Using Prius battery (cigarette lighter) to charge laptop?

We were on an 18 hour trip in June
My daughter used their 17" laptop in the lighter without any problems

 

So long as you are in READY while you use it, life is good.

The L505 seems to use a 120 watt AC adapter, so I would make sure the lighter charger was more than 120 watts
http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B00144KS6W?tag=priuschatcom-20

 

I've done this with a 300watt power inverter. Worked fine, but take extra fuses.

 

Yep, ditto here. I've used a 200 watt Coleman inverter for several hours at a time--no harm to the car or laptop. Do note that the 12V outlet is not energised when car is off.

 

All those blown fuses should be telling you that those 12V accessory outlets are not designed for anything close to 300 watts.

 

The manual says the port will supply 12V at up to 10 Amps - that's 120 Watts. The first thing that comes up doing the search you recommend is a 95 Watt adapter, which should be OK.

I don't know about the Droid X in particular, but assuming it charges via USB, that's typically 2.5 Watts (5V, 500 milliamps). Some devices (iPad, iPhone) come with more powerful chargers (10 Watt and 5 Watt, respectively) that still travels on a USB cable. Fairly small.

The manual says that the power outlets are fused at 15A (located near the driver's feet), and there's nothing but them on the circuit. So if you blow a fuse, you're not out much. And there is a spare 15A fuse in the fuse box under the hood, too. Shouldn't be likely though, given the ratings of the devices involved.

For what it's worth, I've used a 400-Watt inverter with a laptop that had a 65-Watt power adapter. The inverter would occasionally barf, complaining of an overload. It's possible that the power factor was far from unity (this more or less means that lots of current is moving around but not doing any work - the components have to handle higher currents for the same amount of power), and that it should have been called a 400-VA inverter than 400-W. When I had problems with it, I just made sure the laptop wasn't trying to both charge the battery and run at the same time. Either charging while it was asleep or running it with >80% charge (or the battery removed) typically worked OK. Something to keep in mind, in case you do encounter any problems.

 

It will have a negligible effect. The Prius uses about 12 KW at about 50 mph. 100 watts is less than 1 % of that.

 

I hard wired a constant 12V power connection to the car. I keep my laptop charger, cell phone charger, GPS, and a couple extra USB ports that are active all the time. I put a switch on it so I can turn it all off if I am going to leave the car for a couple of days. I never have any issues.

I would recommend buying a car charger for your laptop from eBay. You can get one from Hong Kong for about $10.00 including shipping. Using a DC-AC inverter then going back from AC to DC to charge the laptop is huge waste of power.

 

Do note that "the Prius uses about 12 kW while running" means from the high voltage circuit. That's the MG1 and traction battery. And it all comes from MG1 on average.

The 12V circuit in the Prius is charged by the inverter (a charger circuit is built in and runs off the high voltage side, converting it to 13.8 Volts at up to about 50-60 Amps). Your converter for the laptop and the Android phone will have negligible effect, especially during the day when you have the headlamps off. The headlamps are the only really large load on this circuit, other than the A/C heating units, which you won't be using in the summer. Fans etc. are less than 10 Amps each. The headlamps can be 14 Amps for the pair if you have halogens. About half that or less if you are lucky enough to have LEDs.

As noted above, the only thing you have to watch out for is blowing the accy. socket fuse (it's no longer called a cig lighter fuse as no cig lighter is supplied - we are trying to discourage smoking ). I'd buy a pack of fuses just in case. The inverter could blow the fuse on start-up once in a while. Note that the inverter will draw more current if the voltage is lower. In the Prius, this would probably not happen as the 12 V charger cct is running whenever the accessory socket is energized (unless you modify it to stay on). When in "ready" or "accessory" the 12 volt circuit is running at 13.8 V +or- about 0.2 V at -ALL- times.

 

Keep in mind that while the power supply (computer) may be rated at 60-95 watts, and likely runs far less, you have a huge spike in current/power when you first plug in the power supply.

I've had mixed results with Compaq/HP power supplies and inverters. I have yet to find a 200 w that will get it going. I ended up just getting a 400w inverter (still not too big) - which has no issues starting up...

 

"Using a DC-AC inverter then going back from AC to DC to charge the laptop is huge waste of power. "

Thanks, Judgeless never thought about the waste factor. Adapter surely the way to go.

 

Don't worry. Using 12V accessory power through the prius is no different than using a 12V outlet in any other car...

 

Your Owners Manual states not to exceed TOTAL vehicle capacity (12VDC/120W)at the outlets (Owners Manual-Pg 307). The Power outlets each have a 15 Amp fuse located in the CAB fuse panel under the dash. Recommend checking your Owners Manual, then check visually for the Fuse Panel, and the fuses locations. My Panel's located below the steering column, to the rear (towards engine) of dash Panel. Has a black, approx 4"x 1.5' plastic cover. Also, in the same panel,there's suppose to be a 25 Amp fuse ("ECC-B 25A "power outlet" "ACC" fuses") that I believe monitors total current drawn between those outlets. If true, you know where to look if you loose pwr at both outlets.