A not so home theater question... but close (1 Viewer)

[TreyP]

OK, say I want to play some XBox during a long trip while my wife is driving. I know they have these power inverters that you can plug into your cig lighter, that would be a good idea to use for this. I've seen them with one outlet for about $40-50, 2 outlets for about $80-100, and 3 outlets for $120+. Now, here's my question. If you are using one of the converters with just one outlet, but you need 2 (one for XBox, the other for a small TV), and you use an extension cord, or one of those one-to-two outlet adapters... what would happen?

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Shouldn't be any different than buying one with two outlets, unless the 2 outlet version has some sort of circuit protection on the independent outlets or if you're going to need a on of wattage (double/triple outlet versions are also usually higher wattage).

YOu do need to be careful though- as the number of outlets is not always the biggest factor. Just like in your home, you can turn one plug into 90 if you want to- there is still a finite amount of juice you can get. Your Cig lighter is fused- which means it has an amp limit before you pop a fuse. The inverter can only supply so much wattage before bursting into flames...

Depending on the model of car, the cig lighter might share a fuse with other dashboard items-- and adding the pull of a small TV set and a video game machine might be enough to pop a fuse.

-V

 

[Scott L]

You have to be sure the power inverter can handle the watts of the Xbox and your TV. The PS2 is 79 watts, I'm assuming the Xbox is more (I looked on the bottom of mine but couldn't find the rating). Add that to a 60 watt 13" TV and you'll need close to an 150 watt DC/AC power inverter.
Usually the more outlets an inverter has the more watts in can put out. Just for future reference, you may love your new inverter so much you'll want to use it to charge your camcorder battery, power your gameboy, cd player, etc... You can't go wrong with the 300-watt ones with internal cooling fan.
Our family uses an 100-watt for a VCR, 13" TV and N64 or psx for those long vacations in the minivan. The one and only problem we have with it is that it gets HOT. It's pretty old and doesn't have any cooling fins so if it heats up too bad, it automatically shuts off and we are stuck annoying each other again. Make sure you get a cooling fan or ice pack (what we use) to keep it cool.

 

[TreyP]

Well, I have a friend who gets pallets from Circuit City and Best Buy, and he can get me one of the 140-watt single outlet inverters for like $10, and a 13" TV for pretty cheap like $15-20. Being able to get an inverter pretty cheap, there's a huge price gap between that and the double outlet.