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#21
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Cigarette Lighter Adapter- Cessna 172
On Fri, 04 Aug 2006 11:16:50 GMT, B A R R Y
wrote: Many new cars include multiple outlets. Yep and some of them don't even include the lighter portion, further reinforcing that it is an accessory plug... Hell, Grace's new car has a red insert where the ash tray normally would be that says, "NOT AN ASHTRAY" on it... Since it's fabric covered, it would probably catch fire if someone used it as such... I suspect it's for putting coins in there and the fabric covering is so that it won't rattle as much... |
#22
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Cigarette Lighter Adapter- Cessna 172
On Fri, 4 Aug 2006 09:29:32 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote: Do you have any idea how much power that would require, and the cost of the inverter for a good sized, powerful laptop computer? Looking at Grace's new laptop, I see a power supply rating of 100V at 1.6A, thus a 160W maximum draw... I have two inverters -- one for whatever vehicle I'm currently driving and one for Grace's vehicle... I believe that each is around 400W... On a trip a few years ago (back before the popularity of portable DVD players), I had a small CRT type TV, small home DVD player, and two laptops all running off a single inverter... It would be nice if there were 110V outlets in the cars, but I can see how from a safety standpoint, the car manufacturers might be hesitant from a liability standpoint... They would probably all have to be on a GFI circuit at least... Easier for them to just put multiple 12VDC outlets in the vehicles and let the user decide whether to run their gadget off of it or to get an inverter... With the inefficiency of most inverters, at least 1000 watt, and the price goes into hundreds of dollars. Most of the ones that I've seen have around 90% efficiency, sometimes even more... |
#23
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Cigarette Lighter Adapter- Cessna 172
"Andrew Sarangan" wrote I have an inverter that I bought for $19.99. It has a 150W contunuos power rating. It runs my laptop just fine. Why do you need 1000W? My son has a whopper computer he uses for video editing and stuff, and when it cranks up, it really sucks the power. -- Jim in NC |
#24
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Cigarette Lighter Adapter- Cessna 172
"Jim Logajan" wrote If the expectation is that the inverter is terribly inefficient (say ~10%) I could see it needing to draw 1000 W DC to produce 100 W AC. But I believe they are generally 80% efficient or better - otherwise they'd fry themselves. Laptops aren't supposed to be very power hungry - even my floor standing "tower" computer (excluding my CRT monitor) typically draws under 100 W AC (I used a portable power meter to measure the power draw of my computer equipment to size the UPS I needed for my home office). The WallMart brand I think is Vextor, or something like that, and I have found that it is not a whole lot more than 50% efficient. -- Jim in NC |
#25
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Cigarette Lighter Adapter- Cessna 172
"Newps" wrote What? I have a 150 watt inverter that works just fine for recharging/running laptops, PDA's, cell phones, etc. It's an all in one unit, no separate cord and device. About $20 at Walmart. Look, all I can tell you is that my son's computer would not run on a 700 watt inverter, but would on a 1000 watt. That is not conjecture, that is fact. -- Jim in NC |
#26
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Cigarette Lighter Adapter- Cessna 172
Grumman-581 wrote: On Fri, 4 Aug 2006 09:29:32 -0400, "Morgans" wrote: ... Most of the ones that I've seen have around 90% efficiency, sometimes even more... It has been many years since I was a circuit designer but I seem to remember some theoretical limit on the efficiency of a static inverter at 83%. This was caused by the energy lost in the transformer assuming perfect switches (power transistors). |
#27
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Cigarette Lighter Adapter- Cessna 172
"B A R R Y" wrote in message ... On Fri, 4 Aug 2006 12:52:03 -0400, "Morgans" wrote: My Toyota has both! G How many watts, or amps? I'm not exactly sure off the top of my head, but I seem to remember 400 watts. It's been fine for AC power tool battery chargers, entertainment devices, my Icom handheld charger, reasonable worklights, etc... Air conditioners, electric ovens, compressors, and washing machines are out, but so what? G Read the fine print before you continue to use it to recharge power tool batteries. My inverter said do not use for chargers that hive a high potentieal voltage, until the battery places a load on it, and it begins to regulate. They may damage the charger. Guess what. I didn't listen, and used a DeWalt charger; once, I got away with. The second time, it quit working, and has not worked since. -- Jim in NC |
#28
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Cigarette Lighter Adapter- Cessna 172
On Fri, 4 Aug 2006 15:55:03 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote: My son has a whopper computer he uses for video editing and stuff, and when it cranks up, it really sucks the power. Laptop or desktop machine? If a laptop, look at the wall-wart / power cord power supply to see what it is rated at for input voltage and amps... Grace's new laptop said 65W on it, but if you look at the power supply input requirements, it says that it can need as much as 1.6A at 100V... Of course, the power supply might be able to output more than the laptop is actually needing since they probably want to leave room for expansion by the user... As a side note, for my LCD monitor on my desktop machine, it only requires 40W according to its power supply... |
#29
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Cigarette Lighter Adapter- Cessna 172
In article ,
Grumman-581 wrote: Looking at Grace's new laptop, I see a power supply rating of 100V at 1.6A, thus a 160W maximum draw... Put a bigger, faster hard drive in it and the demand will go up. She has growth built in. |
#30
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Cigarette Lighter Adapter- Cessna 172
On Fri, 04 Aug 2006 17:04:04 -0000, Jim Logajan
wrote: "Andrew Sarangan" wrote: Morgans wrote: Do you have any idea how much power that would require, and the cost of the inverter for a good sized, powerful laptop computer? With the inefficiency of most inverters, at least 1000 watt, and the price goes into hundreds of dollars. -- Jim in NC I have an inverter that I bought for $19.99. It has a 150W contunuos power rating. It runs my laptop just fine. Why do you need 1000W? If the expectation is that the inverter is terribly inefficient (say ~10%) I could see it needing to draw 1000 W DC to produce 100 W AC. But I believe they are generally 80% efficient or better - otherwise they'd fry themselves. Laptops aren't supposed to be very power hungry - even my floor standing "tower" computer (excluding my CRT monitor) typically draws under 100 W AC (I used a portable power meter to measure the power draw of my computer equipment to size the UPS I needed for my home office). The highest power laptop ac/dc converters today are rated at 120 W and the roadmap is for 150 W. They'll probably stall there because of the difficulty of cooling them even with efficiencies poking into the 90s. I think silver box supplies for the top performing gamer boxes are at around 500 W, but that may be low. Laptop power drains will drop when laptops switch from cold-cathode fluorescent backlighting to LEDs. My guess, based on what I saw at the Society for Information Display conference in May, is that that is about 3 years away. Don |
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