Thanks for the feedback guys!
The space heater thing could work, but might be difficult to get a consistent result. It would definitely provide an adequate load though! And having the electric company pay ME sounds like a superb idea.
Finnster: You bring up a lot of valid concerns and very good suggestions. However, all those are well out of my means, and even if I could afford such a thing, there would still be the credibility issue.
Ideally, the load would be infinity variable and very high power, and computer controlled. But, that requires building custom interface hardware (USB probably), firmware for that interface, and then software to set the test parameters and read the data back at a high sampling rate. This is the ONLY way to absolutely ensure perfectly consistent testing.
But if I'm gonna go that far, I might as well create a company/service that will be taken seriously by everyone, including battery manufacturers, to be used as the "standard" for test measuring. TBH, this is all beyond me at this point.
So really, this idea is useless for the masses. It would only be good for my piece of mind, and whoever (mostly here) who would trust my findings. Definitely not worth investing thousands on something that won't be taken seriously by no more than a relative handful of people. Again, the title of the thread contains the word "home-brew".
The trouble is, there is no useful data out there except for that link posted earlier of a guy who does something similar - which I haven't looked at yet. So, while we quibble about proper data, battery specs continue to be inflated (or mis-stated) tricking many new people. It's kind of a catch 22.
Hey, if the orginal idea I posted is not exact enough, that's perfectly fine, but someone has to do
something. So, it sounds like between all of us, we know what should be done, but who is gonna invest their time, and most importantly, capital, to get it done the right way?