How big of a power inverter would I need to run my laptop and printer at the same time. Wally World has one that is 350 watt's, 700 peak. Would that be enough. Would the cig lighter plug be ok. Thank's

 

An average laptop and printer combined would be less than 200 watts, so the one you are looking at would be fine. For this small load, plugging into the cigarette lighter will work also. We use a 400 watt unit in the same manner. Larger inverters and bigger loads require direct connection to the battery.

Hope this helps.

 

Thank's, that's what I wanted to hear. How hot do these thing's get. Any problem's with it starting a fire, or burning my leather interior. I'd like to just layt it in the floor.

 

The inverters I've seen have internal overload protection and the larger ones have fans so they don't get to hot. You didn't say what kind of printer you plan to use. An inkjet shouldn't be much of a problem as long as you add the total watts for both the laptop and printer and get an inverter with about a 30% overrating. A laser printer probably wouldn't run at all since the fuser takes about 12 amps.

I had a 150 watt inverter but it wouldn't run my laptop. Now I have a 400 watt and it runs it fine. Haven't tried a printer. I've seen 1200 watt units for $99 which should run a microwave but you'd need a good heavy cable to the battery to supply the current it needs and it'll take the battery down pretty quick.

Edwin

 

I hate to sound like a dummy, but the rating's on these thing's say "output power". Is that the number I'm looking for. I didn't know if they would "draw" something differant.

Anyway. The laptop is 120 watt's, and the printer (small inkjet for the truck) is 18 watt's. So I think I'll be fine with a 400 watter. Thank's for the help.

 

I use my laptop & printer all the time in my RV....all off of 12 volt power. Bought a cigarette-lighter adapter from my laptop mfr (IBM)...so it runs straight off the cig port. Bought a little Cannon bubble-jet that plugs into a 110v outlet to charge, then runs off of it's charge while on the road. It has the usual expensive ink associated with bubble-jets, but the portability of it is pretty cool.