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There has been a discussion lately concerning alternators. There's an excellent article in the April 2001 issue of Custom Planes. I don't remember who posted it, but they were correct, 60 amps X 14 volts = 840 watts, which is a little over one horsepower. Even at 50 percent effeciency (conservative), that's still only a little over two horsepower at full load. Hardly enough to worry about. Alternators have two advantages over generators. The first is that they provide nearly full output at idle. A generator doesn't start charging until about 1500 RPM. Second, alternators are more reliable. In a generator, the current producing coils rotate and the magnetic field producing field winding is fixed. Generators convert the AC created by the rotating armature by means of a mechanical commutator. The full generator output flows through the commutator and carbon brushes. In an alternator the magnetic field producing field coil (low current) rotates and the current producing coils are fixed. The field coil receives it's current through a set of sliprings and brushes. There is mechanical wear but there is no commutation, so no arcing. The high current AC is converted to DC by solid state diodes - no high current moving parts. Sorry to bore you with a doctoral dissertation on alternators but the article is well written and informative. Dave N93971 --------------------------------- to unsubscribe send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ____________________________________________________________ T O P I C A -- Learn More. Surf Less. Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Topics You Choose. http://www.topica.com/partner/tag01
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