Last updated on February 15th, 2024

Never get caught with a dead camera battery (or phone or tablet) again.

150W power inverter

This is an electric power inverter – a gadget that takes DC power (produced by your car or boat’s battery) and transforms it into AC power (used by your phone, camera, tablet, and other electronic gadgets).

Having an inverter guarantees that you won’t find yourself with dead batteries on your next road trip . . . or on your next trip into the office.

Power inverters come in various sizes, but my 150 W (Input: DC12V/Output: AC 110W) is small enough to take anywhere and powerful enough to charge my Nikon SLR as well as a slew of smaller cameras. It plugs directly into a standard automobile cigarette lighter or a marine outlet. It won’t recharge your gadgets as fast as regular AC power, but if you use it while you are on the go, it can keep you going indefinitely.

As you can see, mine takes a standard American two/three prong plug and two USB ports.

You can use all three at once, but your gadgets will charge more slowly.

You can charge your laptop this way too, but computers run on DC power (the box on your power cord is converting AC current to DC), so an inverter is a very inefficient way to charge a computer. If you frequently use your computer while on the road, you are better off buying a DC power cord that plugs directly into a cigarette lighter/marine outlet. (I have one of those too and I love it.) However, for occasional use, a power inverter should keep you going.

A variety of power inverters are available online through a variety of merchants. (We were told that some auto shops carry them, but couldn’t find one that actually did.)

This really is the perfect travel tool for folks on the road – in Morocco our driver checked it out and immediately decided that the tour company should provide one in every vehicle.