Quote:
Originally Posted by magnets
Your car's engine has enough power for many kilowatts (>100 kw), but the alternator and electrical system isn't designed for powering stuff. Some cars have an inverter built in, but their usually rated for only a few amps, so the alternator, charging system, and battery don't get damaged.
Teams also use a ton of power. We have an ancient computer that draws 450 watts while running video, three monitors, two pretty high power projectors, a few hundred watts of lighting, 10 robot battery chargers, and 3 drill battery chargers. We've also run all this plus a shop vac, sawzall, mini band saw, and mini bench grinder all at the same time. We don't typically run all this at the same time, but it's happened before. That's quite a few kilowatts.
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Car and light trucks (pickups and full-sized vans) have alternators that have current ratings in the range of 80 to 120A, depending on the vehicle, giving you about 1 to 1.2 kW of output power. That rating is only a peak rating for when the alternator is charging the battery after the battery was used to start the vehicle. It is very likely that the continuous current rating would be half of the stated peak rating or less so you will only get around 400 to 600 W continuous. No, the manufacturers are not going to tell you what the continuous rating is since they play the specmanship game.
All the motor driven power tools you use in your pits will have some sort of current rating printed on them if they meet the UL safety standards. The starting surge current will be several times (3 to 6 X) higher than that continuous current rating printed on the case of the tool. I blew out a 2 kW inverter running such loads off my trucks batteries during Hurricane Rita.