Quote:
Originally Posted by cherrington17
ok.. lesson time.
Voltage is the amount of electrons present. Amperage is the FLOW of electrons, thus, a quantity of power. Your amp when it hits hard, will draw the same amount of Voltage, but a higher amount of Amperage. Your car's battery has 12V @ X amount of Amps. (abbreviated to A)
When your engine is running, its recharging the battery, and powering the car as well. Your stock alt does ~14.4V @ 110A. Which varies as your car's rpm raises and lowers. (higher rpm = more amperage) At idle, the output is somewhere around 85-90A.
Your battery normally holds 300-400A (varies due to ambient air temp) Once thats drained (due to chemical nature of lead acid batteries) they don't recharge well.
If your planning a system, get a optima red or yellow top from Silentalero. If your not, stock battery is fine. Get a overdrive pulley for your alternator from ExcessiveAmperage.com (cargodz is the member on here who owns?/works there) If your going big w/ your sound system (ryan can quote Watts per power drain if you need specifics) then upgrade your alternator to a high output one. (i opted for high output AND overdrive pulley)
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Just to add an extra note here Cherry. The Amp figures you stated are what the alternator is capable of. Your system will only draw as much amperage as it needs. If you have nothing electrical on at idle (cept the engine of course) there will be a lower current draw than if you have one bad-azz stereo going full tilt.
I say this, because some people think that installing a higher output alternator will harm their system cause it puts out more amperage. Regardless if you have a 20amp alternator, or 400amp alternator (just picking #'s) your system will only draw as much current (amperage) as it needs.