View Full Version : AC inverters for car use?
phamine
12-30-04, 05:05 PM
How many watts do Laptops use? Is a 70 watt power inverter good enough? Any specific brand should I be looking for?
That should be plenty, actually I used to use one of these: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1818511&cat=96391&type=19&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A3947%3A96391 for a couple of years. Now I use the big and just made my own connector for it to plug into a powerpoint/lighter plugin. During the summer I run my notebook 24/7 in my work pick-up and have a little extra power in case I want to run something else, like charge up my PDA.
Depends on what your laptop needs. Mine needs 90w, more than most...
sunrunner20
12-30-04, 07:09 PM
Mine takes 30W, still trying to find one for my needs. Think I will just spend a little money and get a fanless 90w one.
Oh, there is an equation to figure out how many Watts your laptop needs. But, I forgot what it is :( I'll go figure it out again.
XunknownX
12-31-04, 02:17 PM
I've been looking for something to power my bad boy. I know the inspiron xps takes a lot of juice since te battery doesn't last long. Wondering if that device from wal-mart posted above would suffice.
Mine is a targus, works on an airplane as well. Does up to 90w, more than almost any lappy i've seen...
sunrunner20
12-31-04, 05:13 PM
Unfortunately targus has crappy laptop support, The closest most people are going to get is to mod their own tip for there laptop.
TheGreySpectre
12-31-04, 07:47 PM
what do you mean by tip ?
btw saw your sig, dream theater rules :D
sunrunner20
12-31-04, 11:51 PM
How does it work?
Targus Universal Power Chargers use patented technology to power multiple devices with just one charger. Use the tool below to find a Tip for each device you want to charge.
-- Quote taken from the Targus website's "Tip Configurator" Text may be copyright By Targus (proper credit when due)
The Targus adapters change their output and output size/polarity though a tip.
And I do believe you are the first person to comment on my quote, I guess I should put a credit line after it. I’ll do it in the morning, parents are bugging me about going to bed.
Bout the only problems with chargers like targus that I've found are:
1. Cost is usualy high
2. If you travel a lot of different places the tips can be hard to replace/find
3. You can only charge or run one device at a time.
I've been using power inverters for about three years now, like I said earlier 24/7 May thru Sept. I run a road construction crew and am on the road for weeks at a time and got tired of trying to find some place get tips or fuses for specialty stuff. With the smaller power inverters, there cheap and still provide good surge protection. I now run a 1400 watt so I can run other things also, since the price was so close and the size isn't much different. Now I just bring my regular AC adapter with and can charge in the motel at night or just leave it running in the pick-up.
:D Also works great when travelling with the kids, runs two laptops with thier own dvd's and charges the batteries for the gameboy's at the sametime (Think my kids might be spoiled, but they travel quiet :o ).
sunrunner20
01-01-05, 01:00 PM
I have traveled quiet for years. Laptops are great, and Gameboys are helpful too! My only problem is that I need to spend the money on a AC inverter, laptop can’t run on battery’s during the 12 strait driving trips my family takes.
FYI: age = 16
I've been looking for something to power my bad boy. I know the inspiron xps takes a lot of juice since te battery doesn't last long. Wondering if that device from wal-mart posted above would suffice.
Im pretty sure your iXPS is like my 9100 and needs 150w.
:eek:
If you try to use the cigarette lighter with this much of a draw, you'll probably kill the battery in your car before your alternator has the chance to recharge it... either that or you'll continuously burn out the fuse for the lighter.
The best way to go imo is to hardwire an inverter into your car, 6 or 8 gauge line from the unit direct to the battery. It's under $100 for a decent sized one and about an hour to fully install under a seat. This way it is just like having a regular AC wall plug in your car hidden away in the back on under a front seat.
