On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 8:48 AM, Sean Dague <[email protected]> wrote: > On 06/01/2010 04:16 AM, WestHurley ComputerReCycling wrote: > > A friend is planning a field trip with an older Laptop. He wants to run > > this Laptop and charge its battery from a 12V auto battery. > > > > As a result, he was wondering what is more efficient for this a DC to DC > > Converter or a DC to AC Inverter? > > In general, just changing Voltage on DC is going to be far more > efficient than generating alternating current, then converting that back > to DC. You loose a lot of power to heat and EM in the DC -> AC, AC -> > DC process. > > Contrariwise, it'll most likely be easiest/cheapest to get the gadgets you need to do DC->AC->DC. I was looking into this not that long ago, and the DC->DC options were rare and expensive. If you're willing and able to go the diy route, I'd certainly recommend a flyback or boost converter. Otherwise an off-the-shelf inverter and your charger are probably the best bet.
/thor
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