Induction Hobs....Off-Grid?

HKF

HKF

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Hi everyone :)

I have a single induction hob that goes from 200w, 400w, 600w....up to 2,000w. Could I use it off grid at 200w, or even 400w, please? If yes, how much of the battery power would it use, please? Thank you :)
 
Yes what battery setup do you have.
Plenty Lithium and appropriate wired inverter required.
Mine will jump to 70-100 ah draw each time it kicks in. But dep on what setting you have it on then it can kick in for different length of time.

Say pan Meal takes 10 mins so average rough calcs max 10 - 20 amps from the battery . Low 5-10

Induction are either on or off there is no in between, they just stay on longer for higher power setting.
 
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It will use Watts/10ish Amps for every hour they you're frying. At 200W it may take some time to cook a sausage. It makes no difference if they're Lithium or Lead Acid Amps (except the cost of install)
 
dunnah01 said:
It makes no difference if they're Lithium or Lead Acid Amps (except the cost of install)
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It does as they pulse at full power you would need 800ah of lead batteries to run one.

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Inductions hobs don't run continually in my experience. Ours at home pulses to keep a pan on simmer but when turned up to max to bring a pan to boil at first it does then run continuously. However, I suspect your hob just has fixed power levels. The problem is you won't do much with 200W or even 400W other than simmer a small pan after using say 1Kw to bring it up to the boil.

How much battery capacity have you got? Unless you've got a few hundred amp-hours and can replace the power used I think you will struggle.

But if you've already got the hob and can monitor the battery voltage try it but don't let the voltage drop below 12 volts, you will risk damaging the battery if you do.

Edit: Just seen Lenny's input and agree with him. You can still try it if you want but you may need a 2Kw B2B inverter.
 
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HKF said:
Hi everyone :)

I have a single induction hob that goes from 200w, 400w, 600w....up to 2,000w. Could I use it off grid at 200w, or even 400w, please? If yes, how much of the battery power would it use, please? Thank you :)
Click to expand...
We run ours at 600w 800w 0r 1KW off our inverter with no problems. We find it will cook fish/bacon or steak etc pretty quickly.

Battery set up is a 220Ah Gel and a 200Ah Life Po4 in parallel and a decentish 1500w Inverter
 
We have 200AH lithium and a 3kw inverter with 440w solar. Induction hob works well but does use the battery heavily. As above, cheaper ones pulse their power. The one at home does not do this
 
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Its not just about how much battery power you would use off grid, but how long it would take your solar panel(s) to recharge the batteries.

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OK, here's what I have;

100amp Lithium
120w Solar
Pulsing induction hob

I currently have no inverter but am thinking about getting one, even if that means an upgrade on the battery/solar. I'm just thinking that being able to use the induction might mean it's worth while the inverter purchase and probably battery/solar upgrade.
 
HKF said:
OK, here's what I have;

100amp Lithium
120w Solar
Pulsing induction hob

I currently have no inverter but am thinking about getting one, even if that means an upgrade on the battery/solar. I'm just thinking that being able to use the induction might mean it's worth while the inverter purchase and probably battery/solar upgrade.
Click to expand...
I reckon you need to increase battery capacity a bit and be mindful of the max draw from the batteries. And where you re going to get the power back from.
 
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I use an induction hob. Vango sizzle at 800w, pulls about 85 amps when in use.

We use it all the time depending on if we need the battery reserve or not. I have 200ah of lithium, generally, we can use it all the time and it will last 24 hours unless it’s very sunny. In winter it goes away and we use the gas. That’s with about 350w of solar.

You do however need a reliable way to monitor the battery, you can hammer it so there is nothing left if you aren’t careful. On balance, refillable gas is much, much cheaper than a decent inverter and lithium.

At the height of summer when we get 20 amps going in for 10+ hours a day, it’s amazing. But that’s only for the brighter months. The B2B at 30amps doesn’t help much unless you are driving a long time.
 
HKF said:
OK, here's what I have;

100amp Lithium
120w Solar
Pulsing induction hob

I currently have no inverter but am thinking about getting one, even if that means an upgrade on the battery/solar. I'm just thinking that being able to use the induction might mean it's worth while the inverter purchase and probably battery/solar upgrade.
Click to expand...
120w solar compared to 2000w induction hob. Use the induction hob at that power for 15 minutes, and it would take 5-6 hours to recharge the battery on a good summers day to recover the electricity used just for the hob! You need more batteries, and more solar realistically. It would probably be cheaper to eat out every night.

