valhalla360 wrote:
SlowBro wrote:
those cheap and inefficient Chinese generators and my van uses less gas per hour idling, despite having a larger engine.
Gdetrailer wrote:
Most car alternators are designed for INTERMITTENT heavy charging
Oh then that's perfect. I have in mind intermittent use, otherwise I would be buying solar.
By INTERMITTENT heavy charging, that means for a few minutes at a time. Basically when you start the motor, it's pulling hundreds of amps to turn the starter for a few seconds...so a few minutes charging at 80-100amps will replace the amp-hr that were pulled. After that it just puts out a few amps to run the lights, radio and other light loads. Nothing close to 150amps.
Typically in the seconds to a minute time frame a alternator might putout more than HALF the rating after startup, batteries can be discharged heavily while starting an engine and the regulator will attempt to put that back into the battery as quick as possible but it may take 15 minutes to an hr to FULLY recharge the battery since the battery voltage goes up as it is charged and the alternator voltage will typically max out around 14.4V so the amperage going back into the battery will taper down very quickly often within a couple of seconds..
It wasn't until you got into the 1990s when autos started to get alternators larger than 35A-60A and the reason was because of additional high power accessories like power windows becoming standard on vehicles.. Most accessories are ALSO intermittent loads, used for SECONDS at a time..
I have repaired alternators, trust me, there is very little space in there to dissipate heat from the regulator, windings and the diode packs..
