42 Volts electrical system standard?

moblsv · Outlaw Joined: 11 Feb 2003 Posts: 228

I ran across this at slashdot. It seems automobiles will be converting to a 42 volt system soon. It would make sense that boats would follow for the same reasons stated in the article. I thought many people on here might have a particular interest in how this would affect an audio system.

moblsv · Outlaw Joined: 11 Feb 2003 Posts: 228

oops, forgot the link

http://www.caraudiomag.com/specialfeatures/0307cae_42volt/ Embarassed

Doug · Posted: Jun 15, 2003 4:36 pm Post subject:

I would tend to think great. There would be less of a necessity for a switching power supply inside the amp, since you have a 42VDC rail.

BillJ · Posted: Jun 15, 2003 4:48 pm Post subject:

I don't think that boat manufacturers have nearly the same issues driving them to move away from 12v systems as car manufacturers. New cars have a ton of electronic devices and there are other things that they would like to convert to electric motor driven instead of belt driven (such as the A/C compressor and powering steering pump). It will take a while before autos are all 42v and I would guess that boats would take several years more - so maybe 15 to 20 years or more.

Doug · Posted: Jun 15, 2003 6:46 pm Post subject:

The reason the auto industry is going this way, 42V is to make the electrical/electronics more efficient. Power is power!!! E x I = P, being E = voltage, I = current, P = power. Higher voltage, lesser current, smaller guage wiring needed, lighter vehicle. That is also true with motors, less windings required.

MrBlean · Posted: Jun 17, 2003 8:30 am Post subject:

Doug: Must be an interesting trade-off between the reduced weight of wire and the increased size/weight of the battery. I know there's a lot of wire in a car but I guess most of the savings must come from the motors. Batteries are damned heavy!