Some cautions - watch the wattage and amperage, don't confuse "surge" wattage with "continuous" wattage. If you hardwire make sure you have an inline fuse close to the battery as an 8 gauge line can do a lot of damage if it overloads. Most of the cheap units are very inefficient, meaning they draw a lot of battery power and put out variable power levels which is bad for your equipment. The more expensive units will draw less power and deliver a "clean and steady" power. An RV/Trailer shop may have what you need, but watch the prices.
Most car cigarette lighters are fused for 30 amps max. Since "PIE" power = current x voltage' that would give you 12x30=360 watts from the lighter before blowing the fuse. I don't believe thy make an alternator under 35amps and most modern systems use 50amp and up alternators. When running my Toshiba with a 600mhz P3 I could leave it run all night without running the battery down, however if I let it run 48 hours without starting the vehicle it woud drain the battery to the point it would'nt start. If you've got 6 or 7 hundred bucks, by all means go to an RV place, but you realy don't need 1.5kw setup to run a laptop and watch dvd's or whatever.
Shoot my dual Xeon only uses a 550watt power supply. That power supply I linked to earlier will run any laptop out there that I've heard of, the Targus type adapters are only rated for 120watts of power.
I'd love to have one of these http://www.campingworld.com/browse/products/index.cfm?deptID=3&subOf=183,55&prodID=4514 but it would realy be overkill.
This is a close match to what I've run for the last two years: http://www.campingworld.com/browse/skus/index.cfm?skunum=26904 I made a connector to plug it into my powerport in my pick-up, it'll run out of juice and shut itself down before it blows the fuse.
I was actually refering to XunknownX more than anyone else because of the higher than normal wattage his lappy needs. ;) And I've seen cig lighter fuses pop from something as small as a cell phone charger or a radar detector. IMO for extended use it just isnt worth the risk and I would rather hard wire it than use the plug.
And I never said to go spend several hundred dollars on a inverter. Most of what I said is the same as what you would want in a desktop psu. Clean, reliable, and efficient power.
I could just use a generic 400w psu in my desktop and it will probably never give me any issues. But I would rather spend more and get a psu that is proven to be reliable and efficient. See what Im trying to say? :beer:
im almost sure my dell here at peak pulls over 130W....stupid prescott...
Anyways, for $24 shipped i picked up a 400W colemen inverter off ebay...works great. Carputer, here i come!
sunrunner20
01-02-05, 04:14 PM
IMHO anything faster than a 2.0ghz cpu in a laptop is a waste.
random person: “Ohh yea! my laptop’s CPU beats yours!! I've got a 3.0ghz Prescott!”
Sunrunner20: "Why do I care my 1.2ghz Celeron is enough for everything you should be doing on a laptop"
*half hour later"
random person: "**** where is a power outlet"
Sunrunner20: "Lol, There are no power outlets on an airplane; I guess your CPU ate your batter as a snack, while mine is still at 75 full capacity"
IMHO anything faster than a 2.0ghz cpu in a laptop is a waste.
random person: “Ohh yea! my laptop’s CPU beats yours!! I've got a 3.0ghz Prescott!”
Sunrunner20: "Why do I care my 1.2ghz Celeron is enough for everything you should be doing on a laptop"
*half hour later"
random person: "**** where is a power outlet"
Sunrunner20: "Lol, There are no power outlets on an airplane; I guess your CPU ate your batter as a snack, while mine is still at 75 full capacity"
In alot of cases your right. However, I concider mine more of a 'portable desktop'. ;) And btw, with the right power settings I can get 2-3 hours out of my lappy with no problem. Of course mine rarely leaves the house so I dont mind using a plug.
I'll take 2-3 hours out of a desktop replacment lappy over a 5 hour word processor. Unless you're away from power for long periods of time (which i am not) than why not get a power NB? There's always the option to get a second battery.
Dont let me mis-lead you into thinking I can play HL2 2-3hrs on the battery. ;) But for normal tasks like surfing the web and such i can do it. I can watch a normal length dvd on battery power as well. And btw, I have the smaller battery with the built in subwoofer.(12 cell i think?) There is a 16 cell available for my lappy without the sub which would extend usage time alot.
