Electric Blanket

Ger08 · Senior Member

Electric Blanket

Brenda and Alan · Guru

Some figures for you to work with from our experience with a Sunbeam double electric blanket on a 1000 Watt PSW inverter.

inverter draw no load 0.6A mp

both sides on setting 1 3.1 Amp [including inverter draw]

both sides on setting 2 4.9 Amp "

both sides on setting 3 9.5 Amp "

Alan

Ger08 · Senior Member

Thanks for the reply - it draws a bit more than I thought

dogbox · Guru

you don't have to run it all nite just long enough to warm the bed before retiring

Brenda and Alan · Guru

If you use it to warm the bed and turn it off when you are comfortable it doesn't use that much power. Alternatively if you run on lowest setting all night, say 7 hours that would be about 25 AHr including preheat. We have been in very cold areas and this worked for us. Now we use a diesel heater and no longer use an electric blanket.

Alan

Moonraker · Senior Member

If you dont have a diesel or gas heater (for us a must have) then good quality sleeping bags should do it. You could add hot water bottles to warm up first. You then dont have to worry about downing your battery/batteries.

Ger08 · Senior Member

We are looking at hot water bottles and good sleeping bags

Farmhat · Senior Member

We used to use a 240v blanket with our 600w inverter. It did the job. You are only limited by your battery power.

That got replaced by the diesel heater which we like much better as it heats the whole van not just the bed.

Have a great trip. We like traveling in the cool too, (and the hot)

Joe

Kebbin · Guru

Try the Onesie sleeping bag, at least then there is no struggling inside the sleeping bag especially if you need to go in the middle of the night.

ttps://www.google.com.au/search

Sheba · Guru

I have a 12V.one [which I haven't used yet.]

If any-one is interested, I'll put up more info. tomorrow night.

Ger08 · Senior Member

Sheba wrote:
I have a 12V.one [which I haven't used yet.]
If any-one is interested, I'll put up more info. tomorrow night.

Thanks Sheba I cant wait to hear about your test.

T1 Terry · Guru

We run our double electric blanket on a 150w inverter. If it is the older style 3 heat setting slide switch type it doesn't even need to be a pure sine wave, a modified sine wave will work just as well. The fancy dial up the desired heat ones do require a pure sine wave inverter because the electronics don't like the near square wave pattern of little modified sine wave inverters.
The don't draw very much from the battery to warm the bed, a good doona will hold the heat in and I doubt you'd be able to leave the electric blanket turned on all night, even on the 1 setting.

T1 Terry

Ger08 · Senior Member

T1 Terry wrote:
We run our double electric blanket on a 150w inverter. If it is the older style 3 heat setting slide switch type it doesn't even need to be a pure sine wave, a modified sine wave will work just as well. The fancy dial up the desired heat ones do require a pure sine wave inverter because the electronics don't like the near square wave pattern of little modified sine wave inverters.
The don't draw very much from the battery to warm the bed, a good doona will hold the heat in and I doubt you'd be able to leave the electric blanket turned on all night, even on the 1 setting.

T1 Terry

Thanks Terry I think well probably use a combo of electric blanket, hot water bottles and extra doonas

T1 Terry · Guru

My wife was very anti electric blankets and preferred the hot water bottle, till the first trip to Maleny showground in winter. Only had the Kombi back then with a second hand 120Ah AGM battery, but with the little inverter powering the electric blanket the climb into a warm bed to melt the near frozen body converted her for ever :lol: Everyone to their own, but once you actually try it you can't really make a comparison.

T1 Terry

Sheba · Guru

Ger08 wrote:

Thanks Sheba I cant wait to hear about your test.

Still haven't tried it. Basically just letting people know you can get a 12V one, and don't need an inverter to use it.

Bill B · Guru

Sheba wrote:

Basically just letting people know you can get a 12V one, and don't need an inverter to use it.

Could you please provide some details of or a link to your 12v electric blanket.

Stephcott · Member

I bought a 12v blanket from EBay (cost about $25 ) and it is the best thing. I extended the power cable and installed an in-line switch and as others have said I can switch it on or off as needed. It heats up instantly so most times you can turn it off after about 15 mins to save power. I use it in our van or if out camping with mates in my swag. Its the best $25 Ive ever spent.
Cheers
Phil

-- Edited by Stephcott on Saturday 14th of April 2018 10:17:01 PM

markf · Senior Member

T1 Terry wrote:
My wife was very anti electric blankets and preferred the hot water bottle, till the first trip to Maleny showground in winter. Only had the Kombi back then with a second hand 120Ah AGM battery, but with the little inverter powering the electric blanket the climb into a warm bed to melt the near frozen body converted her for ever :lol: Everyone to their own, but once you actually try it you can't really make a comparison.

T1 Terry

Spot on Terry. Stayed at Bradley's Hut near Cabramatta in May last year. We went to bed in thermals, socks, beany and microfibre dressing gowns under a thick wool doona and still froze. Even the poor old fridge was complaining about the cold. That's not going to happen again.

A simple 3 heat electric blanket won't deplete the batteries by that much and will contribute mightily to the enjoyment of the trip and you'll have memories of things other than how bloody cold it was.