So unfortunately you're stuck going the inverter route. However they don't seem to make any that will output more than about 150W and you'll burn them up. If the machine weren't so beefy, I'd say skip the inverter (which is stepping up voltage and changing to DC, then stepping back down and converting back to DC) and just get a DC-DC adapter. So accounting for inverter inefficiency (usually about 70-75% on the cheaper ones), and good practice of having about 20% more power than you intend to use (to avoid stressing the inverter, which could cause low output voltage and therefore higher current draw with a SMPS), a 500W inverter is what you'd be shooting for. Now When sizing an inverter for a laptop, all that matters is the charger's OUTPUT wattage (in your case 230W), because that will be the same regardless of the input voltage. The higher the voltage, the lower the amp draw for any given load. So the 3.2A number is at 100 volts (mains voltage in Japan).
The nameplate power draw on the input of a worldwide power supply is the MAXIMUM that it will be pulling at the lowest rated voltage. Ok let's just clear something up since it hasn't been mentioned yet, and it's important since you're in the UK. I assumed the laptop pulled 760w - apparently that was completely wrong. From the replies above it looks as though a 400w will likely do the job for an hour or two on an evening when I'm parked up, or during the day when I'm making deliveries. The main concern is the decision between a 400w and an 800w inverter. The battery on the vehicle is 24v (2x12v in series) so it'll likely be hardwired directly to the battery supply instead of through a socket, I realised this was a problem when I tried to shop around for a 19.5v /11.8a car charger and completely failed. The owner of the HGV isn't too bothered about the engine running to recharge the battery, a lot of our vehicles run microwaves and TVs from the batteries but I suspected the laptop would have a different power requirement than those! Thankfully the vehicle has a display showing how much power is remaining in the battery 8) I should have added a few other details: the inverter is the main choice in this situation because I work away from home in the vehicle for sometimes two weeks at a time, so a spare battery although a wonderful idea would only give me another hour or so.
Brilliant replies here folks, thanks so much for the guidance.
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