My ASUS L5800GA is a power pig, 150watts. It is classed as a desktop replcement though. In my car I have a 700watt invertor permanently wired into the power system of the stereo. A 4ga wire from fron to back splitting to 4, 8ga wires. 3 for amps and one for invertor. MiniITX system going in soon to tune the stand-alone fuel system, and play MP3's and DVD's also of course.
Celeron_Phreak
01-03-05, 04:27 AM
AMD Phreak uses a 500WATT inverter in his car I believe, but we use it to configure routers while we're on a job site as well. So if you do end up putting an inverter in your car (I do), you can still use it for other things besides just your laptop.
That should be plenty, actually I used to use one of these: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1818511&cat=96391&type=19&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A3947%3A96391 for a couple of years. Now I use the big and just made my own connector for it to plug into a powerpoint/lighter plugin. During the summer I run my notebook 24/7 in my work pick-up and have a little extra power in case I want to run something else, like charge up my PDA.
Hey, I bought the same one for my laptop. Now I use the inverter for all sorts of stuff. Its great for camping
This place has a load of the inverters:
http://store.yahoo.com/brohmsonlinesales/dctoacpowin.html?referrer=google
Celeron_Phreak
01-14-05, 12:12 PM
My vote is on getting a Vector or a Coleman. Quality of their products is great :)
{PMS}fishy
01-15-05, 10:16 AM
I have an APC Pnote AC75. Its 75w and my laptop just so happens to be 70w. So it worked out quite nicely. The unit clean the power too, and also comes with an adaptor for the airplane plugs you see in business seating.
I bought a 150w Belkin off Ebay for $10 and it runs my lappy great, well its kinda overkill considering my Toshiba PIII lappy only pulls 40w :D
HA HA HA. I love your avatar JDXNC :D
Check this out: I'm tempted
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=42201&item=6728360738&tc=photo
That should work for pretty much any laptop. eh? :beer:
Here's another one that doesn't look too bad. I was reading up on them and according to the site you can power up to 150W through the cig lighter and after that you have to use the hardwire method. This is nice cheap inverter that would work for anything I would need it to eh? LOL
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-XaRrpRtJB63/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=850&I=539XP175P
Annoyingrob
01-15-05, 11:58 AM
Ah, power inverters, the greatest creation ever.
I can rember when a buddy of mine, and myself needed a power inverter for our wardriving. We went to Canadian Tire (Canada, obviously), and picked up one of their motomaster 200w inverters. It comes with options to hard wire, or plug into the cigarette lighter. It also has a display to show you input voltage, output voltage, and output wattage. It was cheap, less than 100 bucks, and was able to power our matching P4 2.8ghz laptops, even while charging the batteries... but.... it does draw a fair amount of current, and would cause the cigarette lighter voltage to droop, which causes its low voltage alarm to start going off. In his car, we had to hard wire it onto his power cap for the stereo to work properly. My car worked fine with the cigarette lighter, but it has a 130amp alternator.
Well, I was just digging around in my Teg and it looks to be inconvenient to run wires from the battery to the passenger seat so I'll probably go with the cig lighter route. Probably run the wire from under the seat through the consol and out through the emergency brake hole to the cig lighter so I don't trip on the wire or have to remove the carpet. Although removing the carpet doesn't take that long. I was just having a hard time removing the consol around the shifter. Seems to be held in behind the cd player somewhere........ have to do some research on that.
{PMS}fishy
01-15-05, 02:59 PM
Well, I was just digging around in my Teg and it looks to be inconvenient to run wires from the battery to the passenger seat so I'll probably go with the cig lighter route. Probably run the wire from under the seat through the consol and out through the emergency brake hole to the cig lighter so I don't trip on the wire or have to remove the carpet. Although removing the carpet doesn't take that long. I was just having a hard time removing the consol around the shifter. Seems to be held in behind the cd player somewhere........ have to do some research on that.
