electrical power/consumption

[rusty]

Does anyone know what sort of spare power the alternator has, I want to add some extra light for the cold, dark wet conntry roads, but I am not sure if it will hold up a couple of 55watt mini driving lamps.

I see some of you have twin headlamps, are these 2 x 60/55watt halogen units?

Any suggestions?


Thanks

Rusty

[McF]

Your alternator should be producing 345W @ 3,000 rpm. Take off power consumers:
Headlight (I would assume main beam on unless you have a relay to switch additional lights off when main beam goes on)
Tail light (2 bulbs)
Brake light (2 bulbs)
an indicator flashing (2 bulbs)
instrument lights
anything else you have wired in (GPS etc)

get the bulb ratings and add everything up, throw in a few more watts for good measure to cover whatever the engine needs and some wastage within the system.

My earlier health check about electricity = voodoo magic still applies!

Two earlier threads well worth looking at:

growell.proboards49.com/index.cgi?board=tech&action=display&thread=557&page=1

growell.proboards49.com/index.cgi?board=tech&action=display&thread=299

Good luck and if you have a few minutes - post back with news

[rusty]

McF thanks for the reply, while chating to an electrician today, suggested the following:-

connect volt meter across battery terminals read voltage
start engine bring up to 2000 read voltage
switch everything on bring revs up to 2000 and read voltage

connect proposed lamps and relay to battery and power up
read voltage again at 2000 revs, if it is over 12.5 volts all should be ok, if it dips below 12.5 probably too much load as system may have deteriorated over last 13 years.

He suggested 2000 revs as you may ont be certain to keep the revs up to 3000 plus for a long period

In theory your route gives consumption of about 130watts not including the cooling fan, do should give 225 watts spare so I wil give it a try, saw a lovely full Xenon conversion with ballast etc for around £70 that would improve the dip and beam but I could just do with a bit more rather than improve the headlamp.

I will let you know how it goes.