On Fri, 4 Aug 2006 09:29:32 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote:
Do you have any idea how much power that would require, and the cost of the
inverter for a good sized, powerful laptop computer?

Looking at Grace's new laptop, I see a power supply rating of 100V at
1.6A, thus a 160W maximum draw... I have two inverters -- one for
whatever vehicle I'm currently driving and one for Grace's vehicle...
I believe that each is around 400W... On a trip a few years ago (back
before the popularity of portable DVD players), I had a small CRT type
TV, small home DVD player, and two laptops all running off a single
inverter...

It would be nice if there were 110V outlets in the cars, but I can see
how from a safety standpoint, the car manufacturers might be hesitant
from a liability standpoint... They would probably all have to be on a
GFI circuit at least... Easier for them to just put multiple 12VDC
outlets in the vehicles and let the user decide whether to run their
gadget off of it or to get an inverter...

With the inefficiency of most inverters, at least 1000 watt, and the price
goes into hundreds of dollars.

Most of the ones that I've seen have around 90% efficiency, sometimes
even more...