I just purchased a black and decker 100 watt power inverter for my 2010 Prius to plug into the 12v outlet to run my laptop while driving on a cross country trip. Does anyone know if this is harmful for the hv battery or the standard battery on board? Has anyone else tried used a power inverter to run electric accessories?
It is not harmful at all in ready mode, it is like any other drain on the 12v battery in othe modes. I run my laptop and cellphone chargers on my inverter.
I do this as well with zero issues. On the rare chance you ever have additional stuff drawing current from the inverter in addition to the laptop and you power up the laptop last you "may" exceed your inverter capacity. Not to worry, just boot the laptop on its own battery and then plug it into the inverter. No harm to the vehicle at all. You won't have any trouble.
I do not think that they are harmful, but I know that in my case, about 1/3 of the time that I pug in my inverter, the car's fuse pops. I have been through about 4 of them since I got the car in June. http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...-discussion/66563-max-amps-power-outlets.html This thread discusses it as well.
An inverter takes power from your car and converts it to AC with a lot of loss. Then your power supply for your laptop converts AC power to low power DC with a lot of loss. Just buy a car adapter for your laptop and avoid all the loss.
