Hello dears 
I’ve just bought a 150 watt 24v inverter from the CB shop at Lymm Truckstop for powering my laptop in-cab. At the moment it’s fitted with a lighter plug but as I’ve never been happy with these things, I’ll be changing it for a Hella plug which I can plug into the 20 amp socket in the Renault I’m driving.
Questions: Is it safe to leave the laptop charging (but switched off) via the inverter while I’m driving?
I’ve been told by a fellow driver at work that under no circumstances should I do anything
electrical while the inverter is plugged in, even down to simply switching on the ignition, as it will
cause some damage. This sounds a bit daft to me. Is it?
Thanks in advance.
Martyn.
if its a good quality invertor and you use the genuine charger then you have nothing to worry about as the charger will stop spikes and over voltage problems for you -
some cheap invertors cut out while starting too - but good ones don’t
regards
Steve
When I was away my inverter was plugged in at the start of the trip and unplugged at the end. It ran 24 hours a day while I was away and it was never a problem. Laptop was plugged in for most of that time as I used it for listening to music and audio books while driving.then watching downloaded TV shows at night. Worst you might find is it squeals when you start the engine as it doesn’t get enough power for a moment.
Incidentally my inverter has a normal lighter plug on it and I have used it for the last 5 years without problems. The lighter plugs on inverters tend to be more robust than those fitted to some other accessories. I used a Hella to lighter socket adapter to run it in the Daf I was driving until recently, not one of those with a wire but a one piece thing.