12V car power can provide electricity for laptops and most other electronics if you have the right hardware. Matthew Micah Wright / Lonely Planet Images / Getty

Depending on how much time you spend in your car on a daily basis, there are a lot of different types of electronics that you might want to be able to use on the road. Entertainment devices, like CD and MP3 players, GPS navigation units, and even DVD players can all be ran off of 12 volt car power, but there are a few factors that you need to consider before you start plugging in.

First, it’s important to understand the basics of your car’s electrical system.

For instance, the electrical system in your car, in most cases, provides 12V DC, which is quite different from the AC power you use at home. With that in mind, it’s also essential to understand that you have two main options for powering devices in a car: you can buy a 12V accessory outlet or cigarette lighter, or a installing a power inverter.

Within those constraints, the primary methods of using 12 volt car power to run your electronic devices on the road include:

Using 12V DC Outlets

The easiest way to power an electronic device in your car is via the cigarette lighter receptacle or a dedicated 12V accessory outlet, which are the two types of 12V sockets you can find in virtually every modern car and truck. As the name implies, these sockets started out as cigarette lighters, which worked by applying current to a coiled metal strip.

This current flow would cause the coiled metal strip to become red hot—hot enough, in fact, to light a cigarette on contact.

It didn’t take too long for inventive minds to find another use for cigarette lighter sockets, which are now also known as 12V accessory outlets. Since the sockets applies battery voltage to the center contact and ground to the cylinder, according to ANSI/SAE J563 specifications, 12V devices can be powered by a plug that makes electrical contact with those two points.

The standards are a little different from one part of the world to another, and the specifications for a cigarette lighter socket and a 12V accessory socket aren’t precisely the same, but 12V plugs and adapters are designed to work within a range of tolerances. Of course, fact that these sockets originated as cigarette lighters, and the corresponding sloppy tolerances, mean that there are a host of potential issues that can arise from using them as power sockets.

Today, some cars ship with a plastic plug or USB outlet in the dash outlet in lieu of the traditional cigarette lighter, and some sockets are even physically incapable of accepting cigarette lighters (either by being too narrow in diameter, too shallow, or via other means.) Plastic plugs are also available via the aftermarket for owners of older vehicles who prefer not to have a cigarette lighter in their car.

Powering Devices with 12V DC Plugs

While a cigarette lighter or 12V accessory outlet is the easiest way to power an electronic device in a car, the situation is greatly simplified if the device in question has a hard-wired 12V DC plug. These devices are specifically designed for use in cars, so you typically won’t even have to worry about power consumption or blowing fuses.

Devices that sometimes have hard-wired 12V DC plugs include:

Powering Devices with 12V DC Power Adapters

Devices that don’t have hard-wired DC plugs sometimes have 12V DC adapters or are compatible with adapters that you can buy separately. GPS navigation units, cell phones, tablets, and even laptops often fall into this category. And while you do have to be careful about how much amperage you draw with these devices, it’s still a relatively simple plug-and-play solution.

Devices that are often compatible with proprietary 12V DC adapters include:

• Cell phones
• Laptop computers
• GPS units
• DVD players
• LCD screens