It’s easy enough to get power to your laptop at home. Unless you live in a shanty somewhere with no power, you can simply plug it into the wall. Not that I’m making light of people who live in shanty towns; I’m sure it sucks. But let’s be honest, they don’t have a laptop, or the internet, so they’re not reading this. Anyway, as I was saying, at home you just take your laptop, and plug its adapter into the wall. But what if you’re watching movies on your laptop while driving though (This is not recommended – death and dismemberment may result), what will you do if you run low on power? The obvious answer is to acquire and use a car laptop power adapter.
Car laptop power adapters are nothing new. The concept is quite simple really, one end plugs into your laptop, same as your home adapter, and the other plugs into your lighter plug, assuming you got that option, skinflint. Let’s assume you sprung the extra $300 they charge you for a lighter adapter when you bought your car; this is where you’re going to get power to 
your laptop. The principle on which these power adapters operate is pretty simple. Your home spews out 120v of AC power; this is what your laptop normally uses. Your car adapter for laptop is going to have to take the measly 12 volts of DC put out by that lighter plug, and turn it into something that your computer can use. It does this using a power inverter (to convert from DC to AC) and then outputting the AC power at a specific wattage, as labeled on the inverter. This wattage should be as high as, if not higher than that wattage required for your laptop. The wattage requirements of your laptop should be clearly labeled somewhere on the device. They typically require around 65 watts, or less.
You can purchase a laptop car adapter on Amazon, or Tiger Direct, or any other trusted online retailer. Of course, if you’re the type of person who likes to see the light of day every now and then, you can also purchase one at a local electronics store. They can run anywhere from $20 to several hundred. Unless you’re running a microwave in your car to make popcorn (which would be the perfect compliment to those movies you’re not watching while driving) the wattage output of those more expensive devices is not necessary. You should be safe with any car laptop power adapter under $100. If plan on running multiple devices with your adapter, keep in mind that the wattage rating of the adapter need to exceed the total wattage of all devices combined.
All kidding aside, there are some genuine benefits to being able to run your laptop in your car. Even if you’re just powering up the laptop between stops on some epic roadtrip, a car laptop power adapter is going to come in handy.
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