Community Forums

Brookrv · 02-10-2021, 05:46 PM

Hi all, is it possible to use a toaster oven when not hooked up to power and with no generator? We will have a lithium battery, an inverter, and about 360 solar. Is there a watt limit I should look for in a toaster oven? Most of the good ones appear to be about 1800 watts. Appreciate your assistance.

**Lt Dan** · 02-10-2021, 05:48 PM

1800 Watts on 120v is 15 amps of power draw. That would take a pretty hefty battery bank and inverter to run for any length of time.

AnotherMike · 02-10-2021, 06:19 PM

You'll need a 2kw inverter, some serious copper wires,
and a good battery! How big is your battery?
How many amp-hours? Is it a true deep cycle battery?
Or a starting battery?

As the previous poster said, 1800 watts at 120 volts AC
is 15 amps of AC.

The same 1800 watts at 12 volts is 150 amps!

But you have to figure conversion loss...
The rule of thumb is 10% or a little less.

So figure about 165 amps for as long as you run the oven!

If you ran it for 15 minutes (1/4 hour), that comes out
to 165 AH/4=42 AH, or about 50% of the charge in a
pair of GC2 batteries.

Is that 360 watts of solar a marketing number or a
measured number?

Keep in mind that the rated wattage of solar panels is
established either by the marketing department, or if it
is a real company with a reputation to uphold (like Siemens)
then they are using a standard optimized test environment.

You're never going to see or obtain the advertised numbers.
If it is marketing generated then it's wishful thinking. If it's
measured then the measurements were done in a very
controlled perfect environment on cherry-picked panels.

Solar systems in the real world suffer losses from sun
angle on the glass, temperature, clouds and other
shading, wiring losses, controller loss, etc. You will
never see the rated power get to the batteries...
the real power (watts).

But lets say that you actually have 360 watts of solar...
At 12 volts that's 30 amps in optimum / perfect conditions...
flat to the sun, no clouds, and zero loss in the wiring
or charge controller.

If you really have 30 amps of panel then you should
figure about two hours of perfect sunlight to replace
the energy used in 15 minutes of a 1800 watt load.

Mike

ArtJoyce · 02-10-2021, 07:46 PM

If my math is correct. If it draws 1.8KW = 120v 15a you will need to draw about 150 amps of 12v dc power to invert it to 120v 15a AC.

Im not sure that would be healthy for your batteries. I would check the specs on the load limits of battery.

Unplanned Tourist · 02-10-2021, 08:03 PM

You can add more solar, bigger battery pack, upgrade your inverter and wiring, or just use your genset.

Or you can buy a 2000 watt inverter genset. Less $$$ than upgrading your power system, and it will work in the dark.

twogypsies · 02-10-2021, 08:06 PM

What would you be using the toaster oven for? You can do most anything on the stove/propane oven or outside on the grill. Even for toast... butter the bread and toast it in the frypan... yummy!

BCooke · 02-11-2021, 05:53 AM

Short answer from someone that 90% dry camps.
Possible but not practical.

69Stang · 02-11-2021, 06:02 AM

I remember using these growing up. If it's just toast, they work really well. I'm thinking you're wanting to do more than just toast though.

bobmar · 02-11-2021, 06:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 69Stang

I remember using these growing up. If it's just toast, they work really well. I'm thinking you're wanting to do more than just toast though.

We have one of these from our boat camping days!! This is its soul purpose in life. Slow but does the trick. Won’t break the bank.

n0mad · 02-11-2021, 01:19 PM

We use a small toaster oven in our truck camper, and the electric convection oven in our fifth wheel, daily. It's certainly possible, but depends on how robust your system design is.

The toaster oven we use consumes around 1500W, and has about a 25% duty cycle as far as I can tell. That means over the course of an hour, it uses around 375Wh. So the element is one thing, but the duty cycle needs to be considered when planning as well. A single 100AH Lithium battery has around 1200Wh, so that hour would use about a third of the battery. It's a small B&D model we picked up on a whim at Wal-mart.

The convection in our fifth wheel uses a lot more power.

How many batteries do you have? What model? What inverter?

Nwcid · 02-11-2021, 02:18 PM

I will echo what all of the others have said. We frequently use our air fryer or toaster oven from our batteries/inverter. However, we have a system capable of it and it sounds like yours may be capable but if it is would likely use all of your reserve.

I know you do not have a generator in your unit, but we do. Power is a management issue, need as much in as you have going to to keep balance. You need to have more coming in than going out to charge.

If our batteries are on the "low" side it is more efficient to run the generator to power the toaster oven than it is to use the batteries and then charge them back up. If it is morning and our batteries are fairly full and we will be gone all day I will run of the inverter and then all of my solar during the day is only going to charging.

Elwood58 · 02-11-2021, 02:48 PM

Resistive loads are the worst, especially when you have to invert first. I would try and use it while the generator is running. We usually run our generator while cooking breakfast and dinner.

Brookrv · 02-11-2021, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by n0arp

We use a small toaster oven in our truck camper, and the electric convection oven in our fifth wheel, daily. It's certainly possible, but depends on how robust your system design is.

The toaster oven we use consumes around 1500W, and has about a 25% duty cycle as far as I can tell. That means over the course of an hour, it uses around 375Wh. So the element is one thing, but the duty cycle needs to be considered when planning as well. A single 100AH Lithium battery has around 1200Wh, so that hour would use about a third of the battery. It's a small B&D model we picked up on a whim at Wal-mart.

The convection in our fifth wheel uses a lot more power.

How many batteries do you have? What model? What inverter?

Thanks for responding everyone. I appreciate it. We are on the wait list for a Class B that will have two 12V AGM batteries, 2000 watt inverter, 330 watts solar, 220 amp lithium battery pack. Prior to this my husband and I have always tent camped, so having any electrical or other systems is new to us. I am trying to do as much research as I can now to get prepared and get my many questions answered. Thanks again.

ArtJoyce · 02-11-2021, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 69Stang

I remember using these growing up. If it's just toast, they work really well. I'm thinking you're wanting to do more than just toast though.

we have done a lot of dry camping in our 30 plus years of having campers. Never used that toaster. but have used the Coleman stovetop oven:

One winter I was trying to bake coffee cake, the oven with no insulation and only one layer was losing too much heat. So I had the bright idea to cover it with clean rags. About 5 minutes later the rags were on fire. The coffee cake was almost lost. But we did eat coffee cake that morning.

When dry camping we don't use 120 AC unless it to hot and we need the AC. We have a stovetop Purolator, use the propane oven and furnace, switch the fridge and water heater to propane. Use solar to charge the batteries. With sun we can go a long time.