Inverter Question

[Guest]

I am looking at putting a computer chart system on my boat integrated with GPS. My laptop(Dell Latitude XPi) is good for about 3 hrs. of internal battery power, so I am considering a pocket inverter (Westmarine XANTREX 400W) to recharge my computer battery from my boat battery. Has anyone tried this type of set-up? If so, any comments pro or con would be appreciated. Big question is how much of a draw on the 12 volt battery does this arrangement take?

 

[Chris Hyland]

Cigarette Lighter adapter

Good Morning, I would buy the cigarette lighter adapter for the laptop which is commonly available and install what is now called a 12 volt acessory plug. It's just a lighter unit without the lighter. It will be cheap and easy and will use less power than the 400watt inverter.Using the pc with an inverter you'd convert 12 volts to 115 and then back to 6 volts. Not very efficient.Regards,Chris

 

[Chris Hyland]

I forgot

Just wanted to mention that we just bought a new C36 and installed a 1000 watt inverter. The nav station has an acessory plug and I'll be using if for my laptop even though I have the inverter...Regards,Chris

 

[Richard Webber]

Inverter

I am using a 600W inverter to power my Dell Inspiron Laptop.The 110V adapter is rated at 70W continuous. That translatesto about 6A at 12V. I run it off one battery so that there is nochance of being unable to start the engine. If you have Group24 batteries you could go about 7 hours before you had halfdrained the one battery. Because my marina is in an estuaryI motor about 1 hour every time I take the boat out for a daysail. So the batteries usually stay charged with no problems.