Not quite true. Maplins will sell you a 12 volt adaptor to power your laptop. The one I bought came with several adaptors to fit various laptops. You just need to make sure the output of the adaptor is sufficient for your laptop.

Having said that, whilst that is what I did on my old laptop, my current one will last some 8 hours on a fully charged battery provided I turn the screen brightness down a bit so I just leave it plugged in and let it recharge when Jeannette has the washing machine on.

Regards

Pete

If you have a Mac, you can buy one for about £25 from Amazon. It has a magsafe adaptor and works very well. I used it all the time as soon as I got it. I had Amazon send it to the Braunston PO when I was around there and I never looked back. We got the boat electrician to install a number of 12V outlets throughout the boat. It saved turning the inverter on and draining the battery which used to happen before.

Also, if you have a PC, these car chargers do not need that dedicated connector, and Maplins should have plenty of those.

Maplin sells devices which convert 12v d.c. to whatever d.c your computer needs and they provide the tips too.  Here’s just one

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/nikk…..tips-a19jt

I realise this is an old topic but it might help someone!

I own a power pack about twice the size of a phone which can jump start my car and also has a19v output for my laptop.  It can be charged from the mains or from a 12v cigarette lighter.