Quote: Originally Posted by specsix
Well your cigarette lighter is simply just a 12v positive and shares the same wattage as the rest of your electrical system. I wouldn't be too concerned about the wattage on your inverter, but I would worry about how many amps it draws. I know you need to know the wattage for the computer, but if your charging system is not putting out enough amps for your stereo and computer equipment, that would be a bigger problem.
Hard wiring would be a good idea because your cigarette lighter is probably only 20 amps or something. Just find out how many amps your inverter draws and get fuse that big. If the inverter already has a fuse, then just ran a wire straight to the battery. I would go with 8 gauge.
Jake
Oh, now it makes sense
Thanks, I'll check it out.
I'm fairly confident that my alternator provides enough juice to power an ancient laptop system and some smaller devices like radar and a Pocket PC. Sometimes, however, the laptop may stop receiving power for brief moments when I try and open all four windows simultaneously, or turn on my headlights and the fans to high. But that's only for a second and then the inverter picks up again. That is no use for me because the computer is already frozen by then. By standby battery is just that - for standbys. It is not capable of running the entire system for even a second. If I ever wanted to survive a crank, I would have to turn off the monitor and the hard drives (and I can do that). Sometimes I am able to survive a crank without the laptop freezing. This is confusing, but now I beleive it's the lighter socket that makes my inverter think that the main battery is low on power.
Anyways, thanks for your advice, I'll make sure to look into it as soon as I get some spare time
