How to Hook Up a Car Amp Inside the House

With the right gear, you can hook up your car amp in the home.

Car amplifiers are rugged and powerful, perfect for providing high power output to speakers. But if you're thinking about using one in your home, there's a problem. Car amplifiers are designed to operate with a 12-volt DC current as the power source, but most homes are wired for 112-volt AC current. With the use of a power inverter, you can hook up your car amplifier for use in the home.

Things You'll Need

• 14-gauge insulated wire, red and black
• Wire cutters
• Wire strippers
• AC to DC power inverter
• Phillips screwdriver
• Allen wrench

Instructions

1. Cut lengths of red and black wire with your wire cutters. The wires need to be long enough to reach from the amplifier to the power inverter.

2. Remove a half-inch of insulation from each end of the wires with your wire strippers.

3. Loosen the terminals of the inverter. Different brands of inverters will use different types of terminals, so act accordingly when loosening the terminals. Attach one end of the red wire to the terminal marked "+", the positive terminal, and one end of the black wire to the "-", the negative terminal.

4. Loosen the power terminals of the amplifier with a Phillips screwdriver or Allen wrench. Slide the other ends of the red and black wires into the terminals: red to positive, black to negative. Tighten the terminals to hold the wires in place.

5. Loosen the speaker terminals of the amplifier with a screwdriver or Allen wrench. Slide the ends of the wires attached to your speakers into the terminals. Be sure to match the positive leads of the speaker wires to the positive terminals of the amp, and the negative to the negative.

Tips & Warnings

• When purchasing an inverter, be sure that the amperage rating of the inverter matches the requirements of the amplifier. Check the specs of the amplifier to be sure of the amp's requirements.

References

• "Car Stereo Cookbook"; Mark Rumerich; 2005