How to use a home plug in your car

Nowadays, we need electrical power so much that almost our gadgets need to be powered and recharged. Power bank also need to be charged. It would be easier if we are at home every time we need to charge our gadget. Can we?

So, when we are in a car, normally we will use a USB car cigarette to get 5V power source to charge the gadget. Now, would you want to know how to get 220V-240V in your car? So that you can bought your home appliance and use it in your car. (That's include your laptop, printer, charger, TV etc)

The answer is A power inverter, or inverter. It is an electronic device or circuitry that changes direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC).

How to choose the right inverter?

1- Determine your power needs. If you need to power small appliances like a mobile phone charger or energy efficient light bulbs, you don't really need to buy a 2000W power inverter because it will consume significantly more power even in standby mode and work very inefficiently with small appliances. On the other hand, if you connect a coffee machine to a 150W inverter you will quickly blow a fuse (if not the inverter itself).

Therefore the power rating of the inverter should be chosen based on the power consumption of your load.

Important to know that, total power output from inverter is not 100% as stated at the specification. Normally only 80% power delivered while 20% is loss (heat). If our device total power usage is 350W, we can't use a 350W rated inverter and so on.

Also not to be cheated with inverter rated high power with fewer prices because it's a rate for peak power and not the average or continuous power withdrawn. Please check the inverter's spec accordingly. Peak power only effective for a couple minutes before it drops to average power. (Appliances marked with a star are likely to have their starting power consumption several times greater than their normal working power. Typically this is caused by electric motors)

2- Determine the sensitiveness of your device. For normal home appliance electrical product, modified sine wave inverters deliver power that is consistent and efficient enough to run most devices adequately. These types of inverters are the most popular and affordable.

They are also small and highly efficient. The power inverter line is based on modified sine wave technology. True sine wave inverters are the most expensive, but they also deliver the most consistent, highest quality wave output. Some sensitive equipment requires a true sine wave, like tool battery chargers, professional audio/video equipment, certain medical devices and variable speed tools.

3- Determine the voltage of your battery. Is your car running on 12V or 24V.

How to use it? It's a plug & play device that use the car cigarette socket. (Usage power more than 500W is advisable to connect directly to your battery or the risk will burn your fuse or even worse). Also make sure the polarity +ve and –ve of the inverter connected accordingly to the polarity of the battery. Simply put an plug extension to the inverter and start using your device.

Sample Feature of Inverter:

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