Peel back the carpet on the passengers side foot well. You should find yourself a few grommets in the top of the floorboard, that run right into the engine bay. Jam a coat hanger through the hole, through the firewall insulation, and into the engine bay. Look under the hood to see where it comes up, and run your power from there. Its pretty easy. Its what I did on my Teg.
All right, I was in the pass. side footwell. Peeled back the carpet and there was rubber soundproofing there. I didnt' see any grommets though. The problem was that the rubber covers the entire thing. There is a rubber grommet inside the engine bay by the battery tray. Do you think pushing the hanger through that side would work? The problem is that I don't know where the grommet leads so if it isn't behind the carpeting I'll be poking it into something else........
{PMS}fishy
01-15-05, 07:16 PM
You can always give it a try. Look up high. The gromet Im talking about is at the top of the floor board, almost under the dash.
You can always go through where the heater core feed lines go, but that tucks you up deep in the dash, and you might need to pull the dash to get at it.
Yeah, I looked under there. I didn't see a rubber grommet but I saw this clear white plug up there. I couldn't get it out though to see if it led anywere. I'll check again though.
If I can be so bold...
Can anyone suggested a reliable/safe inverter (made/model please) for the exact uses described in this thread? I'm going to be taking a trip across the country soon and this is going to be required equipment for the vehicle. :)
I've read through the suggestions and links from the prior page, but only the first Walmart linked inverter (no offense, but I wouldn't trust it) was suggested based on someone's experiences with the device...
I was reading up on them a little more and it sounds like the modified sine wave inverters give power fluctuations and so if your laptop requires very clean power the mod. isn't the way to go. I'm assuming that you just have to try it and see but if it doesn't work they said that you will have to use a pure sine wave inverter which costs a heck of a lot more.
I'm not sure Pinky but Walmart does carry good brands. In my area they have BBA Radeon vidcards, Sony everything, Logitec products. Granted their auto you have to pick and choose from but their sound department isn't too bad. You just can't buy the Super Ultra Bass Megawoooooofer that's bright colors etc :D
PINKY: I've used the brand walmart sells for 3-4 years now without any problems, still use a surge protector too though just in case :eh?: . That said if your still worried about the modified sign wave here's a link to a pure sine wave that's about the least expensive I found after a few hours of searching: http://www.invertersrus.com/inv300ps.html , now I've never used this brand before and still say you should use a surge protector!!!
The brand in my earlier link I leave hooked up and running when I start and shutoff my vehicle and have never had a problem with the cig lighter as "most" lighter sockets power is cut off when starting the vehicle. On the subject of surge suppresion, one of the things a realy good surge suppresor will have (such as a UPC) is battery to absorb any major surges. Kind of like the one in your car.
If your just going to use this for a regular laptop even the 150watt inverter should provide plenty of power. This site has about the lowest prices I could find on the net and includes the cables needed to get up and running on most products they sell.
One thing more for running thru the firewall in your vehicles, make sure you either buy a grommet or make one, if you have a hole that's not being used with a plug in it remove the plug and put a hole in it for protection against rubbing. :D
Pinky, the one I have is a Belkin ACAnywhere 140 Watt Inverter( thought it was 150w but I guess I was wrong) it has served me very well and never had a single issue with it. It has over current protection and such and is actually designed for use with laptops. I picked mine up for around $10 on ebay plus shipping.
Here's a link for more info on it: http://www.crsstore.com/beac140wapoa.html
{PMS}fishy
01-16-05, 10:11 AM
Pinky:
This is the one that I have. Its only 75w though.
http://www.apcc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=PNOTEAC75
If you need more power look at these two bad boys.
http://www.apcc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=13&fs=Mobile%20Computing
Cool, thanks to all.
I think I'll try the APC 350W at compusa :).
{PMS}fishy
01-16-05, 10:46 AM
Cool, thanks to all.
I think I'll try the APC 350W at compusa :).
If you want to run it at 350w you have to hardwire it to the battery. If not than you are limited by the fuse on your cig. lighter, which is often 20amps.
