T&T: 12 V DC small appliances?

[Peter Bennett]

Wednesday, March 26, 2008, 9:53:09 AM, Dennis wrote:

D> Are any available, i.e.  electric kettle, coffee
D> maker, toasters ?
D> Dennis

It takes a large amount of electrical power to produce useful heat, so
it is not practical to use 12 volts to power the items you list
(although there may be some appliances available - I see that another
poster reports unacceptable performance from a 12V coffee maker.)

My 120V electric kettle uses 1500 watts - that's about 12 amps at 120
V, and would be 120 amps at 12 volts to produce the same heat - that
would require a pretty huge power cord and plug!!

It may be practical to use an inverter to power those devices, but you
will still need to worry about battery capacity, and will need a
proper inverter installation with suitably large (2/0) 12 volt wiring,
as the inverter will draw over 100 amps to power any one of those
appliances.

-- 
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI    Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Ennos 31 "Honeycomb"
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter 
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca