more powerful alternator

[Alec]

Hello Rob,

so from your statement the limitation is no longer wattage, (as with technology, the varience in brightness is less relevant to wattage) but luminance, so there is still a limit.

The real problem with modern high output lamps is that they do dazzle worse than less bright lamps, fairly obviously. This would not be a problem if all our roads were flat and level, but undulations, bumps (including speed bumps) put the beam directly into the eyes of oncoming traffic. Perhaps because I live in a rural area that I encounter a less than ideal road surface compared to others but I am frequently dazzled.

Alec

[bmcecosse]

Any H4s I have seen are 55/55. The earlier sealed beam lights are 60/45 although there were some 75/60 units about (I always used these) and possibly still are available ?

[RobThomas]

I think that the authorities have noticed that wattage no longer covers the amount of light so they removed watts as a restriction without adding a caveat for normal/halogen bulbs. Since I've never seen a Lux or Lumen meter I guess it will be hard to prosecute someone over light output? The lens units must now be E-approved but our cars can get away with Brit Standard units although, suprisingly, US style centre dip bulbs are legal over here. They would, I THINK, allow you to operate in the UK and europe without having to put adaptors on the lenses (yellow no longer required in France)

The cheapest way to get more light might be to run larger wires and a relay. Less voltage drop means more watts due to less resistance drop along the length of the wire?

[Alec]

Hello Rob,

"he cheapest way to get more light might be to run larger wires and a relay. Less voltage drop means more watts due to less resistance drop along the length of the wire?"

Exactly, what is perhaps not widely known is that filament lamp output is very sensitive to voltage, the loss of a volt on a 12 volt rated lamp will have a significant loss of output. I see so many posts about people complaining of poor lighting and want to 'uprate', when in most cases a good dose of maintenance (including cleaning inside the lamp and it's lens) will make a huge difference. Uprated lamps fitted to a system with poor wiring will not get the full benefit of more powerful units.

Alec

[RobThomas]

I just had my MM lowlight lamp lenses resilvered (actually chromed, but who'd notice) and the result has been very pleasing. £5 each but I had to clean off the old nickel by myself.

With regards to the original posting, I guess 1200W is peak output and therefore your audio kit will not consume 200 amps all of the time. It ought to give you a clue as to the power budget required in the paperwork that comes with it. The caravan battery (leisure battery) will also not have a suitable starting output since leisure batteries are designed for long, slow discharge against the high discharge rate needed to crank a starter motor.