Inverters

[Wizz]

You may be able to guess straight away from my question that I know next to very little about electrics, however I'm doing my very best to try to get my head around the subject.
I am soon to collect my MH, and having done so, our plan is to travel and use both sites with and without hookup.
Our wish will be able to power/charge a couple of devices, occasionally. Namely a travel hairdryer, a small travel kettle, and a Apple Mac Book lap top.
I have an inverter as below.
Would it appear that I have sufficient to fulfil my wishes, or am I way off the mark. I'm assuming my inverter is not suitable for the items I currently have ?
Are there hairdryers and electric kettles on the market that would be suitable?
Any advice/information/suggestions would be most welcome.

Many thanks'
Wizz

 

[Richard n Ann]

You will need a bigger inverter than that, at least 1000w. How big is your battery bank? Because to boil a kettle or dry hair it will take a lot of power out of it.

I'd use gas for boiling water. And just use the small inverter for small things, we use ours for charging electric toothbrushes, vacuum cleaner and small tv.

 

[Mark McG]

Not sure what MacBook you have but if it has usb-c charging then you can charge on 12v. Otherwise you will need a pure sine wave inverter to avoid damage.

 

[Wizz]

The battery is Sterling AL 100 Lithium.
The MacBook is 10 years old and has a 3 pin plug adapter.
The kettle won't be a problem obviously because of gas, but my wife's hairdryer would be a bonus as would the laptop charging.

 

[DBK]

As the others have mentioned the inverter you have is far too small although it might charge the MacBook but it could also damage it as it isn't a pure sine wave type.

I described fitting a 1500W pure sine wave inverter here:

https://tinyurl.com/y5gjksrm

But if you are unfamiliar with electrics I would strongly advise you to have it fitted professionally. Johns Cross Motorhomes in East Sussex are probably closest to you and could do the work. But it won't be cheap!

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[Wizz]

Thanks DBK

 

[Lenny HB]

That inverter is far too small for your needs you will need at least a 1000watt preferable 1800w and at least a 300 to 400a/h battery bank.
Unless you have at least 300 - 500 watts of solar I wouldn't use an electric kettle a 1000 w kettle will draw around 90 amps.
As said get a proper 12v charger for the laptop.
I have a 1000W pure sine wave inverter & 240a/h of Gel batteries & 300 watts of solar. I really only use it for charging the e-bikes, occasionally a travel hair dryer only on low as the high setting trips the inverter. The only time I use the kettle from the inverter is on the chunnel or waiting at the docks with the gas turned off.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

Forget the kettle and just use it when on ehu. The inverter you have 150w is insufficient for the hair dryer but probably OK for charging your mac assuming you have the correct connections. For the hair dryer you need a bigger inverter as said, 1000w min.we don't have a Pre sine wave inverter but it's OK for the hairdryer for short periods. We have 200w of solar and 290ah of batteries. But I would only allow hairdryer use first thing in a morning in summer wen the batteries are charged and can be replenished during the day. 3 to 4 mins only. But then I do get paranoid about losing power.

 

[Lenny HB]

The battery is Sterling AL 100 Lithium.
The MacBook is 10 years old and has a 3 pin plug adapter.
The kettle won't be a problem obviously because of gas, but my wife's hairdryer would be a bonus as would the laptop charging.

If you had said that at the start, it puts a different slant on it. A decent size inverter should be fine with the Lithium but you still don't want to run the kettle unless you have loads of solar.

 

[Vic]

Get used to this. You have a plan of what you want to use and what you think you will need to use it. Then some know it all comes along and tells you that you are wrong is going to cost much more than you initially thought. Unfortunately they are right. We have all been there and asked similar questions before. Stick around, it will be cost more than you think, but the advice will enable you to do what want.
My 2ps worth, kettle on gas.
12v adapter for your laptop and a 2000w (ish) pure sine wave inverter. Later, update your battery bank and as much solar as you can afford.

