The energy is cleaner and won’t lead to overheating issues due to the choppy current like with a modified sine wave inverter. I highly recommend investing in a pure sine wave inverter instead of a modified sine wave inverter when powering compressors and microprocessors. We will be using a 15% inefficiency for the inverter (or 85% efficiency for you “glass half full” types) in our calculations. Inverting this power comes with a cost due to inefficiencies and heat being lost.Īn inverter, on average will have about a 15% inefficiency to take into account. In order to keep doing that with a battery, you’re going to need an inverter.Īn inverter will change the 12v direct current (DC) power from a battery into 110v alternating current (AC) power for you to use with your devices. The most common way that people will think of powering a laptop is with their standard wall plug that came with the computer. Inefficiencies of an Inverter when powering my Laptop It all depends on your car, but an average equivalent that seems to be agreed upon by various sources in the battery and auto industries is about 50AH.ĥ0AH is the number that we are going to use for our calculations. Regardless, we’ll stick with car batteries for this article, but a deep-cycle battery would be a much better option.Ĭar batteries are rated in cranking amps (CA), or cold cranking amps (CA) and not ampere hours (AH) like a deep cycle battery.Īmp hours would make it easier for us to judge a batteries potential but since they aren’t rated that way, I had to search around for an answer. On the other hand, deep-cycle batteries have thicker plates, protective alloys on the plates, and less surface area which enables them to repeatedly go into hundreds of full or partial discharges and these would be ideal for powering your laptop if you were thinking of going down the 12-volt battery route. Regularly discharging a car battery, even below 90%, will start to damage it and you certainly won’t be getting more than 10 or so full discharges by powering different devices or appliances with it. It is then recharged by the alternator after you start driving. The internal makeup of a car battery has thin lead plates with more surface area to conduct amperage at a faster rate which allows it to exert itself (2-3%) for a few seconds and start your car. How Much Power can my Car Battery Provide for my Laptop?Ĭar batteries are a little tricky in the sense that they are “starter batteries” and are not “deep cycle”. If you’re in a hurry, you can always skip to this chart which shows the results from the math and each of the laptop categories! I’ll then go over my math behind each laptop category and the pros and cons of the different powering methods. I’m first going to cover the car battery and its capacity, the inefficiencies of inverters, the laptop cord itself, and DC to DC connections. The two primary ways to power a laptop with a car battery are to use and inverter or a DC (direct current) cable and hook straight to the battery without an inverter. Still, since there are so many factors that go into a laptop’s power needs (graphics card, brightness, volume, streaming, multiple applications open, etc.) we’re just going to stick with standard ranges from across the board to give some estimates. I’ve often seen it 1/4 the amount in reality. The amount listed on the PSU (the blocky adapter on your charging cord) is the top end of what the laptop will draw from a power source, but it is not what the laptop always requires. This, of course, is under the assumption that your car battery is relatively new and healthy. I had the same question and I decided to break down the numbers to find out!Ī car battery can power a laptop for 6.5 hours, a 45-watt laptop for 5.1 hours, or a 60-watt laptop for 3.8 hours with an inverter and still be able to start the car’s engine. Have you ever found yourself facing a power outage or a road trip, and wondered just how long your car’s battery could power your laptop?
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