Power inverter question

Imp

Going to be making a (mostly) spontaneous trip to Jersey City from Cape Cod tomorrow morning. I'd like to keep my notebook charged and working for the trip to document the ideas, sights, and random BS that my buddy and I come across along the way. He's concerned that his 7-8 year old Kia Sephia might have some issues running the inverter as the car is on it's original battery. Is this worth the concern? I'm car-retarded, unfortunately, and I don't want to end up stranded somewhere on the highway.

Thanks Forum folk!

0blique

Generally, as long as the car is running at a decent speed, there shouldn't be a problem running the inverter, as the engine itself will be powering a generator to keep the car's battery charged. Unless your laptop draws thousands of watts, I don't imagine you'd run into any problems, other than consuming a little bit more gas than usual.

If you're stopped or driving in slow traffic, you can run the risk of draining your battery, although it would take some time for this to happen if your battery is in good shape.

Imp

It's only a 1 amp draw on the adapter, so I think we'll be fine. Thanks a ton for the info.

Awk

Depending on the wattage, expect your inverter to fail miserably at attemping to keep up to the demand of your laptop. In other words, it wont do the trick.

Khavall

You can waste time with your friends when your chores are done

meatflower

Awk wrote: »

Depending on the wattage, expect your inverter to fail miserably at attemping to keep up to the demand of your laptop. In other words, it wont do the trick.

I had a cheap-o $30 inverter from Radio Shack (can't imagine it was of the highest quality) about two years ago for a trip to Arizona. It did a fine job of charging my 13" Macbook, even when it was both running and charging. I saw no difference compared to having it connected to a wall socket.

As long as whatever it outputs meets the minimum requirements of your laptops power adapter, it will work fine. Considering that the volt and amperage requirements for them are generally low this should be easy. Watts = Volts x Amp. My Asus EEE needs 100-240v and 1a, so I'd need a ~250w inverter. Look at your power adapter for it's input.

Check the package and you'll be good to go.