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Portable laptop inverters are not hard to find. Be careful when doing your research, though, because laptops actually have inverters built in, which allow them to be operated either by battery (DC current) or by a cord plugged into the wall (AC current). These two electrical sources are what make laptops so desirable in the first place. Keep in mind, also, that you’ll need to make sure that you take the time to consider alternate energy supplies if you are going to be traveling for a long period of time without access to an AC electrical outlet to charge your battery. For this purpose, a battery inverter can come in handy. These portable devices plug into your laptop and allow you to charge it or use the energy through your vehicle’s cigarette lighter or power supply port. Plugging into the electrical source in your vehicle and converting the DC current to AC that way can allow for more usage time than if you relied on the battery alone.

While a lap top battery will generally maintain a charge for anywhere from 1-10 hours depending on the size of the battery that you have, using lap top inverters will allow you to use your lap top as much as you want while you are traveling, and also to charge it when it isn’t in use so that your battery maintains a healthy life. There are many different types of lap top inverters that you can buy. However, the two most common sizes include the 150 watt power inverter for smaller lap tops and the 375 watt battery inverter for older models or larger lap tops that use more electricity than others. In order to figure out which one you need, you will need to look on your power cord or the bottom of your lap top and see how many amps it uses. Take that number multiplied by 120, and you will have the number of watts that you need in your inverter battery supply.

Here’s a perfect example: say that you have an older laptop that is efficient, but the battery doesn’t hold much of a charge anymore. You want to take it with you on a road trip, but need a power source. Look either at the power cord box or the bottom of the lap top, and you will see a measurement in amps. Let’s say that it’s 1.2 for the sake of example. Multiply 1.2 amps by 120 and you come up with 144 watts. That means that you would be able to buy the smaller device, because your computer uses less than 150 watts.

You always want to buy a bigger power supply than what you need if you can’t find the exact right size. That way, you don’t have to worry about shorting anything out or having something that doesn’t fit exactly what you need. You don’t want to put yourself at risk, so make sure that you do the math right and get the right lap top inverter for your exact needs.