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Googlebot said:
You do however need a reliable way to monitor the battery, you can hammer it so there is nothing left if you aren’t careful. On balance, refillable gas is much, much cheaper than a decent inverter and lithium
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You are right there, but we consciously decided to go the lithium/solar/inverter route for the convenience as much as anything. When the inverter is running, there is a display that shows the amperage (frighteningly high) and battery level so we are careful.
 
If you tried to cook with 200w, you'd be there all day. When you did eventually finish cooking, I bet total energy used would be higher than when it was at 800w (which would still be slow).
 
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Old Gibber said:
120w solar compared to 2000w induction hob. Use the induction hob at that power for 15 minutes, and it would take 5-6 hours to recharge the battery on a good summers day to recover the electricity used just for the hob! You need more batteries, and more solar realistically. It would probably be cheaper to eat out every night.
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The theory is correct but an induction hob is never going to sit at maximum wattage for very long at all, I use our induction hob a lot and never see it pulling anywhere near max and as has been said before they cycle anyway.

IMG_2367.jpeg



The gizmo you can see at the back of the induction hob is a power meter reading in watts and it tells me what the inverter is supplying so I can check my own power use outside but can also see what is being used inside, if it just microwave I can use induction as well but 2.2kw kettle I would have to be careful, there is a duplicate screen inside but the kitchen operative is not fully trained yet but she does jump when the alarm I have set at 2750w goes off :LOL:
 
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funflair said:
The theory is correct but an induction hob is never going to sit at maximum wattage for very long at all, I use our induction hob a lot and never see it pulling anywhere near max and as has been said before they cycle anyway.

View attachment 883475


The gizmo you can see at the back of the induction hob is a power meter reading in watts and it tells me what the inverter is supplying so I can check my own power use outside but can also see what is being used inside, if it just microwave I can use induction as well but 2.2kw kettle I would have to be careful, there is a duplicate screen inside but the kitchen operative is not fully trained yet but she does jump when the alarm I have set at 2750w goes off :LOL:
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Same as mine and never have it higher than 3 or 4 manual
 
We are,away for the first proper trip since fitting a Fogstar 230ah Lithium, aRenogy 2000w inverter to replace our previous Agm batteries and 1000w inverter.
We have 140w solar through a votronic duo mppt regulator.
Yesterday we used our coffee machine 4 times, travel kettle once and it used around 12% of the Lithium, today we drove about 12 miles with around 27A coming from the alternator and 7A solar and was fully charged this morning. Today I used our new Tefal induction hob, along with the coffee machine 3 times, electric kettle twice. Both days we have had blown air heating left on overnight and currently our battery is 96% capacity.
I was really impressed by the speed an induction hob heats up. It's faster than anything ive used before.

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The way induction hobs handle reduced power levels varies by model in it can be very difficult to find how individual models are designed to work. I discovered this when trying to specify one for myself.

A very expensive 2000w hob will probably genuinely reduce to a continuous draw of whatever level you choose - so at a 200w setting it will draw a continuous 200w. This does tend to be units intended for domestic kitchen use - 4 hob 7Kw built in models & can be over £1000. :Eeek:

A very cheap hob will probably pulse between full power & off at any setting below full. All that varies is the length of the off period.

In between you get a mixture. For example, between 800w & 2000w it might genuinely reduce to the selected power, but below that it will pulse at 800w. See the Sterling twin hob as an example of this type.

If you post the make & model you have, we can try & find the spec., but it can be difficult to find.

P.S. same comments apply to microwave ovens.
 
TheCaller said:
A very expensive 2000w hob will probably genuinely reduce to a continuous draw of whatever level you choose
Click to expand...

This is correct. There are models that don't "pulse". It was maybe two years ago when I looked in to this so I may be wrong, but IIRC they weren't that much expensive. I was looking for home use so don't know it there are these smaller ones that work like this, but they are technically possible and exist.

Other than that, I've always found it slightly odd to make heat from battery power.
 
We have both the sterling power induction hobs and a vango sizzle both work well
The sterling power pulses up to level and including 3 but doesnt after that ,
The sizzle does not appear to pulse at all. If thats any help
 
We have a Von Shef double induction hob that we frequently use via the inverter. No pulsing as I have watched the amperage readout on the display and it remains steady. One hob is 200w (perfect for fondue preparation 😉) up to 1000w and the other is 600w to 1800w (great if you like burning things). Last used yesterday

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