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Old 02-19-2018, 12:20 PM   #21
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They're totally different. THe two prong plugs you see on your appliances in your house are the standard plug for 110v AC power. Don't try to mix and match. The cig outlet in your car is a standard 12v DC outlet.

The charger you would use in a 12v outlet would be something like this. You could also something like this connected to your 12v power source. For a laptop, they do make 12v laptop chargers.

Using non-standard plugs is a sure fire way to burn your bus down. It's not safe to plug something that expects DC into something that outputs AC, or the other way around. Even if you're always doing the right thing, somebody will find their way into your bus and plug the wrong thing in the wrong place.

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Old 02-19-2018, 12:32 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by brokedown View Post
They're totally different. THe two prong plugs you see on your appliances in your house are the standard plug for 110v AC power. Don't try to mix and match. The cig outlet in your car is a standard 12v DC outlet.

The charger you would use in a 12v outlet would be something like this. You could also something like this connected to your 12v power source. For a laptop, they do make 12v laptop chargers.

Using non-standard plugs is a sure fire way to burn your bus down. It's not safe to plug something that expects DC into something that outputs AC, or the other way around. Even if you're always doing the right thing, somebody will find their way into your bus and plug the wrong thing in the wrong place.

Understood. I had a vision of having 12v plugs that were wired direct from the battery but the more I think about it I will have barely any 12v appliances.

So I would just have cigarette outlets directly wired to the battery (with a load centre inbetween) in order to plug in my dc converter and charge my laptop?

That enables me to charge without running the inverter and save power there... right?
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Old 02-19-2018, 12:58 PM   #23
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Basically yes. I don't know what all you plan to run but whenever possible try to use DC versions instead of AC. Converting between DC and AC will cost you 35% or more of your power just in the conversion process. Do that twice (for a laptop charger etc) and you're spending twice as much power as you need to be. If you're depending on solar, this stuff really pays off.
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Old 02-20-2018, 10:09 AM   #24
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Basically yes. I don't know what all you plan to run but whenever possible try to use DC versions instead of AC. Converting between DC and AC will cost you 35% or more of your power just in the conversion process. Do that twice (for a laptop charger etc) and you're spending twice as much power as you need to be. If you're depending on solar, this stuff really pays off.
Great! Thanks for this. Provided a tonne of clarification for me
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