Where can I find a non-expensive battery operated blow dryer?
Question:I'm going to be at camp and need to blow dry my hair every single time I'm done showering and I'm pretty sure the camp doesn't have electrical outlets in the bathrooms. I'm going to need a non-expensive battery operated blow dryer. PLEASE HELP!!
Answers:
Blow dryers take way too much energy to be run from a battery, and so nobody makes one. But you could use a regular blow dryer powered by batteries.
Suppose you want a 1200 watt 120 volt blow dryer. That's a 10 amp load (current in amps = watts divided by voltage). A typical AA cell battery is rated at a maximum 0.5 amp load (from data sheet http://data.energizer.com/pdfs/e91.pdf). You'd need 20 AA cells in parallel to power a 10 amp load. Furthermore, since an AA cell is only 1½ volts, you'd need these 20 parallel AA cells in series 80 deep to get 120 volts. That's a total of 1,600 AA cells. At a weight of 0.8 ounces each, the battery pack would weigh 80 pounds.
How long might such a battery pack last? For an individual cell at ½ amp, the capacity shown on the data sheet is about 1200 milliampere hours. For 20 cells wide, the capacity is 24 ampere hours. Since the blow dryer load is 10 amps, that gives about 2.4 hours. If you're at camp for a week, that's about 20 minutes a day.
You may be able to get better performance with car batteries but, unless you use an inverter, it would take 10 batteries to get the requisite 120 volts.
What you really need to do is rough it for a week and forget about your hair. Just remember that everyone else will be in the same boat. You'll have more time for fun if you're not worried about your appearance.
thats a part of the experience. the camp people wont be happy if you brought a hair dryer. unless its a medical condition then your out of luck.
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