feasible electrical output of cigarette socket?

[richardrsc]

I did look, but couldn't find an ICE section - be more than happy if someone points out I'm in the wrong place!

I have a friend that basically needs a 4 way AC strip in his van, to run a laptop or two and an A3 inkjet printer.

He's happy to keep the engine running when he needs to do stuff so as to avoid running down the battery too much.

Is there a simple adaptor that will do this, or is it a bit more involved?

Cheers

Richard

[uk89camaro]

Power inverter.

They come in various flavours.

[m44kts]

I think he'd be better off finding out the power consumption of everything together as he may need one thats connected direct to the van battery. Possibly on a small second battery on a split charge system.

[s p a c e m a n]

The best and probably simplest solution depending on the van would be to run a cable straight from the battery to a fixed inverter inside the van.

[richardrsc]

m44kts said:

I think he'd be better off finding out the power consumption of everything together as he may need one thats connected direct to the van battery. Possibly on a small second battery on a split charge system.

Thanks. The laptop psu's say 65w on them, Google tells me a injet printer seems to come in about 50w max.

So if we say 200w max, is that a lot for a vehicle battery to supply with the engine running? - I am not electrically minded!

Is there an idiots guide to installing a split charge system, or is that something an ICE specialist could do?

[richardrsc]

s p a c e m a n said:

The best and probably simplest solution depending on the van would be to run a cable straight from the battery to a fixed inverter inside the van.

Thanks - any particular brand/model you would recommend?

[98elise]

richardrsc said:

m44kts said:

I think he'd be better off finding out the power consumption of everything together as he may need one thats connected direct to the van battery. Possibly on a small second battery on a split charge system.

Thanks. The laptop psu's say 65w on them, Google tells me a injet printer seems to come in about 50w max.

So if we say 200w max, is that a lot for a vehicle battery to supply with the engine running? - I am not electrically minded!

Is there an idiots guide to installing a split charge system, or is that something an ICE specialist could do?

Thats little more than the lights.

[Jakg]

richardrsc said:

Thanks. The laptop psu's say 65w on them, Google tells me a injet printer seems to come in about 50w max.

So if we say 200w max, is that a lot for a vehicle battery to supply with the engine running? - I am not electrically minded!

Is there an idiots guide to installing a split charge system, or is that something an ICE specialist could do?

To deliver 200w of power, more than 200w will be required to account for transformer losses etc.

200w @ 14.4v = 14A.

The alternator on my car produces 115A at full pelt, I'd imagine a van one would be larger.

Most 12v sockets are rated for 10A so you'd probably need to wire it up direct to the battery - but for 200w a split charge system shouldn't be required.

[m44kts]

Something like this should do the job nicely then...

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/...

[Jonny_]

The cheapskate option...

Most folk only use one laptop at a time.
Laptops have a battery which will power them for a couple of hours or so.
A cheap cig lighter powered inverter will cope with one laptop, or a printer.

Soooooo... I'd run the laptop from the inverter 'till I needed to print. Then just unplug the laptop, plug in the printer and send things to print from the laptop as it runs on its own battery.
Printing done, unplug printer and plug laptop back in to recharge.

Job done.

If he does need to run 2 computers simultaneously, or spends an awful lot of time printing, then a beefy inverter running from a spare fuseway or direct from battery (make sure you fit an inline fuse and use sufficiently rated cable by the way - 200w at 12v is getting on for 17 amps) would be the best bet.

[anonymous-user]

The socket will probably have it's own fuse. Check the amperage rating in the fuse box!


(Lighter sockets are ok for ad-hoc use, but pretty unreliable for long term use, would be better with a hardwired connector)

[Celtic Dragon]

My old 2009 Impreza has 2, 1 rated at 5A in the arm rest and 1 in the front console rated to 20A! They designed it to run the compressor and tyre weld system they replaces the space saver with.

[Matthen]

Cigarette socket in my car has a max output of 150W... maybe different in a van, but id go for a hard wired solution. Or the "only plug one device in at a time" solution.

[richardrsc]

m44kts said:

Something like this should do the job nicely then...

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/...

Cool, we're getting there, many thanks.

So could if we got one of these with some longer cables, mounted it in the back somewhere, could we leave it permanently connected?

[big_boz]

OP, I have one of these on a switched live connected permanently, ie, its on when the ingnition is on, but i have a master switch too as i happened to have a suitable one lying about when i did the wring.

Its pretty easy to do.

You will want a live from the the battery with an inline fuse on it into a relay with an earth, then another feed from the relay to an ignition live circuit to a switch with its own earth, finally the switched live from the relay to you inverter and then an earth from the inverter completes the curcuit.

Very simple to do and should cost you less than a tenner for the wire, relay switch and inline fuse.

[Scuffers]

if the socket was for a cigie lighter, then it will likely be fused at 20A

on that basis, a 200W inverter is about the limit.

Battery wise, 20A load will probably murder it in 1-2 hours on your typical car.

[McSam]

Max_Torque said:

amperage

Off-topic but God I hate that. That's what the word "current" is for!

[SturdyHSV]

Matthen said:

Cigarette socket in my car has a max output of 150W... maybe different in a van, but id go for a hard wired solution. Or the "only plug one device in at a time" solution.

I believe this is the standard limit for the cigarette lighter socket (150W), and for more than that you have to wire it to the battery terminals.

[s p a c e m a n]

SturdyHSV said:

Matthen said:

Cigarette socket in my car has a max output of 150W... maybe different in a van, but id go for a hard wired solution. Or the "only plug one device in at a time" solution.

I believe this is the standard limit for the cigarette lighter socket (150W), and for more than that you have to wire it to the battery terminals.

running silly amounts through a cigarette socket is a recipe for melting the fuse box.

[tr7v8]

Bare in mind that A. Inverters are far from 100% efficient especially the cheaper ones, assume that it'll be 75% tops. B. Start up current & surge will be around 25-50% more than run current. C. Finally when the inverter is connected but has no outputs plugged in, it will still use power, around 5% or so. So will need an isolating switch to stop flattening the battery.

Personally I'd find a second battery & wire that in via a split charge relay, then wire the inverter to that.