26 Apr
2011
26 Apr
'11
11:59 a.m.
FWIW, bicycles use a wide variety of bulbs, in a wide
variety of
voltage ratings. Here's one page
Good suggestion!
Having never riden a bicycle (and never intendign to), I am not sure of
the rules over here now, but IIRC at one time only specific voltages and
wattages of bulbs were permitted in bicycle lamps in the UK. What a daft
regulation!. So such bulbs may not be as easy to get over here as elsewhere.
But I suspect 6V tungsten-halogen bulbs are available without too much
difficulty and would make ideal dummy loads
http://www.reflectalite.com/halogenpage.html
listing a bunch of them, in voltages from 2.2 V to 6 V and wattages
from 1.25 W to 20 W. (Not a recommendation, they were just what came
A 6V 20W blub would draw pver 3A, and would be a suitable dummy load for
many PSUs.
[...]
I don't expect these are very cost-effective, but
they should be more
available (for the time being, anyway, until LED's take over there
too) than antique-auto bulbs. But you may want/need to run several in
Admitteedly it was about 10 years ago that I bougth them but I had no
problems getting 6V car bulbs then. I suspect they are still made if you
hunt around.
parallel to add up the required power.
Sure, and that's easy to do...
-tony