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[Two on Tour]

Yvette has very long hair and she uses one of these on the MH.
It uses infra red as it's heat source and only draws 450 watts, so hardly gets our inverter into a sweat.

 

[Lenny HB]

Or a gas hair styler we have one they work well use a little butane cartridge.

Sites-ml-babyliss-Site

www.babyliss.co.uk

 

[Wizz]

Many thanks to you all, this has all helped me understand where I am now. Some of it I suspected, but just wasn't sure of.
Its quite dangerous when you don't know what you don't know

Cheers everyone.
Wizz

 

[Reallyretired]

Your picture shows a 150w inverter which may just about power your computer. If you want to power a low power kettle or hairdryer you will need a minimum of 1500w which will draw up to 150A from your batteries and require very thick cables direct to your battery bank, a single battery would not be adequate.
I do use an inverter for a kettle and hairdryer but you do need a better electrical knowledge than you appear to have, together with lots of solar to replace ghe charge.

 

[70321]

Hello, I'm new too and finding it very confusing. Mr Kiddo will be able to understand this voltage stuff better than me but I too am looking for a hairdryer (and stuff). I've found one that does cold air only and is battery charged and I've found this one Amazon product ASIN B081Y2YMW2 which doesn't have any ratings.

I bought the Babyliss gas styling brush to smooth my hair and that's okay.

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[Richard n Ann]

Hello, I'm new too and finding it very confusing. Mr Kiddo will be able to understand this voltage stuff better than me but I too am looking for a hairdryer (and stuff). I've found one that does cold air only and is battery charged and I've found this one Amazon product ASIN B081Y2YMW2 which doesn't have any ratings.

I bought the Babyliss gas styling brush to smooth my hair and that's okay.

I doubt if the rechargeable hair dryer will be any good (I notice it doesn't have any amazon reviews )

To achieve a good blow dry you see, you need high wattage like say 1000w.

Watts are achieved by the very simple equation Volts x Amps with me so far? Good.

Now batteries compared to mains are very low voltage, we only have 12v at our disposal, so to achieve a high wattage the amps being sucked out of the battery have to be massive. 20 times what it would be with mains. So fat cables, voltage drops, hot inverters and knackered batteries are all the common problems. Keep the wattage down and everything is fine

 

[royw]

Just a point to add, any device has a label and will show its consumption and for your record my mac is 1 amp 240volts so 240watts so your baby inverter would not even cope with that. Your battery will definitely cope with a bigger inverter but as your capacity is not that great you wont get that long from it.

 

[Wizz]

In view of all the aforesaid, which has been quite enlightening in many respects, I will hold off investing in anything else, with particular regards a more capable inverter. If I spend anymore money I may have to sell the house.

I shall look into the MacBook laptop side with regards its charging requirements. I may just opt for a battery replacement as the current one is old and does not hold its charge too long, whereas a new battery is likely to answer many problems as I'll be able to give it a decent charge and it'll hold it for a reasonable period, long enough for my use, as I don't need it that much (more in recent times owing to all the MH questions I've been posing)....

Re the hairdryer- I've discussed its usage with my wife and thankfully she's very approachable, and understanding and she's opted to give the Babyliss gas tong/brush recommended by Lenny HB, which could well make things much easier and hopefully acceptable, So thanks for that Lenny HB.
Re the kettle- We will just stick to gas.

If after a few outings we need to tweak anything we will do this at a later date, but hopefully this all looks very positive at this stage.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[Richard n Ann]

When we're in Spain Ann sometimes let's her hair dry naturally and then uses the straightening longs on the inverter to finish off, they are a lot less wattage but have a large start-up current so still need a 1000w pure sine wave inverter.

Something else to look at is Babyliss Big Hair, it's a low wattage mains hair dryer with a spinning brush. It has a couple of heat settings on the switch if I recall correctly (cold, 350w and 700w). Ann loves it and uses it at home too

 

[70321]

When we're in Spain Ann sometimes let's her hair dry naturally and then uses the straightening longs on the inverter to finish off, they are a lot less wattage but have a large start-up current so still need a 1000w pure sine wave inverter.

