Quote:
Originally Posted by Christ
I can't imagine the heat generated in that setup...
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Ha! yeah.. bit of heat.
Deviating from the original topic here, the complete rundown of the older Escalade's system as it's configured today:
Because we're a manufacturer and not competing in any SPL event or whatever, we run a 14.4v electrical system and our plug-in cascade power supplies are 15v.
four TE4001D amplifiers, one per 2 ohm voice coil on two JH9922 subwoofers. Each amplifier hand selected to produce within +-1% of each other, at 2660w rms @ 2 ohms (as a rule we underrate our amplifiers, TE series are underrated by 20-25% in general)
two TE1501D amplifiers running four T8510-44 10"subwoofers, each amp is seeing a 1 ohm load and producing appx. 1700W RMS
These switching amps are about 89% thermally efficient at maximum output so for their combined 14,000w RMS output they draw a little under 16,000 watts from the battery bank at full boogie and produce a little more heat than one of those little plug-in space heaters or a good hair dryer.
The balance of the sound system (the part which is not subwoofers) is class a/b type amplifiers, two TE1004 amps, each of whose 4 bridged total channels is seeing a 2 ohm load, which means they are able to deliver a continuous 1900 watts output but at only 58% efficient they draw about 3,300 watts from the electrical system and produce almost as much heat as all the subwoofer amps combined.
That makes just a hair over 19,000 watts total, continuous system power at 14.4 volts, or 1320 amp draw, ignoring the rest of the vehicle's power systems which all are present and operate as stock (even has AC still) Since each alternator is a 400A monster custom assembled by Powermaster, they are all operating below maximum capacity to produce that power, though the engine REALLY complains about the load when it's being run at a show that can't provide us with mains power.
Power is supplied from each alternator to the bank of storage batteries and capacitors by 00ga copper cable (both poles, that much current would melt the frame if we tried to use chassis ground to carry it) and 0ga from the battery bank to each of the amplifiers, through individual fuse blocks.
For the record I didn't build any of it, Jason Planck and Craig Marsh are the craftsmen responsible for system design/layout/construction.
To maintain some semblance of topic here, the take-home from this is yes you can run multiple alternators from an engine, and yes they can connect in parallel to a bank of batteries.
You just can't connect batteries in both parallel and series at the same time, like to charge from 12v alternators and run a 48v (or whatever) electric motor.
You can, however, use a 12v system to run a massive audio amplifier, which technically would make a damn fine (and uncommonly handsome) high voltage speed controller...