CoPilot has this comment, "almost all cars cannot supply 300W continuously from a cigarette‑lighter socket. Most are limited to 120–180W, and many will blow a fuse long before 300W."
The thing is, if you want/need to power as much as you can from your lighter outlet opposed to direct wiring it to your battery, then whatever your vehicle limitation is, is what it is.
Typically the limitation is 15A, so doing the math, with vehicle running and approx 14.4V system voltage from the alternator, yes it's shy of 300W, but this isn't a bad thing. You want your inverter to be rated for more than you actually need, to have that margin.
If you wanted to direct wire this to your battery and just lop off the cigarette lighter plug, or put a mating socket on that wiring to be able to unplug it, you could do that too.
The point is that this maxes out whatever your lighter outlet is capable of. If that's still not enough power then yeah, you at least need direct wired to the battery and possibly a larger inverter, but 300W downgraded to 200W-something is still enough for many devices.
An inverter only draws as much current as needed based upon the load placed on it. A 300W inverter doesn't try to draw the amperage needed for 300W if you only have your 90W laptop charger/PSU plugged into it.
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Typically the limitation is 15A, so doing the math, with vehicle running and approx 14.4V system voltage from the alternator, yes it's shy of 300W, but this isn't a bad thing. You want your inverter to be rated for more than you actually need, to have that margin.
If you wanted to direct wire this to your battery and just lop off the cigarette lighter plug, or put a mating socket on that wiring to be able to unplug it, you could do that too.
The point is that this maxes out whatever your lighter outlet is capable of. If that's still not enough power then yeah, you at least need direct wired to the battery and possibly a larger inverter, but 300W downgraded to 200W-something is still enough for many devices.
An inverter only draws as much current as needed based upon the load placed on it. A 300W inverter doesn't try to draw the amperage needed for 300W if you only have your 90W laptop charger/PSU plugged into it.
Thank you!