Author Topic: Watts vs Amps and will my generator take the pressure  (Read 1705 times)

Steffan

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Watts vs Amps and will my generator take the pressure
« on: January 02, 2013, 05:51:37 PM »
Here is the question, the generator puts out 100W. I will need to run heated grips and charge a SatNav as well as the usual lights and etc.

How do I go about determining if the generator has enough oomph or if I will end up with a flat battery on the side of the road?

Is it just a  matter of adding up all the relevant watts for each?

Thanks

Steffan

johnr

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Re: Watts vs Amps and will my generator take the pressure
« Reply #1 on: January 02, 2013, 07:18:05 PM »
well youve 100w o play with, so, tot up what drainage on the batery you will have. its just simple match, forget about volts and amps. assuming you have 12v neg earth, add up everything, now its not necessarily all about keeping under 100w, cos stuff like indicators and brake lights might take you over your alloted amount, but you will not have them on all the time, so, headlight at, lets say, 55w, means you have just 45w to play with, heated grips may take you over that leaving you with a flat battery eventually as you use more power than you can put back. stop and tail lights use 21w and 5w, indicator bulbs use 21 watt each, just do the maths. 100w isnt a lot, i suspect you are going to have to compromise. you might save valuable watts by fitting led lamps to your lights, perhaps a super bright led sidelight so you can run without the headlight until its propper dark.

Richard

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Re: Watts vs Amps and will my generator take the pressure
« Reply #2 on: January 02, 2013, 09:14:50 PM »
Is this a 6v or 12v system ?

Which zed are we talking about ?

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Steve Lake

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Re: Watts vs Amps and will my generator take the pressure
« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2013, 10:03:11 PM »
to keep your load to a minimum... fit as many LED items as possible, stop/ tail come in all sorts of fittings so should be easy.... indicators are cheap now.. but you'll need a modified flasher.... also front side light.....     this lot will save you quite a few watts (and be more reliable).... does your bike requirea  charged  battery to run?... if it does you'll need to be careful not to run it down won't you... once you've sorted out all the items that are going to present a load to your system.... get/borrow a digital ammeter... stick the meter on 10A. (10a x 12v = 120w) .disconnect the battery lead connect the meter in series with the lead to the battery, start the bike.. switch all the loads on...your looking for a charging current whilst under full load... or... you could set the meter to 20v dc... put the meter across the battery terminals... check the reading with everything off... should be 12.3 - 12.6 approx.... then with engine running at 1000 rpm and everything on... reading should be, as a minimum the same...ideally higher.... if its lower then you'll be into a slow discharge of the battery.

steveD

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Re: Watts vs Amps and will my generator take the pressure
« Reply #4 on: January 02, 2013, 10:34:56 PM »
Steffan, I have fitted a GAMMATRONIX LED to my bikes' system. Despite the bike being new it has an inherant problem with the Reg ' Rec connector, which incidently raised its ugly head at Llanthony recently.
I have resolved the problem connector but for peace of mind I have kept the LED 'gizmo'

This LED thing shows the output from  the battery and will show overcharging or undercharging and has in the past shown me when I had a problem in the charging system before I discharged the battery too much. I think they are about £10 on ebay and I personally think they are invaluable.

Hope this helps. Steve
If I'm not working I'll be away on my bike camping!

Richard

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Re: Watts vs Amps and will my generator take the pressure
« Reply #5 on: January 02, 2013, 10:51:31 PM »

Carbide Lamp emergency backup ?
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johnr

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Re: Watts vs Amps and will my generator take the pressure
« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2013, 12:43:28 PM »
it must be 12v is he is talking about charging a satnav and heated grips. however, if the bike has ignition that requires power from the charging system, then that throws a whole heap of other problems up. i suppose the first question should be, why do you need this sort of stuff on your bike? heated grips are ok, but handlebar muffs might be more practical and more effective,
wha bike is it and why do you need this stuff?

Richard

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Re: Watts vs Amps and will my generator take the pressure
« Reply #7 on: January 03, 2013, 01:08:54 PM »

Its just that some of Steves Zeds are 6v but he has fitted 12v conversions to some.  I suspect he is thinking of a trip to Germany in the winter so heated grips and muffs would be advantageous.  It is probably one of the MZ 125s - ES or TS.  The Powerdynamo systems are rated at 12v and 100w, there is one on my sons 125.  Very nice piece of kit it is too.

The 250/300 conversion is rated at 180w which is rather a lot more.

As many LEDs as possible would certainly help.
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johnr

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Re: Watts vs Amps and will my generator take the pressure
« Reply #8 on: January 03, 2013, 10:58:26 PM »
but 100w isnt much and i wouldt like to have an electrical system that was running flat out all the time to just power the basic equipment you took with you on the rd.

Andy M

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Re: Watts vs Amps and will my generator take the pressure
« Reply #9 on: January 04, 2013, 07:28:12 PM »
Heated grips run to about 35W. Satnav topping up a charged internal battery is under 5W.

100W is low. The ignition will run to 20W, the headlight 40W, losses if it's cold another 10W, tail light 10W, brake light on 10% of the time 2W..... comes in at about 15W spare on a cold wet day. Enough for the sat nav and not much else.

If we are talking 12V MZ smoker, mine would run heated grips for about 30 minutes in the hour at motorway speeds all day every day all winter. Leave the grips running for 400 miles (London-Leeds-London) and you'd be looking at dim lights and a fair bit of kicking to get the swine to start before the monday morning commute. This was back when a waterproof map was the height of navigation technology this side of the iron curtain and on the other side you just asked someone who wasn't wearing a trench coat!

Andy

Steffan

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Re: Watts vs Amps and will my generator take the pressure
« Reply #10 on: January 05, 2013, 02:15:58 PM »
The upside Andy is that if you replace all the available bulbs with LEDs one ought to have enough to be going on with..just.

Steff

Richard

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Re: Watts vs Amps and will my generator take the pressure
« Reply #11 on: January 05, 2013, 06:48:37 PM »
Perhaps the answer is to fit all the LEDs you can and then run it every half hour or so.  Under muffs.
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trophydave

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Re: Watts vs Amps and will my generator take the pressure
« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2013, 10:39:25 PM »
My ETZ250 was happy running a heated vest.The only change from standard was an electronic voltage regulator rather than the old mechanical tin can type.

guest1696

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Re: Watts vs Amps and will my generator take the pressure
« Reply #13 on: August 09, 2013, 08:43:16 AM »
Here is the question, the generator puts out 100W. I will need to run heated grips and charge a SatNav as well as the usual led light and etc.

How do I go about determining if the generator has enough oomph or if I will end up with a flat battery on the side of the road?

Is it just a  matter of adding up all the relevant watts for each?

Thanks

Steffan


I think the generator will be able to take the pressure there should be no such problem