Inverter question

[Bluebeard]

The DW needs to have a working hair dryer when out boondocking. I am considering adding an inverter to ensure a happy wife (happy life). I get it that it is easier to have its own circuits coming off the batteries, but was wondering what you guys do to hook it up beyond that. I am thinking to stick it in a cubby hole and run extension cords from the plug outlets to specific wall plugs. Is this common? or am I missing something?

[2oldman]

Bluebeard wrote:
Ok, thanks for the input. I have a honda 1000w generator and I told her to get a 1000w hair dryer

Better make that a 2kw generator or a .5kw hair dryer.

[Bluebeard]

Ok, thanks for the input. I have a honda 1000w generator and I told her to get a 1000w hair dryer, so maybe the best bet is to just use the generator? Other than the hair dryer, I pretty much don't have a need to cover any heavy loads. We are pretty frugal, other than drying hair.

[tenbear]

I agree with RoyB. A good generator is your best bet. You can also use that to recharge your batteries.

[enblethen]

You cannot run to an existing receptacle from the inverter and back feed that is eluded to in the third and fourth line.
You will need more batteries especially for the hair dryer and microwave.

[wa8yxm]

Consider a 12 volt hair dryer adn a Heavy duty 12 volt outlet.

Inverter needs to be in teh 2,000 watt range,, 4/0 or bigger cable to batteries no more than 3 feet away (but not in the same air space) and standard Romex from there to the sub panel and from the sub panel to the Dryer
If your inverter has breakers intgernal skip the sub panel

If you plan on plugging a cord directly into an outlet on the inverter then twelve gauge please.. not 14 or 16 go with 12

Any time the load wattage has a comma 12 ga or larger is indicated, even if 14 meets specs.. 12 simply works better.

My inverter has 10ga from the 2,000 watt inverter to the sub panel, and from there 12 to the microwave and 14 to other loads.

[2oldman]

Bluebeard wrote:
I get it that it is easier to have its own circuits coming off the batteries, but was wondering what you guys do to hook it up beyond that

The easiest way to "install" an inverter is to plug your shore cord into it. The next easiest is to hard wire it into your 120vac panel.

The most cumbersome way is to kludge extension cords around the coach.

eHoefler wrote:
Why not buy a 12 volt hair dryer??

because she wants her hair dried in under 3 hours.

[eHoefler]

Why not buy a 12 volt hair dryer??

[SoundGuy]

Most hair dryers have several settings so although it may take longer ask your wife to only use the lowest setting. I do and my 1000 watt PSW inverter handles the task without any issues at all running by just one 8 yr old G27 battery. 🙂

[bikendan]

Bluebeard wrote:
The DW needs to have a working hair dryer when out boondocking. I am considering adding an inverter to ensure a happy wife (happy life).

better have a good bank of batteries for that kind of power drain.
i prefer to have an inverter generator for that and the microwave.

[RoyB]

Power Inverters are indeed battery hungary... A 1500WATT Power Inverter will want to draw over 120AMPS from your battery bank when fully loaded. You will have to increase your battery bank alot to maintain something like this...

Have fouond here the best Power Inverter is a smaller PSW type just to run a few low wattage things like the Home Entertainment setup, a fan, computer and cell phone chargers etc...

If you need to run something like the High wattage microwave or Hair dryer the 2KW quiet Honda EU2000i Generator is your best choice. That has its drawbacks as well as most pubic campgrounds have generator run time restrictions in place. Where we camp here on the East side of the US there are very few DISPERSED campong locations so we end up at public places alot with these restrictions in place... Even our local National FOrest places have Generator run time restrictions...

Roy Ken

[Fishinghat]

My wife hasn't used the inverter to power up her hair dryer, but we have used the microwave. Both use about the same amount of amps. The microwave is only on for a minute or less, generally 15 seconds or so. The micro was wired that way when the coach was built and I never changed it. But, we use the micro very sparingly on inverter power.

Hair dryers can take up to 1,500 watts, or about 12 amps at 120 volts. That is a lot of power. Now, if you have four (or more) house batteries and an inverter that can provide at least 15 amps at 120 volts, you'll have enough for a few minutes of hair drying time. Your wife is probably wanting to use it for several minutes or more, which could really draw down your batteries. But, then you'll have to recharge the batteries anyway, so why not just run the dryer off of the generator?

Good luck. (And, and you indicated, happy wife equals happy life.)