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12v Power

M

Mark_374582393

I will be using my caravan on a site with no electric hook-up, therefore I will be using my battery for power. I will be wanting to use our TV and probably the Mrs will want to use her 800w hairdryer. I have a 12v Clipsil plug with a cigarette type socket which I can plug an inverter into, could anyone tell me if this is ok and what size inverter I would need. We are new to caravaning and still need answers to quite a few questions.

thanks

Mark
 
Sorry, it won't work. If the inverter was 100% effcient, which it isn't, you would need a 800 watt inverter. This would take far too much current from a battery. Think of it this way, if you connected a 800 watt car bulb to the battery how long would the battery last?

Batteries can only supply this ammount of power for a few seconds whilst starting a car engine.
 
Sorry, it won't work. If the inverter was 100% effcient, which it isn't, you would need a 800 watt inverter. This would take far too much current from a battery. Think of it this way, if you connected a 800 watt car bulb to the battery how long would the battery last?

Batteries can only supply this ammount of power for a few seconds whilst starting a car engine.
Click to expand...
Cheers Chris. I would have been using the liesure battery but i guess that would not last long either. I will have to get my hand in my pocket for a generator then
 
Hello Mark,

An 800W hairdryer will use 3.5A of mains power. As inverters need pull roughly 20 times the mains current from the 12V battery, that will be approx 70A! That will probably exceed the safe peak current for the leisure battery.

Even if the battery could supply that amount of current a fully charged 85Ah leisure battery would only last 1hr 12Mmin before being totally flattened. - not very practical.

If you do not have an electric hook up, then high powered mains appliances cannot be run from the caravan battery.

You could of course fit the inverter to the car, and connect it directly to the car battery. With the engine running so the alternator is continually recharging the battery, it would just about run the hair dryer.

You need to choose an inverter whose rating matches or exceeds the appliance wattage.

dl only last
 
Hello Mark

My wife washes and dries her hair every day without fail.The hair dryer is the most important piece of kit in the house,more important than the telly.In fact she has got three of them.If her favourite one burns out,then shes straight off to Currys,no ifs or buts,its the number one priority.

So in order to avoid World War 3 breaking out,I always book sites which have electric hook up.

CEST LA VIE

On a technical note,Prof John is quite right,it would flatten the battery in just over an hour.Watts divided by volts equals amps,so 800/12 = 68amps. For a 85ah battery you would have 85/68 hours available,which is 1hr 15mins.

Cheers Richard
 
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