Inverter Question

[gregmlucas]

Apologies if this is a silly question but probably the first of many...

We've just booked our first flotilla, for a week in the Ionian in June.

This will my wife's first experience of sailing although I've been sailing for a couple of years now. If my plans to persuade SWMBO of the delights of time spent afloat are to go as planned, I need to try and resolve the hairdryer issue.

An aquaintance suggested a portable inverter but I'm not sure what drain this might put on the batteries - especially since he's into mobos where re-charging is less of an issue.

I expect thet SWMBO would be using a hairdryer for 5-10 minutes once a day (plus straighteners for about the same duration). I don't expect to be using the inverter to run anything else. As this is a sailing holiday, I don't want to be running the engine more than necessary - hopefully no more than in & out of harbours and hot water for showers maybe.

So my question is what kind of drain would such inverter usage place on the battery (ies?) given minimal engine time for re-charging. If my plan is feasible, what makes are recommended or what should I be looking for spec-wise

Thanks in adavance for your help

Greg

 

[nedmin]

Hair hot brush not a problem only take about 40 watts you can buy a 12v one which works well,SWMBO says 12v hairdryers are useless, your going to need a biggish inverter for a hairdryer look on side and see what power in watts it needs could be 1200watts,bit big for a temporary connection.Theres bound to be power available somewhere so she should manage with the 12v( cigar lighter plug) hot brush until power available for hairdryer

 

[Guest]

A hair-dryer .... probably pulling 1.5kw or more ??? that is a hefty inverter .... (just looked in Argos cat. - average dryer pulls just under 2kw !!!!!!)

Sorry but that sort of inverter is out of my league ... and imagine a 12v battery supplying it ... 2000 / 12 = 167 amps before any allowance for losses ...

Say 15 mins ? Thats a total of about 500 + loss allowance of 10% = 550 watts ... at 12v = ~46 A/hrs ..... drained from battery ... or ~ 40% of average boat battery - near total of what you are advised as max drain ... so any minute over and you are pulling the average 110 A/hr boat battery down low !!




Must be a mistake somewhere ???

 

[bluedragon]

My wife and I used to joke about this years ago when some friends of ours who joined us on a charter in the Caribbean asked about using a hair dryer. My personal opinion is that a hair dryer has no place on a yacht...but I'm sure others will disagree. In fact virtually nobody I've ever seen in the Ionian looks like they dried or straightened their hair...so tell the wife not to worry. If she really wants her hair done there are salons in Nidri if I recall correctly.

Now just in case this isn't the answer she wants, I imagine you'll need around a 1000W inverter for a decent stying set...and that's a big and expensive beast. It'll suck an enormous amount out of the battery (theoretical 80+ amps if you use it at capacity) and almost will certainly blow the fuses in the 12V cigar lighter socket which is what you're likely to have on board. So IMHO...forget it...or take a gas styler.

 

[SvenglishTommy]

I dont think you'll find a portable inverter that can power a hair dryer. Portable ones will usually be around the 100W mark, you'll need much more than that and it will have to be connected directly to the batteries with heavy cable.

I'm just looking at a really small travel hairdryer I have here and even that is 1250 watts.

Maybe you could put together a fake inverter, tell her it's all sorted and then just look dumbfounded when it doesn't work /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[gregmlucas]

LOL - unfortunately SWMBO is sitting reading this with me so that's blown plan B - like your style tho'

Well it's gas straighteners and maybe a 12volt puff of nothing.

Thanks everyone for your input

Greg

 

[Aja]

What about a towel. No watts no amps just calories.

Donald

 

[Talbot]

I bought SWMBO one of those 12v "dryers" - what a waste of money!

Gas hair brush - great value + a really soft fluffy towel, and lots of comments about how good it looks!

+ Suggestions about how short hair will enable her to enjoy jumping in the water more without having to worry about drying all that long hair!

 

[VicMallows]

If by chance, your charter boat has a blown warm air heater (I know not needed in the Ionian, but many will have one fitted as standard) then these are fine for drying hair (if you have any /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif). SWMBO used to carry a flexible tube to attach to an outlet .... though for other reasons I've moved the outlet to head-height so it's no longer necessary.

Whether she could stand the heat below is a different matter!

Vic

 

[bigwow]

My daughter manages with a portable gas hot brush

 

[SvenglishTommy]

[ QUOTE ]
LOL - unfortunately SWMBO is sitting reading this with me so that's blown plan B - like your style tho'

[/ QUOTE ]
Oh [--word removed--], sorry SWMBO, I didn't mean it honest, I would never dream of doing such a thing /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[npf1]

"If my plans to persuade SWMBO of the delights of time spent afloat are to go as planned"

Sounds like you've got a long uphill struggle ahead of you!

 

[gregmlucas]

Thanks Mark,

I think lots of compliments are the way to go.

She's over the shock now of living without a hairdryer for a week - especially since I offered to do the straightener bit each day (fortunately as an ex-hairdresser I don't need an ICC in Straightening to do this within the EU)

Aaah, the things we do for a quiet life!

Cheers

Greg