How many watts

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

it can't be on mine because just running 1,000 to a sub i go down around 11 volts on the amp. That is terrible. And i cannot run the air in my car when i have the subs playing loud at all.

What, are you suggesting a flaw in his equation? No way!

 

[JuicyJeff 10+ year member]

Oh well I don't have ac. I hardly dim at full volume. On stock. But I think my alt is 110 in the focus

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

well maybe there isnt i just thought i read it on another forum my bad

No problem. I already stated the reasons why there is no set equation. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[86civicSI 10+ year member]

get a big kinetic and don't worry about it. i ran a fosgate bd1000 and a punch 800a2 on my highs and all i had was 2 1 farad caps in a 91 civic with like a 60 amp alt for several years NEVER had a problem and i'm still running that set up in a acura cl now with a kinetic 600

 

[Alpine4life89 10+ year member]

Oh well I don't have ac. I hardly dim at full volume. On stock. But I think my alt is 110 in the focus

How many watts to your subs again?

 

[hockeytoker 10+ year member]

it can't be on mine because just running 1,000 to a sub i go down around 11 volts on the amp. That is terrible. And i cannot run the air in my car when i have the subs playing loud at all.

well when u get ur alt just get like a lil kinetik Hc800 for around $120 that might help.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

get a big kinetic and don't worry about it. i ran a fosgate bd1000 and a punch 800a2 on my highs and all i had was 2 1 farad caps in a 91 civic with like a 60 amp alt for several years NEVER had a problem and i'm still running that set up in a acura cl now with a kinetic 600

Even if your car used 0% of the alt's output, and your voltage remained at 14.4, that would only equal 865 watts of output. Just to keep your comment in perspective.

 

[Alpine4life89 10+ year member]

My entire system is probably only seeing 600 watts then. That sucks.

 

[hockeytoker 10+ year member]

My entire system is probably only seeing 600 watts then. That sucks.

dude just buy an HO alt and a batt for the back maybe upgrade ur big 3 since thats pretty cheap an ur all good

 

[Alpine4life89 10+ year member]

dude just buy an HO alt and a batt for the back maybe upgrade ur big 3 since thats pretty cheap an ur all good

I will in a month probably.

 

[GAM3OVR 5,000+ posts]

it is possible to measure how many amps your car draws with things on.

simple have a fully charged battery, turn the car on and unhook the alt.

measure how many amps of current draw you takes up with the way you usually have it running, w/ A/C and etc and then go from there

 

[Alpine4life89 10+ year member]

it is possible to measure how many amps your car draws with things on.
simple have a fully charged battery, turn the car on and unhook the alt.

measure how many amps of current draw you takes up with the way you usually have it running, w/ A/C and etc and then go from there

I heard that your car barely uses any amps to power the accessories unless you turn the AC on and/or everything else on at the same time. It's just something i heard, i don't know.

 

[hockeytoker 10+ year member]

I will in a month probably.

word

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

A few years ago I had a couple different GOOD mechanics tell me that alts are generally sized for about 40% headroom above the car's maximum current draw. Meaning with a 100A alt you'd never have less than 40A available for aftermarket electronics. And assuming you're not running EVERY stock electrical component ALL the time it would be reasonable to expect you may have 50-60A available most of the time.

it is worth considering the built in headroom is probably there as much for longevity of the alternator by keeping it's duty cycle down than it is to be loaded up with aftermarket electronics.

As far as what you can run -- it definitely varies, and it seems to vary pretty widely. Most of us have probably read posts of people with 500w and 100A alts that are struggling, but on the other hand I know of people running close to 2kw on about the same size alt with no problems at all. One of the mods at SD ran 1900 for years in a Saturn with a 95A alt and never had an issue.

My personal experience has been with 2 cars, and a few different alts. I drove a loaded '88 t-bird with an undersized 75A alt for several years. I eventually got the system built up to right around 1000w rms. It ran OK, not great. I still had pretty noticable dimming when I was at high volume -- even on the highway. It would drop to mid 12v's at idle. 2 years of that and the alt finally went out. I replaced it with a salvage 110A and that was a STRONG alt. It barely seemed to flinch - dimming was ALMOST un-noticable. Idle voltage was mid-upper 13's.

Now I'm driving a Contour with a 110A alt. I WAS running a little over 1kw, then upgraded to 1300. Ran ok, dimming was insignificant, but the alt went up in smoke 3-4 mo later. Idle voltage was always about 14. I replaced it with a reman 110A, and had an auto electric shop offer to do a system check with the stereo at full output. I watched the clamp meter swing from 30-65A - that was on full volume Bass Mekanik - and a very weak battery. They said the current demand would drop a bit after the battery is fully recharged.

Just a few weeks ago I upgraded again to 1500w. Everything still runs fine. No big 3, just a supplemental 8 ga from the alt to the batt.

With a 95A alt you SHOULDN'T have much trouble with 1kw, but as others have suggested, you won't know for sure until you try.

 

[spencer321 10+ year member]

to the guy who said your car draws 80 amps itself... what the hell is running offroad lights or something?!? "technically" your overhead amps times your static voltage would be what you have available but it doesn't work like that your batteries store energy, music is dynamic so there is not a constant pull of maximum wattage. its not a yes or no question, however, there plenty of guys on here who are running 1500-3000w systems on stock alts they just have a couple big batts, or some of them just have that monster C&D battery which would probably be good for at least 2k watts its supposedly the equivalent of an hc3800 or something like that