Using a car battery to power an inverter?

[cowmeat]

Your problems are always funny, Balto

I would say if you have eight hours of time on your hands on the graveyard shift, you should take some night classes on that laptop ilo watching DVDs.
What are you guarding btw, that doesn't have a power outlet anywhere on the premises?

BTW, Did your brother ever get Aldo to turn left?

[Cobb]

Just use your cell phone. You can find many battery extended cases online as well as car, solar and extra batteries.

[ecomodded]

I will suggest to you to use a 175w or 250 watt inverter.
They cost about $20 (or less) and will have less loss then a 800w inverter.

The small size is a plus.

Most laptop power supplies use about 65w. But with a already charged laptop and low power use (screen brightness turned down mid way and low % CPU use) the charger will only drain about 18w to 24w.
Or so I have noticed with my laptop when monitoring it with a kill a watt meter. They seem to trickle charge while you are using it lightly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I use one

I have a 250w inverter mounted under the drivers seat , its wired into the car with a on/off switch plus its own self contained on/off switch on the inverter body.
It is always there ready but never seen by anyone.

[Baltothewolf]

thank you guys for the help I appreciate it.

Cowmeat no he did not go to look at it because it was going to cost too much to register it in California.

also I am guarding a construction site but I am about 20 feet from the entrance and there are no plugs. I live in the desert lol.

Cobb that is what I am doing right now but I would like a bigger screen.

Ecomodded that is very good idea I think that is what I'm going to do. the only laptop I have right now has a 19 inch screen and it is a gaming laptop but it makes the 400 watt inverter I have trip and go crazy. I was unaware that non gaming laptops draw such little power.

as for all the interesting questions I ask about you guys have been very helpful and I do appreciate it. I think I'm going to be setting up a TeamSpeak for us on ecomodder soon.

[ecomodded]

I have my inverter wired directly to the battery where it is fused with one of those car stereo fuses. I think doing it this way gives the inverter plenty of juice to invert.

I am thinking if you run a fused power line from the battery to your inverter it will start charging your big laptop with no problem.
Even being a big gaming laptop its charger should still not use more then 135 - 150w at full tilt boogie.

What you can do is look at the charger and read its output or amperage , times that by the volts & that will give you its max draw in watts.

[Cobb]

Baltothewolf, Id check your job first and see what your co workers do. Since you said post, is this on a base? In VA its an instant Federal summons for operating a cell phone without hands free.

Plan b would be to get a jump starter thing. Those have lights, air compressor, inverter, usb plugs and cigar lighter outlets depending on model.

Plan C, get some lifepo4 hobby batteries to make a 12 volt pack to power an inverter.

[H-Man]

Your 400 watt inverter shouldn't be going nuts with a gaming laptop. 330 watts seems to be the largest laptop PSU I can find, my desktop complete with a phenom II 940 and a 6950 idles at 150 watts with monitor on, loads to around 330 watts (I have it undervolted, but I'm running at stock clockspeeds, if I dump the volts into it and raise the clocks, I can pull 500 watts before the air coolers get overrun with heat.)


Budget 50 watts/hour for a laptop even though newer ones can fit within a smaller footprint (my rule of thumb it to take manufacture battery life and cut it in half for a new battery, cut it to a third for an aged battery, cut it to a quarter for a worn battery.)

[Baltothewolf]

Cobb, I'm just sitting by the side of the road lol. I'm working for an off hand local security company. They don't mind you using your phones, laptops and any other electronic device as long as you stay alert, which I do. Thanks though for your concern (non homo hug).

Ecomodded, I think my issue is I'm going through the cigarette lighter. I'll try a direct battery hookup and see if it does it.

Read above H-man.

[UltArc]

You could charge the battery you have when you go to sleep, then switch the battery when you wake up. A full charge, and at least a half charge.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by UltArc

You could charge the battery you have when you go to sleep, then switch the battery when you wake up. A full charge, and at least a half charge.

I was going to suggest charging up battery #1 right when Balto gets home, and then putting battery #2 in to charge right before bed.

An 8hr shift leaves 16hrs of charging time; plenty to charge at least 2 batteries.

I wouldn't make this any more complicated or expensive than necessary.