I don't have a caculator so you can figure it out.
VA=W
I was looking at the fuse on the Teg and it sayed 10A so you might want to check that out. Maybe I looked at it wrong ( very possible) but you will probably want to hard wire it anyway just to keep from blowing that fuse. Dont' forget to put a fuse in line with the inverter if you do hardwire it.
Asked a car audio forum about inverters and got a few responses. Here's one of them
I've used the cheapy walmart inverter on my laptop with no problems. Sound comes through the stereo fine and the car doen't seem to be too overtaxed with the extra draw from the electrical system. I would imagine that the power supply for your laptop would be able to regulate an problems from the inverter if the should arise. I just wouldn't use an inverter for a motor home w/o a fuse.
Most of the power inverters will only draw enough to power what your using plus 10% for the conversion. So you can run a 700watt inverter off of the lighter or powerpoint as long as you only powering a laptop or two.
I've found mine to just not power anything that draws too much as the inverter just gives the low voltage beeps before it blows the fuse, but that's just been my experience. I do run a 700watt inverter off my lighter, more power, more power, always been that sort of person you know. :D
{PMS}fishy
01-16-05, 09:02 PM
Most of the power inverters will only draw enough to power what your using plus 10% for the conversion. So you can run a 700watt inverter off of the lighter or powerpoint as long as you only powering a laptop or two.
I've found mine to just not power anything that draws too much as the inverter just gives the low voltage beeps before it blows the fuse, but that's just been my experience. I do run a 700watt inverter off my lighter, more power, more power, always been that sort of person you know. :D
Right, but what I was saying, was don't expect to pull 350w out of a cig. lighter, its just not going to happen.
You do know that that 700w inverter that you have is only pulling battery voltage x fuse amperage (fuses blow at 80-85% load)
XunknownX
01-16-05, 09:14 PM
I picked up an inverter from wal-mart today. You can see it at: http://www.powerexperts.com/products.html#inverters
Part #0900-35
I was wondering. With Mobile Monitor I'm able to see the charge rate and how much wattage I'm using when not plugged in.
Charge Rate: 60w
Drainage During Use: Up to 85w
Drainage During Boot: Up to 105w
Now my question, how will the inverter perform and the laptop do if it is running and charging at the same time. Also, here are the specs on the laptop plugin:
AC Adapter:
Input voltage: 90 to 264 VAC
Input current (maximum): 2.5A at 90 VAC, full load
Output current: 9A max. at 4-second pulse, 7.3 - 8.1A continuous
Output power: 150W standard
So am I good to go or off to the return line at Wal-Mart?
The only thing I see is that my laptop has a input of 19.5V ---- 4.62A. You might want to check yours. I'm not very knowlegdeable on that sort of thing but it seems that if your laptop is drawing more than twice the max current of the inverter something has to go. You might blow the inverter or the fuse in your case Im thinking. Fishy is probably a better person to ask when it comes to this though. Just looking at it.......... it almost seems like it isn't meant to power a laptop: to that end, here is a inverter that looks like it is meant to do that. I'm not sure about this site so use resellerratings but this looks to be a good inverter
http://www.electronicsoutfitter.com/store/pnoteac140.html
Don't just run off and buy this because I said so though. Wait for some other people to post in. I'm just posting something I noticed.... doesn't mean it's fact or if the inverter you bought can't power the laptop..... I'm just not sure.
{PMS}fishy: Right, so if your laptop uses 150watts of power, plus the 10% needed for the inverter loss you still only come up with 165watts total power used. 165watts didvided by 12volts = 13.75 amps. :)
One of the points I was trying to make is the power inverter does'nt suck full power in less it's being drawn, they only produce what's being called for just like the power supply in your desktop.
I have been running a 700 watt power inverter in my pick-ups for over two years now running off of the lighter, and not blown any fuses. That's running my old Toshiba Portege 7200 with a DVD player. The reason I don't hardwire it is so when I switch vehicles I can just plug it in. It WILL run two laptops without blowing the fuse or running out of power! The above mentioned Toshiba, and a Desknotes with a Via 700mhz and DVD.