Something else to look at is Babyliss Big Hair, it's a low wattage mains hair dryer with a spinning brush. It has a couple of heat settings on the switch if I recall correctly (cold, 350w and 700w). Ann loves it and uses it at home too

That's great help re the Babyliss Big Hair. I use that too but never imagined for a moment it was such low wattage. I've also got a travel hairdryer which is 800 watt so I think that's me sorted

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[70321]

I doubt if the rechargeable hair dryer will be any good (I notice it doesn't have any amazon reviews )

To achieve a good blow dry you see, you need high wattage like say 1000w.

Watts are achieved by the very simple equation Volts x Amps with me so far? Good.

Now batteries compared to mains are very low voltage, we only have 12v at our disposal, so to achieve a high wattage the amps being sucked out of the battery have to be massive. 20 times what it would be with mains. So fat cables, voltage drops, hot inverters and knackered batteries are all the common problems. Keep the wattage down and everything is fine

Am understanding a LITTLE bit more. Thanks

 

[SpeedyDux]

Sounds like - find a site with EHU on SWMBO's hairwash days. Cheapest by far.

Off-grid only on non-hairwash days.

 

[Richard n Ann]

The site we go on has got metered electric (40c/kwh) so we use solar and inverter for everything and fridge on LPG. But if Ann wants the hair dryer we can easily change over to EHU with the flick of a switch

 

[mitzimad]

In view of all the aforesaid, which has been quite enlightening in many respects, I will hold off investing in anything else, with particular regards a more capable inverter. If I spend anymore money I may have to sell the house.

I shall look into the MacBook laptop side with regards its charging requirements. I may just opt for a battery replacement as the current one is old and does not hold its charge too long, whereas a new battery is likely to answer many problems as I'll be able to give it a decent charge and it'll hold it for a reasonable period, long enough for my use, as I don't need it that much (more in recent times owing to all the MH questions I've been posing)....

Re the hairdryer- I've discussed its usage with my wife and thankfully she's very approachable, and understanding and she's opted to give the Babyliss gas tong/brush recommended by Lenny HB, which could well make things much easier and hopefully acceptable, So thanks for that Lenny HB.
Re the kettle- We will just stick to gas.

If after a few outings we need to tweak anything we will do this at a later date, but hopefully this all looks very positive at this stage.

Thanks again everyone.

is there a valid reason to take the laptop away most things can be done on a phone or pad ?

 

[Lenny HB]

is there a valid reason to take the laptop away most things can be done on a phone or pad ?

Yes, far easier to use a real keyboard & a decent size screen and I have quite a few programs that will only run of the laptop.

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[ctc]

The previous owner of mine fitted a 3kw inverter, I used it once in 4 years just to see if it worked. A waste of money as is our roof mounted satellite dish. As others have said there are plenty of alternatives.

 

[Puddleduck]

I have a 12v charger for my pc which I leave in the van. The 240v charger stays in the house

No need to use anything else (with associated power losses) to charge the pc from the van leisure battery.

The little inverter (200w) we have is mostly used for the slow cooker (max power use 90w) - we put the slow cooker in the sink and cook from the 12v system when we are travelling Most of our stuff in the van is 12v. I found the 12v hair dryer useless though

 

[Toady]

My other half uses a travel hairdryer on a low setting with no problems. We have a 3kw inverter with 2 x batteries and solar (thick cables and inverter near batteries) We do limit it to 5 mins and that works.

 

[70321]

I've just been looking at my hair styling accoutrements (will try anything!) and I have a Dafni hot brush which is 40 WATT. Amazon product ASIN B015G0YY0A

 

[70321]

Wizz, it's a Dafni go. Seems to be a lot of models. I have fine (very fine ha ha) hair and it works for me. There are several models. Mine is 40w. Got it from Amazon.