Some of you may be wondering how we test the discharging of one the largest automobile battery packs, without actually having the batteries in the car. Well, the answer is we use a loadbank. A loadbank is basically a big box, with a fan forcing air over a series of resistors. These resistors can be switched to come online when required, thereby changing the loadbank’s resistance to our required value.

So, we hook up the batteries to this device, draw about 35 amps from the batteries, and this discharges the whole pack in a little under 2 hours. It’s fantastically simple, works really well, and the with the by-product being lots of heat, it made the garage nice and toasty over the last few days of winter!

However, we would not have been able to afford a loadbank facility to test if hadn’t been for the help of Hillstone Loadbanks. Hillstone design and manufacture a whole range of loadbank products which are simple and safe to use. An extremely friendly company to work with, RGE is very grateful to have them onboard as a sponsor.