"Steve" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 26 Jul 2007 08:25:09 -0400, "Bill Kearney"
wkearney-99@hot-mail-com wrote:

He won't shop there ;) but I bought a 200W continuous / 400W peak
inverter
at Wal-Mart for about $25 a year ago.

Plugs into the cigarette lighter
receptacle.

Which no doubt isn't rated to handle that much draw.

Check your fuse and you'll probably find that your average cigarette
lighter is at least 15 amps, maybe 20. If it's 20, you should have no
problem with a 200w continuous/400w peak load. 15 is probably not
enough since that's 204 watts at 13.6 volts but you have to take into
account inverter inefficiency so it's probably drawing more than 15
amps to supply the 200 watts.

But no one says you have to actually use that much out of it. And if
you use too much, you'll just blow the fuse so you know for next time.

Now the problem comes when people replace the OEM fuse rating with a
higher one to keep it from blowing.

Steve

Most are 20 amps and never blew a fuse in the car for the lighter, but have
turned on the red light signifying overload in the inverter.