How To – Picking a Portable Power Inverter For Your Car

Whether its while driving to work everyday or while on vacation there are times when having access to AC voltage can be a life saver or more then just a convenience.

Depending on how far you are willing to go you can install an inverter that can power just about any ac device you can think of.  There are limits though and tradeoffs for instance you might notice that many refrigerated vehicles like ice cream trucks will use an electric generator instead of relying on dc to ac conversion.

The choices of convenience and costs are always something you should weigh when picking the right inverter for your application.

There are 2 basic sizes and types of inverters.

Temporary Use
Smaller inverters of up to 400 watts can be plugged into your cigarette adapter. They can be used to recharge your laptop or other devices but they are not suited for dedicated use of your computer if you happen to be someone on the road a lot.

The adapters can come lose during use or when you hit a bump and this will interrupt the charging of your device.

For the $25 cost of a 200 watt or smaller inverter you should think about keeping one in your car.  Even if you only use it for an emergency it is worth the purchase.

Dedicated Use
Larger inverters for dedicated use in an RV or when you know you will regularly need larger devices like a computer on the road can be installed by wiring to your cars fuse box.

When adding the inverter you should make sure that your charging system can handle the load.

If you are adding a large inverter of over 2,500 watts that will be used regularly then you may need to upgrade your battery and maybe your alternator.

For Temporary use of a large inverter you can often attach it to your battery terminals with included clamps.

What to look out for
Many smaller inverters do their best to provide good ac but their output may not be suitable for many devices. Make sure you read the instructions and any warnings.

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