42 Volt Electrical Systems

[SMILLER@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

BMW CCA member Larry Ayers is a physicist who specializes in lighting.
 He gave me permission to share this with you:

> ...yesterday, I decided to venture down to the SAE Lighting Committee
> meeting in Monterey (well, actually Seaside).  Among other things,
> they  mentioned that starting in 2002, some cars will have a 42 volt
> electric system (some proposals would retain a 12 volt system for 
> lighting).  By 2010, commentors expect all cars to use 42 volts.  The 
> rational is to decrease the size of alternators and wiring harnesses;
> Ford said that right now that have maxed out alternator size for some
> vehicles at 135 amps.

I didn't ask Larry how they came to choose 42 volts, as opposed to some
multiple of 1.5 volts as we are used to with batteries, but then I'm not an
electrical engineer.  I expect we'll be seeing more on this in the future.

(That may be the closest to breaking news that I've ever posted to the
Digest!  Or are all of you already aware of this, and I'm the last to know?)

Scott Miller
Golden Gate Chapter
BMW CCA #44977

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