Inverter Help

[BlackoutATX]

I'm looking to add an inverter, probably 500W, onto the boat. Does anyone know what the maximum Wattage is the standard 12v cigarette sockets will take? If I need to bypass the actual socket, where is the best location to tap into power? Possibly at the amps? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[lee]

You want to hook up to the battery.

[UNSTUCK]

I think most lighter sockets are rated at 15 amps. 20 amps max. What's the max amp draw on the inverter you want? That will tell you how to wire it up. If you have the capacity remaining on your amp wiring and fuses, you could wire it up just like another amp in that circuit. My guess is that you would run into noise issues though the speakers though if you do that. The best thing would be to completely isolate the inverter by running it's own cables to the battery.

[chpthril]

That 500W is in AC, so knowing the cig outlet's watts in DC, will not help you here. You will need to know the inverter's DC current draw.

Is this a plug-in inverter?

[BlackoutATX]

Thanks for the replies guys. I haven't picked out a particular inverter yet. But something like this one is what I have in mind.

https://www.amazon.com/BESTEK-Power-...words=inverter

Most of these at this power or higher come with both the cig lighter and battery clamps. I didn't even think about stereo noise being a factor if plugged in to the cig lighter. I have been down that road and definitely do not want any noise in the system. It also looks like most of these inverter manufacturers do not recommend using the cig plug for anything over 150W. So it looks like the direct line to the battery might be the way to go. I think the safest place for this is mounted where the amps are. I was trying to avoid running another set of cables all the way back to the battery. But it sounds like that might be the best option.

[Brianrzr]

I have mounted an additional fuse block in my off road vehicles. I ran the cables directly to the new block and then ran all the high amperage lines off of that.

[ericinmich]

You can be in the ballpark by ignoring the AC power factors (RMS) and approximate it this way.

500w at 12v is about 50 amps DC.

500w at 120v is about 5 amps AC.

You could never get 50amps trough a cig lighter. Dedicated connection to battery, and battery would not last long on the hook...

[BlackoutATX]

Thought I'd update this for anyone interested. I ended up going with this 1000W Inverter. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm going to mount it in the same location as the amps. But I do have a few questions.

I'm thinking 4 gauge is sufficient to run this back to the batteries? The run will be about 20 feet.

Is there any reason I can't run this to the open spot on my power distribution block? Will this result in any noise in the speakers?

I'm going to use a blue sea block fuse (just like the amps). But what size should I go with?

Anything else I'm missing here?

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