- Apr 27, 2008
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I have just installed a 500w inverter, really just to recharge a video camera and three still cameras for which I have no 12v charger. I didn't want anything bigger as I think 40a odd is as much as I want to pull out of my batteries.
A bigger one would have been useful to operate a hairdryer, but not worth getting just for that, however I tested some 'travel' hairdyers we had lying around the place to see just what they actually used and was surprised to find that on the lower setting they were only drawing around 200w though on the high setting 1100 to 1400watts. One of them I tried, don't know the maker but was branded Revlon, produced a very satisfactory blast of hot air on its lower setting while still only using 200w, which will work fine on the 500w inverter (a really cheap one £25) and the battery will recharge in an hour or two on a sunny day.
This works far better than a 12v hairdyer drawing 15A which has a pathetic output. The mains one on low is far more effective and is still only drawing about 18A. Almost seems like something for nothing.
A bigger one would have been useful to operate a hairdryer, but not worth getting just for that, however I tested some 'travel' hairdyers we had lying around the place to see just what they actually used and was surprised to find that on the lower setting they were only drawing around 200w though on the high setting 1100 to 1400watts. One of them I tried, don't know the maker but was branded Revlon, produced a very satisfactory blast of hot air on its lower setting while still only using 200w, which will work fine on the 500w inverter (a really cheap one £25) and the battery will recharge in an hour or two on a sunny day.
This works far better than a 12v hairdyer drawing 15A which has a pathetic output. The mains one on low is far more effective and is still only drawing about 18A. Almost seems like something for nothing.