I have a bunch of gadgets and the standard two power sockets just wont do it for me anymore. Im wondering if adding additional ones will have an effect on the battery and draining it too fast, also would the installation be easy to do? Or am i just better off by buying those adapters what plug into one and split it into 4 or so. Any thoughts?
What kind of gadgets are you powering? If its phones or tablets, the battery shouldn't even notice. If you're in "ready", it shouldn't have a problem powering a couple laptops.
If you use the one into four approach you will be in danger of blowing the 15 amp fuse that supplies the one. Added outlets are the way to go each independently fused. John (Britprius)
In ready mode, the Pius can power a 1000 watt inverter, so you aren't likely to draw too much. You will need to run a separate cable to the battery if you need a large current supply, with separate fusing as appropriate.
You could have one outlet or have a hundred, just having the outlets means nothing. It's what you do with them that counts. If you are just running ipads, XM radios, Gameboys and stuff, the car won't really notice. If you are welding or running power tools, something that has a lot of draw, you'd want to leave the car on. It will keep an eye out, top up the battery if it needs to. You don't have to do anything, the car will handle it. As Drysider mentions the battery tops out at around 1,000 watts max continuous pull, past that you might have to retrofit a bigger battery, a yellowtop or something. It's more time & work to do installs, but if it's clean work the result is better. Installing a lighter outlet is pretty straightforward: You find a power source that has the on/off behavior that you want in the new outlet, run a hot to where you want the new outlet, make sure the wire is tucked out of sight, try to make a clean hole for the socket, screw it into the hole, connect the hot, run a ground (ground can be any good body connection, doesn't have to run all the way back to the hot), stick in a fuse somewhere where you can get at it easy and hopefully won't forget where you put it, test and done.
