test, transient-state test, setting test, fluctuation test, harmonics test and etc.
- Rack Mounted AC/DC load bank
- Dedicated for NEW data center commissioning application.
- RCD AC load bank(RCD)
- Dedicated for non-linear loads, like telecommunications, computer or UPS industries, with adjusted leading power factor.
- Resistive and inductive AC load bank(RL)
- Dedicated for UPS, Generator & Transformer,providing a fixed power factor. To test the EUT rated technical parameters at their rated power factor.
- Resistive, inductive and capacitive AC load bank(RLC)
- Dedicated for inverter anti-islanding preventative test experiments. Inductive & capacitive reactive load work in combination with the resistive load to provide either a capacitive leading power factor or inductive lagging power factor load profile to test a power system, with adjustable power factor 0.1-1.0
- High Voltage AC Load Bank
- Differences for above load bank categories: While pure resistive AC load bank is the most commonly used for cross applications,
Load Bank Applications:
- UPS
- Generator
- Transformer
- PV Solar System
- Data Center