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Originally Posted by Jaxonalden
Think of your battery as a bucket of water and the alternator as a small facet. Now all of electrical components all take some "water" out of that bucket and the facet tries to keep it full. I don't know about your car but I have heated seats, Bose amp, electric windows/mirrors and seats, deployable spoiler, all the electronic hardware (ECU, ABS, PSM, fuel pump) and the convertible top. I'm sure I missed a few things but thats allot of drain on a battery. It's all about electrical capacity. Don't forget your putting a strain on the alternator trying to keep up...if you have a small battery.
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A small correction... the battery is used to start the car. Once running, the alternator supplies *all* the current to run the car, and it also recharges the battery. The battery is simply a storage device used for starting and for supplying power when the alternator isn't spooled up.
Having a smaller battery will not put a bigger strain on the alternator. After all, it still takes the same amount of energy to start the car, so the alternator has to replace the same amount of energy back in the battery after the start. And it's already sized to handle all those electrical items you listed.
If you add big amps for your stereo, and you run them at loud, thumping levels all the time, you may exceed the alternator's output capability. The fix there is to upgrade the alternator. A bigger battery is a patch at best. If you're exceeding the alternator's output capability on a nearly constant basis, the battery will eventually be drained, but that's an extreme case.
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