[ltp] car and airplance adapter

[James Knott]

Eben King wrote:
> On Sun, 7 Nov 2004, James Knott wrote:
> 
> 
>>Incidentally, my car (2002 Taurus) has both an accessory socket and a 
>>lighter.  According to the manual, I'm not supposed to use the lighter 
>>outlet for anything else.  I wonder what the difference is?  Perhaps 
>>fuse or circuit breaker rating?
> 
> 
> Legalese for "if we call this a lighter socket, we could get in hot water
> due to having multiple lighter sockets in the car, so it's a 'utility
> outlet'.

I was asking why the lighter outlet couldn't be used, not the other way 
around.
> 
> Besides, it's fused.  If you use a cigarette lighter in it and it can't
> handle the current, if the fuse is correctly sized the worst that'll 
> happen is it'll blow the fuse.
> 
> Automotive cigarette lighter sockets deliver a pathetically low power
> anyhow -- 120W (a reading lamp) IIRC.  Hope you don't want to power 
> anything substantial from there.
> 

I've got a 150W inverter, which I bought for use with my computer. 
Since the computer's AC adapter is rated at 72W, I'm not likely to 
overload either the inverter or accessory socket.  There was a smaller 
one, intended for computers, but mine was cheaper, because it was on sale.