what can my electrical system support?

[xluben 10+ year member]

i have a 99 honda accord with a stock alternator and a cheap battery. my voltages seems stable (12v off, 14v idling) but i'm going to be doing the big three with 1/0 in the near future anyways.

i belive the stock alternator is 80amps (i looked it up online a while back, but now i can't find it).

assuming a good voltage (14v) and a high efficiency, class d amp (90%), ohm's law tells me i can only get about 1000W !!!!

does this mean, i can ONLY get a 1000W, unless i upgrade my alternator?

or will my battery start giving me current when the alt can't keep up (at a lower voltage)?

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[jacka 10+ year member]

well, it will only run 1000 watts when you listen to your music maxed out. so with 1000, you can still get little dimming at max volume, however you'll be fine during mid-high level volumes. it depends on your listening habits IMO, however if you can upgrade the alternator, i say go for it.

 

[xluben 10+ year member]

but there's no way i could do more than 1000W?

i was looking at going to about 2000W and new subs for my next upgrade, but i guess there's no point.

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

there are a LOT of people running more than 1000w worth of rated amp power on relatively small electrical systems. It depends a lot on the particular car (its stock electrical demand), how well you install your amps, your listening habits etc.

I would say you can probably run 1200w or so given a good job on the installation and average listening habits. If you don't blast it all that much you might be able to run more w/no real problems.

Then again, if you blast it non-stop, 1000w might be about as much as you can run w/o killing the battery/alternator.

 

[xluben 10+ year member]

so i can, or i can't, get more than 1000W from my electrical system?

it seems as though my alternator won't do more than 1000W, but will my battery help out (with its stored charge), and give me more current (power)?

 

[CJL 10+ year member]

get a HO alt,it will be better in the long run

 

[xluben 10+ year member]

get a HO alt,it will be better in the long run

not an option. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

so no one knows whether or not i can actually get more than 1000 usable watts?

 

[vernisog 10+ year member]

I have the same 80 amp in my 04 accord and 800 wrms dimmed a lot.

 

[thatkidbob 10+ year member]

you can pull as much current as you want.

but it WILL destory your alternator in the long run, and it shortens battery life significantly...

by the way... its definitely an option:

http://verizonsupersite.com/4alterstartcom/pages/store/skudetail.nhtml?profile=highoutputalternators&uid=10245&returnURL=http%3A//verizonsupersite.com/4alterstartcom/highoutputalternators

if you don't get an alternator, at least get a deep cycle battery so that you won't end up killing your battery and alternator simultaniously... instead it'll just be the alt that dies //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

edit: btw... you should subtract at LEAST 30 amps from your alt output for your car's electrical needs, which leaves you with 50 amps. assuming 90% efficiency you've got more like 630 watts on tap before your battery comes into play. also, you must consider the fact that your alt likely puts out much less amperage at idle, probably more along the lines of 40 or 50 amps.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

even if you could get 1500-2000 watts out of it and use it conservitively it wouldnt be a huge difference over 1000 watts unless you were using more woofers or had more channels to run mids and highs...