I have a 20154 JKU and am looking at adding a power inverter to control small electronics, computers and what not. I am not great with electronics and power and was curious what size inverter should I get and how could I hardwire it into the jeep while making it look nice. If anyone has thoughts, write-ups, pics, I would really appreciate it. I know I am to look through all of the posts on here to find it, but I am currently in the Army and deployed and have limited time. Thanks.

 

Perhaps one of these threads. They are kinda old, but the first one is a how-to.

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-w...nverter-91847/

Power inverter - JKowners.com : Jeep Wrangler JK Forum

 

I've entertained the idea of an inverter a few times. Every time I've thought about it, seems like the idea was fine as long as you're moving and the jeep is on. As soon as you stop, you start killing the battery. To run such small things, I ended up just doing a little portable inverter via the 12v power plug. The time/effort/cost/space to do a nice semi-permanent install with a real unit was just not worth it, at least for my use. Maybe if you were overlanding all the time it would be.....but I still question how people with fridges and that kinda stuff keep their battery(ies) from dying.

I gave up and just got this for $14....and it sits in my cupholder when needed.

 

First step is to know what to need to power up and the power consumption it will draw to know how big of an inverted you need.

 

I realize that this is an older thread but thought I would chime in anyway. While an inverter gives you 120VAC this device actually trades current for voltage (approximately). To illustrate, a 12V device that takes one amp will require a wire capable of handling one amp to supply the required current. Ohm's Law will show us that Watts[power required] is a relationship between voltage and current (and is expressed as Voltage X Current = Watts), meaning that 120Volts at 1 amp will be 120 watts. By the same token, 12volts at 10 amps will also equate to 120 watts. This means that using an inverter, a one amp draw on the 120v side.will require around 10 amps on the 12 volt side and the appropriate size wire must be used to carry that current.

Another way to say this is while a device requires 120watts on the 120volt side of the inverter, it must get equivalent power from the 12volt side ie 120watts to feed the inverter with this load. Roughly speaking, the 12 volt side is 1/10th the voltage but will require approximately 10 times the current from the 120 volt side.That is why you see larger diameter wires that connect to the battery on the 12 volt side of inverters. 120Volt devices that require small amounts of current will require around 10 times the current on the 12volt side. For example, a simple 160watt 120volt computer will only draw around 1.33amps but on the 12 volt side of the inverter this same device will require over 13 amps to feed it. You can use an approximation that a 750watt inverter will only supply up to around 6 amps on the 120 volt side but will require around 63 amps on the 12volt side to do so. Note that I have used nominal voltages and have not accounted for losses in efficiency in my (hopefully simple) explanation.I also did not account for inrush (or start up) current for items such as drills or other motorized devices.

Hope this helps

KG6SLC aka Eugene.