Having a great hair dryer at home means that you can style your hair after getting out of the shower and still be ready in time. 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. Some professional-grade dryers have wattages as high as 3,000 or 4,000 watts.
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.
In this article, we look at how much solar power including solar panels and batteries to run a hair dryer.
Solar Power for 1500-Watt Hair Dryer
Unheated air can use as few as 70 watts of power, but a hairdryer on high heat will use around 1500 watts. The amount of power used will also depend on the amount of time you use the hair dryer.
To run a 1500-watt hair dryer at full power for over an hour you’ll need a 500-watt solar panel with a 24-volt 300Ah LiFePO4 battery and an inverter rated 2000 watts or more. To run the same hair dryer for 15 minutes you can use a 24v 100ah battery or a 12v 200 ah battery with a 150-watt solar panel.
We take you through the numbers.
Hair Dryer Watt-hour Requirement
Electrical energy is measured in watt-hours. One watt-hour equals one watt expended for one hour. The number of watt-hours used by an appliance over a period of time equals the total amount of power consumed by that device over that period.
To calculate watt-hours, multiply the watts used by an appliance over a period of time by the number of hours that appliance is used. A 700-watt electric pressure cooker will need 700 watt hours.
If you use a hair dryer for an hour, it will consume about 1500 watt-hours.
What Size Solar Panel for a Hair Dryer?
In order to determine how many solar panels are needed for a hair dryer, we divide the total watt-hours required by the number of sun-hours we get in a day. So in our case, we need 1500Wh.
An example is to use an average of 4 hours which could be high peak hours in the afternoon between 12 and 4. If you get more than 4 hours of sun per day, then use that number.
It’s important to note that the amount of solar energy that can be captured and used by a solar panel system is not just dependent on the amount of sunlight that is available, but also on other factors such as the panel’s efficiency, the angle at which the panels are tilted, and the presence of any shading or obstructions.
1500Wh/4= 375 Watts
A 375 Watt solar panel will be enough to provide 1500Wh in the course of the day. Solar panels are not that expensive so you can even go up to 500 Watts and collect more power. The excess power from the solar panels will be stored in the battery for later use.
What Size Battery do you need for the Hair Dryer?
To find the size of the battery, you divide the watt-hours by the voltage.
In the case, you have a 12-volt system, so you divide 1500Wh by 12V and for the 24V system, you divide by 24V.
1500/12 = 125 Ah
1500/24 = 62.5 Ah
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.
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.
Inverter for a 1500-watt hair dryer
you will be running this power through an inverter. An inverter converts the DC power from the batteries to AC power to be used by your hair dryer. You will need an inverter with a rating higher than the hair dryer. 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 Much Solar Power will you need for 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?
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.
| Length in time | Watt-hour Requirements | Solar Panel | Battery |
| 1 hr | 1250Wh | 500 Watts | 300Ah |
| 30 minutes | 625Wh | 300 Watts | 150Ah |
| 15 minutes | 313Wh | 150 Watts | 100Ah |
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 amp-ah
To pull 26 amps you will need a 200Ah 12v battery.
Use a battery-powered hair dryer
You can also find rechargeable cold air mode hair dryers in the market. 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.
Conclusion
A hairdryer is a high-wattage appliance that consumes a lot of power. This is especially if you use it at the maximum settings for long periods of time. You can use it sustainably for short periods of time and use a small solar system. You can also use it over low heat to conserve power. There are also options for battery-powered hair dryers that don’t need to be hooked to a power source.