DC/DC converter education . . where?

2oldman wrote:

hondochica wrote:
.. converting dc to ac to dc is just incredibly wasteful - I've read upwards of a 40 percent loss of power.

That sounds like a lot, but typical chargers use so little power to begin with, it's peanuts. You may find it's more trouble than it's worth.

A great battery bank and solar shouldn't have any problem at all.

Granted "typical" chargers won't use a lot of battery capacity.. BUT using 120V chargers run from an inverter IS extremely wasteful by adding in uneeded voltage "conversions".

Each conversion ADDS a lot of "overhead" in wasted energy.

If one can REMOVE a "layer" of "conversion" then one will be able to maximize their battery capacity between charges.

Most devices like cellphones, tablets, BT devices charge from a 5V "supply".. Makes zero sense to run a inverter for several hrs which would waste several Ahr of battery capacity in the process.

For those devices you buy a simple and cheap 12V cig to 5V USB charger.. No need for 120V..

For laptops, a universal 12V to laptop charger will work perfectly fine.. Those devices use a switching power supply designed to take 12V to 18V, 19V, 20V, 21V for different Laptops..

So, to recap, instead of 12V >120V > laptop 18-21V you go 12V > Laptop 18V-21V and cut out .5Ahr or more of inverter overhead per hr of use..

and for Cellphones, tablets and BT devices you go from 12V > 120V > USB 5V to 12V > USB 5V..

Make sense?