Power inverter installation

[MagillaGorilla]

Have any of you ever installed an inverter to run your TV and DVD player?

Was it difficult?

How many watt did you need?

Where did you get the 12VDC power source for the input?

What tips can you share?

[WNYBob]

I installed a Samlex 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter in my 2011 Silverado 1500 to power my Truck Camper. I went with Samlex because of their Smart battery isolator, which protects the truck's starting battery. Samlex.com has good installation diagrams for each unit.

I have attached a link for diagram of my installation.
Bob's Inverter wiring in a 2011 Silverado 1500

Cables between batteries and to the inverter is 2 gauge. An I used a 12 gauge extension cord for the AC to the outlet.

One note: I enclosed all wiring in flexible plastic conduit for circuit protection from the elements.

[Sandia_Man]

As mods go, adding an inverter is pretty easy. Many inverters come with the proper cables, connect red to positive on inverter and battery and black to negative inverter and battery posts. Sizing an inverter requires adding up the wattage from all the devices you plan to power at the same time, for the items you want to run a 300 watt should do the job nicely. We power a 40" HDTV, HD sat receiver, Blu-ray dvd player, and sound bar with a similar wattage pure sine-wave inverter and have 150 watts to spare.

Obviously, the easiest method would be to use an available 12VDC power socket. We have one in our entertainment center but the inverter squealed mightily when we attempted to run our equipment due to the heavy voltage loss from extremely under-sized wiring the factory used for the the circuit. Pretty commonplace for most RV manufacturers, can't blame them as the circuit is not intended to power numerous items at the same time, 5-8 DC amps is about tops for those sockets.

Mounting the inverter close to the battery and running wire to dedicated outlet(s) allows you to utilize a less costly, smaller diameter wire as the voltage drop for AC voltage is less significant over longer runs. I had heavy gauge wire sitting around in the shed and decided to run this directly from the battery to the inverter that we mounted in the entertainment center. Have large whole-house inverter already installed but found having a smaller inverter just for our A/V equipment easier and more efficient.

[wanderingbob]

Ain't nuttin wrong with going larger than you need , a larger inverter will not draw more from your battery than a smaller inverter if the loads are equal ! Get one large enough to run a small pancake compressor or an electric impact wrench !

[Ron3rd]

I have a 300 watt Samlex pure sign wave inverter I installed about 8 months ago, pretty easy install. I use it for the TV, DVD, etc like you intend. I wired mine so I can plug the shore cord into the inverter to power all the plugs, though I only power up the TV/DVD. If you do it this way, you need to switch off your charger and all other unnecessary breakers. Works great and only wish I did it 5 years ago.

[2oldman]

Don Rowe site Inverter FAQ
Inverters by Phred
inverter thread
MSW v. pure sine
Inverters and MW thread

Search 'inverter' in Tech and you'll find all kinds of stuff.

[tenbear]

I installed a 12v jack on the dinette seat over the battery. I use a 300 watt PSW inverter when I need it.

My TV however had a a 120v to 12vdc adapter (wall wart) so it runs just fine on 12v.

[dahkota]

For just a tv and DVD player, we use a portable 400W pure sine inverter. We have used modified sine wave inverters as low as 200W which also worked just fine but they tend to 'alarm' more frequently due to draw.

In one tt, there was already a 12V outlet. In a second tt, we added a 12V outlet on the radio wire for one (LR) and a fanatastic fan wire for the other(BR). Both had 15 Amp fuses. It didn't work trying to run the fantastic fan and the inverter with a load at the same time. We also had a third 12V outlet next to our converter with larger wiring for larger loads. In our current class A, there is a 12V outlet in the bedroom which we use at night instead of the power hog 1200W house inverter.

The advantage of using a portable for that small a load is you can use the outlets for charging phones and such without using the inverter. Our TV and sat receiver or DVD player had a total draw around 100W. YMMV

[CA_Traveler]

MagillaGorilla wrote:
Have any of you ever installed an inverter to run your TV and DVD player?

Was it difficult? Depends upon your skill and rig layout.

How many watt did you need? Pure sine wave best and consider 2x the total wattage of your units.

Where did you get the 12VDC power source for the input? Mount as close to the battery as possible. But consider if/how to turn off the inverter.

What tips can you share? The DC amp draw will be about 11x the AC draw. Your xxx watts/120V*11 = your DC amps. Recommend you do a lot of searching on these boards including the archives as you'll need some basic knowledge. Not rocket science but still...