Question about Power Inverter for Lancer.

[jolly_tas]

About to go on holiday and am wanting to be able to charge my laptop and camera on the road.

I have found this but not sure as it says it requires a 15amp cigarette lighter circuit.

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... BCATID=680

The other options are these two...

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... BCATID=680

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... BCATID=680

Any info whether these will be ok (as far as 15amp socket goes) is appreciated.

Cheers.

[Blakey]

About to go on holiday and am wanting to be able to charge my laptop and camera on the road.

I have found this but not sure as it says it requires a 15amp cigarette lighter circuit.

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... BCATID=680

The other options are these two...

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... BCATID=680

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... BCATID=680

Any info whether these will be ok (as far as 15amp socket goes) is appreciated.

Cheers.

you will find that, your Cigarette lighter will most likely have a 15A fuse already. and it will be better to go with the 150W can size one, its more compact. and it only uses 11.1A at full load of 150W, 150/13.5(average voltage from a car battery) its about 14V when the car is running.
so even less full load running amps.

best way it to check your fuse, is check your manual, find the Cigarette lighter fuse, and physically check the fuse to see its rating. if it is indeed 15A like it mostly will be, the fuse box will either be down the side behind the panel of the driver side kick panel, near the boot release, or it will be in the fuse box behind the glovebox.

If its just to run a lap top, then the 150W can one will be fine to do the job. Just dont run anymore then one item off the inverter, and Do not use anything with a motor, like a car fridge or power tool. as it will just overload the inverter on turn-on.

[jolly_tas]

just pm'd you Blakey, but you're already on top of it! your a champ!

cheers.

[Blakey]

i hope that helps man. and more questions just ask

[extremepc]

The 240V socket on the round one looks like there isn't much room between the socket and the cigarette socket power lead, if you're going to plug in one of those square AC adaptors it might foul on the cigarette socket power lead.

Why wouldn't you get a multi cigarette socket adaptor and then a propper car charger for the laptop, camera, iphone etc etc.? Just my 2c.

[Bandit]

Dick Smith also sell a nice inverter and it often comes with a bonus 12v 9 can cooler type thing for the car as well.

[Blakey]

The 240V socket on the round one looks like there isn't much room between the socket and the cigarette socket power lead, if you're going to plug in one of those square AC adaptors it might foul on the cigarette socket power lead.

Why wouldn't you get a multi cigarette socket adaptor and then a propper car charger for the laptop, camera, iphone etc etc.? Just my 2c.

main reason being is to not overload the fuse in the lighter socket. if he wasn't charging a laptop with it then yes it would be better to get a multi socket adapter for it. but as its a laptop you wouldn't want to really use the lighter socket for anything else wile doing that.

[extremepc]

The 240V socket on the round one looks like there isn't much room between the socket and the cigarette socket power lead, if you're going to plug in one of those square AC adaptors it might foul on the cigarette socket power lead.

Why wouldn't you get a multi cigarette socket adaptor and then a propper car charger for the laptop, camera, iphone etc etc.? Just my 2c.

main reason being is to not overload the fuse in the lighter socket. if he wasn't charging a laptop with it then yes it would be better to get a multi socket adapter for it. but as its a laptop you wouldn't want to really use the lighter socket for anything else wile doing that.

Har Har, very funny! If he uses the can inverter that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket then the load on the socket is exactly the same (possibly even slight more by about 500mA) than if he used a multi-cigarette lighter adaptor plugged into the very same socket.

An inverter doesn't actually "make" electricity out of thin air , the wattage load on the cars cigarette lighter socket will be almost exactly the same with or without the inverter.

[Blakey]

The 240V socket on the round one looks like there isn't much room between the socket and the cigarette socket power lead, if you're going to plug in one of those square AC adaptors it might foul on the cigarette socket power lead.

Why wouldn't you get a multi cigarette socket adaptor and then a propper car charger for the laptop, camera, iphone etc etc.? Just my 2c.

main reason being is to not overload the fuse in the lighter socket. if he wasn't charging a laptop with it then yes it would be better to get a multi socket adapter for it. but as its a laptop you wouldn't want to really use the lighter socket for anything else wile doing that.

Har Har, very funny! If he uses the can inverter that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket then the load on the socket is exactly the same (possibly even slight more by about 500mA) than if he used a multi-cigarette lighter adaptor plugged into the very same socket.

An inverter doesn't actually "make" electricity out of thin air , the wattage load on the cars cigarette lighter socket will be almost exactly the same with or without the inverter.

sigh you need to learn to read.

but as its a laptop you wouldn't want to really use the lighter socket for anything else wile doing that

the point of putting a multi adapter in the socket is to be able to use more stuff off it. THAT is not something you want to do in this instance, by all means it wont hurt your car, as its already protected by a fuse. but im sure you will like to be replacing your fuse all the time when you overload it.

and having the inverter plugged in is not the same as not having it plugged in. not having anything plugged in there is no current draw. having it plugged in there is current draw completely different.

soon you will tell me a 150W inverter can run a 100W motor.

[extremepc]

The 240V socket on the round one looks like there isn't much room between the socket and the cigarette socket power lead, if you're going to plug in one of those square AC adaptors it might foul on the cigarette socket power lead.

Why wouldn't you get a multi cigarette socket adaptor and then a propper car charger for the laptop, camera, iphone etc etc.? Just my 2c.

main reason being is to not overload the fuse in the lighter socket. if he wasn't charging a laptop with it then yes it would be better to get a multi socket adapter for it. but as its a laptop you wouldn't want to really use the lighter socket for anything else wile doing that.

Har Har, very funny! If he uses the can inverter that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket then the load on the socket is exactly the same (possibly even slight more by about 500mA) than if he used a multi-cigarette lighter adaptor plugged into the very same socket.

An inverter doesn't actually "make" electricity out of thin air , the wattage load on the cars cigarette lighter socket will be almost exactly the same with or without the inverter.

sigh you need to learn to read.

but as its a laptop you wouldn't want to really use the lighter socket for anything else wile doing that

the point of putting a multi adapter in the socket is to be able to use more stuff off it. THAT is not something you want to do in this instance, by all means it wont hurt your car, as its already protected by a fuse. but im sure you will like to be replacing your fuse all the time when you overload it.

and having the inverter plugged in is not the same as not having it plugged in. not having anything plugged in there is no current draw. having it plugged in there is current draw completely different.

soon you will tell me a 150W inverter can run a 100W motor.

Yeah I know about electric motor loading. Where I'm coming from is I used to run a laptop charger, iphone charger and GPS all off a 15A cigarette lighter socket in the Commodore. Laptop charger was about 7A, iphone charger was about 2A, and GPS was about 2A .... no biggie all under 15A.