When I tried to use my 1/2inch drill the power inverter could'nt pull enough juice and just started beeping while the drill just would'nt run. No I'm not running oversize fuses in my vehicles, I'm power hungry but not stupid :clap:
(Steps down from soapbox :rolleyes: )
{PMS}fishy
01-17-05, 02:07 PM
{PMS}fishy: Right, so if your laptop uses 150watts of power, plus the 10% needed for the inverter loss you still only come up with 165watts total power used. 165watts didvided by 12volts = 13.75 amps. :)
One of the points I was trying to make is the power inverter does'nt suck full power in less it's being drawn, they only produce what's being called for just like the power supply in your desktop.
I have been running a 700 watt power inverter in my pick-ups for over two years now running off of the lighter, and not blown any fuses. That's running my old Toshiba Portege 7200 with a DVD player. The reason I don't hardwire it is so when I switch vehicles I can just plug it in. It WILL run two laptops without blowing the fuse or running out of power! The above mentioned Toshiba, and a Desknotes with a Via 700mhz and DVD.
When I tried to use my 1/2inch drill the power inverter could'nt pull enough juice and just started beeping while the drill just would'nt run. No I'm not running oversize fuses in my vehicles, I'm power hungry but not stupid :clap:
(Steps down from soapbox :rolleyes: )
All I am saying is that its stupid and a waste of money to purchase a 700w inverter, and connect it to a power source that can only apply 150w. You might as well have just bought a 150w inverter and kept the extra $ in your pocket.
FYI, thanks to Pete and others for the recommendations. I ended up with the 350W APC from compussr for $60. I really only bought the 350W just in case I had a use for the extra 175/200W from the battery, otherwise I wanted 150W with the 2 plugs built in (one for the laptop, one for a misc battery charger for phone or other gear). In any case, for $60 I got a quality inverter that I tested yesterday. Thanks again.
XunknownX
01-18-05, 12:37 AM
I picked up an inverter from wal-mart today. You can see it at: http://www.powerexperts.com/products.html#inverters
Part #0900-35
I was wondering. With Mobile Monitor I'm able to see the charge rate and how much wattage I'm using when not plugged in.
Charge Rate: 60w
Drainage During Use: Up to 85w
Drainage During Boot: Up to 105w
Now my question, how will the inverter perform and the laptop do if it is running and charging at the same time. Also, here are the specs on the laptop plugin:
AC Adapter:
Input voltage: 90 to 264 VAC
Input current (maximum): 2.5A at 90 VAC, full load
Output current: 9A max. at 4-second pulse, 7.3 - 8.1A continuous
Output power: 150W standard
So am I good to go or off to the return line at Wal-Mart?
Update. Alarm went of on inverter. Heading back to wal-mart.
you can calculate the wattage used by looking at your lappy's power supply
don forget to use the input voltage and that 1 AC volt = .707 DC volts
also you might want to note that some advertized inverters use peak to peak voltage instead of rms to be safe multiply your laptops requirements by 1.414 to be on the safe side.
you should also note that your lappy can consume as much as twice as much power if it is running and charging the battery at the same time. also burning a cd consumes a redciolous amount of power.
i have a 75 watt inverter that advertizes that it can hold a load of 150watts for 3 secs and 120watts for a minuite or two. my lappy causes the breaker to trip instantly if the battery is charging and the lappy is turned on.
also it wouldent be a bad idea to invest in a surge protector because power from a vehicle seems a little less reliable especially if you have a 500 watt or greater sound system thumping all the time
XunknownX
01-18-05, 05:39 PM
Apparently using that inverter I chose and posted earlier in this thread is not good enough to handle my Dell XPS. When I attempted to use it, the inverters alarm sounded immediatly and it blew the cigarette lighter fuse.
