A hairdryer is a must-have item for many people, and there are many reasons why you should have one. It’s not just for drying your hair, though! You can it can get rid of frizz, straighten your hair, and even curl it. You can use it for other options while off-grid. But can you run a hair dryer off of an Inverter?
We can cover this and more in this article.
What Inverter for a Hair Dryer?
In order to choose an inverter for your hair dryer you need to match the wattage of your hair dryer to the inverter. The amount of power used by a hair dryer depends on several factors. These include the amount of heat generated by the motor, the type of heating elements used, and the length and diameter of air ducts.
The most common hair dryers use between 1,200 watts and 2,400 watts. This is as much as an electric kettle. You will need an inverter with a rating higher than the hair dryer to allow for efficiency losses.
So if you are using a 1500-watt hair dryer you need an inverter that is at least 2000-watt. Also, remember the match the voltage of the battery bank with the inverter.
How Long Will a 2000-Watt Inverter Run a 1500-watt Hair Dryer?
An inverter converts the DC power from the batteries to AC power to be used by your hair dryer. So the battery determines how long you can run the hair dryer.
In order to get the size of the battery needed we first calculate the amps being drawn and then get the Amp-hour requirement.
How Many Amps for a 1500-Watt Hair Dryer?
To find the size of the battery, you divide the watts by the voltage.
In the case, you have a 12-volt system, so you divide 1500 Watts by 12V and for the 24V system, you divide by 24V.
1500/12 = 125 Amps
1500/24 = 62.5 Amps
This however does not give you the size of the battery you need but the capacity of the battery reserve that the hair dryer is pulling through your inverter. So you need a battery that you can safely pull 125 amps per for the 12v system and 63 amps per hour for the 24v system.
How Many Amp-Hours for a 1500-watt Hair Dryer
125 amps is a lot to pull from any system and will require bigger wires and a sizeable battery bank so it is best to go with a 24v system pulling the 63 amps.
To pull just over 63 amps per hour you’ll need a 24-volt 300Ah LiFePO4 battery bank.
What Size Battery to Run a hair dryer for 15 minutes?
You won’t be using a hair dryer for an hour especially when you are off-grid. You don’t want to waste the precious juice from your battery bank on your hair when you need to keep the refrigerator on. if you just need to dry your hair or just style it a bit 15 minutes can be enough. So how much power would you need for 15 to 30 minutes of use?
Some professional-grade dryers have wattages as high as 3,000 or 4,000 watts. For this you will need a bigger inverter.
Since we already have a figure when using the hair dryer for an hour for 30 minutes we can half the power use and for 15 minutes we half it again.
In the case of the 15 minutes you use a 12v battery and a 12v inverter. However, you will need a bigger battery
313/12 = 26 amps
To pull 26 amps you will need a 100Ah 12v LiFePO4 battery.
Use a battery-powered hair dryer
Most hair dryers have three settings: low, medium, and high. The higher the setting, the more energy it uses. If you set the temperature to low or medium, you’ll use less power. The best way to save power when using a hair dryer is to use it in cold air mode. This will save you up to 60% of your energy consumption
You can also find rechargeable cold air mode hair dryers in the market (*affiiate link). This uses very low power and uses a battery that can be recharged within 3-4 hours. This is recommended for people living off-grid or for use when traveling.