how to charge laptop while driving?

Split from General / Technical for discussion of anything electrical, electronic... 12v, Inverter, Satellite, Headlights, flashlights etc.
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Flame
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how to charge laptop while driving?

Post by Flame »

1998 Chinook, I'm a new laptop owner. How is everyone "charging" their 110 volt laptops while driving? Just buy a cheap inverter to plug in the cigarette lighter hole? If our refrigerators can run on battery power then there must be a inverter somewhere? Right? I'm only talking about WHILE DRIVING down the road. Thanks
1998 Concourse V-10 Triton....AKA...Land Shark
chin_k
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Re: how to charge laptop while driving?

Post by chin_k »

Is your fridge running on DC while running down the road? Most have LP and AC, but a few pay more to let them running on DC. If i t is on DC, there is no need for the inverter.

For laptop, you can check the input power and see what it need. The safest thing is to get a inverter (I don't think any Premier comes with an inverter from factory) that is rated continous power at or higher than the power supply needed. For example, if your laptop use a 110 VAC power supply rated at 100 W, then you get a 100W continuous inverter that may have a peak wattage of 150W or 200W to handle that.

One issue to look out for is that the type of inverter that you are getting. Most older inverter use PWM (pulse width modulation) and a few electronic devices may not like that. It is possible that your laptop converter (the power supply) may not like the PWM inverter, and you may have to get one thst is pure sine wave, which will cost more. I "think" most laptop power supply is not too picky, but you never know.

There are a few inverter that you can simply plug into the cigar socket and it should be big enough for most modern laptops.
2000 Concourse dinette, on 1999 6.8L Ford E350 Triton V-10 Chassis
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caconcourse
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Re: how to charge laptop while driving?

Post by caconcourse »

I bought this 150W inverter for less than $20 for our high speed phone chargers to use with the 12V socket near the sink: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KT ... UTF8&psc=1

It also includes a couple of USB ports for USB chargers, and should work with your laptop.
Clay
2001 Concourse
Santa Barbara, CA
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