XunknownX
Quote:
Apparently using that inverter I chose and posted earlier in this thread is not good enough to handle my Dell XPS. When I attempted to use it, the inverters alarm sounded immediatly and it blew the cigarette lighter fuse.
AC Adapter:
Input voltage: 90 to 264 VAC
Input current (maximum): 2.5A at 90 VAC, full load
Output current: 9A max. at 4-second pulse, 7.3 - 8.1A continuous
Output power: 150W standard
You either got one power hungry laptop there or you had a faulty inverter? What size fuse is in your lighter? Just running the numbers from your AC adapter even at 90VAC and 2.5amps is 225watts max needed. 225watts/ 12vdc= 18.75amps for the current needed, if you include 10% for inverter loss looks like 21.5 amps needed at max draw. I would think if you had a 20amp circut you would be okay.
Most of my use has been in American cars which evidently have more current available to the lighter.
Please post back with what you find out.
{PMS}fishy
01-18-05, 07:47 PM
Fuses blow at 80%
A 20amp would trip at 18amps, 18.5amps won't work.
XunknownX
01-19-05, 03:07 AM
XunknownX
Quote:
Apparently using that inverter I chose and posted earlier in this thread is not good enough to handle my Dell XPS. When I attempted to use it, the inverters alarm sounded immediatly and it blew the cigarette lighter fuse.
AC Adapter:
Input voltage: 90 to 264 VAC
Input current (maximum): 2.5A at 90 VAC, full load
Output current: 9A max. at 4-second pulse, 7.3 - 8.1A continuous
Output power: 150W standard
You either got one power hungry laptop there or you had a faulty inverter? What size fuse is in your lighter? Just running the numbers from your AC adapter even at 90VAC and 2.5amps is 225watts max needed. 225watts/ 12vdc= 18.75amps for the current needed, if you include 10% for inverter loss looks like 21.5 amps needed at max draw. I would think if you had a 20amp circut you would be okay.
Most of my use has been in American cars which evidently have more current available to the lighter.
Please post back with what you find out.
The fuse for my cigarette lighter is 10Amps I believe from what I saw on the fuse diagram for my 98 honda civic. I'm going to end up hard wiring straight from the battery.
My laptop is very power hungry. You can see the specs on it in the "Post Your Laptop Here" thread that I started.
Yeah, that's what I read on my car too. 10 Amps. There's no way that I could power one without hardwiring. Is your engine bay easy to get to from the cockpit?
{PMS}fishy
01-19-05, 11:29 AM
Yeah, that's what I read on my car too. 10 Amps. There's no way that I could power one without hardwiring. Is your engine bay easy to get to from the cockpit?
If you only need 15 or 20 amps, you could wire it from the fuse box. Check the manual, and the inside over the the fuse box, there are always extra open spots. Just check the maxium that you can use. Also don't forget to use the proper gauge wire for your specific application.
Fishy, you're so smart lol :D Actually that's a good idea. Keeps your battery tips clear too.
XunknownX
01-19-05, 01:43 PM
If you only need 15 or 20 amps, you could wire it from the fuse box. Check the manual, and the inside over the the fuse box, there are always extra open spots. Just check the maxium that you can use. Also don't forget to use the proper gauge wire for your specific application.
TOo advanced from me. My knowledge of cars is slim to none in comparison to computers.
like i said in my last post your laptop consumes more power if the battery is charging while you are using it. i've seen like 400 watt inverters from shucks for 40 bucks that hook straight up to the battery.
XunknownX
01-19-05, 11:53 PM
like i said in my last post your laptop consumes more power if the battery is charging while you are using it. i've seen like 400 watt inverters from shucks for 40 bucks that hook straight up to the battery.
When I blew the car lighter fuse, the laptop was fully charged.
Okay, you got me worried that I might have to hardwire my inverter so I had to test it with my new laptop. Laptop is a Winbook J4, P4 at 2.4ghz no HT, laptop boots but inverter squeals intil the laptop is booted up but then runs of 20amp lighter. I think I'll have to bite the bullet and hardwire it in.
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