Induction Cooker Quiescent power draw

The Build
1

I recently completed the electrical portion of my build. All electric with appropriate sized house battery, inverter, panels, etc. Slick. Clearly would have been cheaper to go mostly propane :slight_smile:

Anyway, I fired up the inverter and there is a constant 130W draw with everything off. Turns out the induction cooker is the culprit. Being an electrical engineer, I assumed appliances would (in this green age) be designed to draw minimal power when “off”. Guess again.

So I search and search and can find nothing on power draw of various induction cookers (when in standby or off mode).

Does anyone here have that information?

– update –

Doing some more testing and determined that the inverter power delivered display is funky. The battery reports 1.4a delta (unplugging the cooktop) yet the inverter goes from 130wt (344 va) to 0… 20 wt quiescent draw isn’t great, but isn’t a deal breaker either.

of course, the battery display could be wrong.

BTW the system is Renogy 2kw inverter/charger, 50a DC to DC/MPPT controller and 2x100AH Smart LiFePO4 batteries + 2x200wt Rich Solar panels

Update to the update:

My original post was much to do about nothing.

Disconnecting solar and alternator and methodically analyzing loads by battery draw/voltage it turns out that everything is working fine.

The cooker does draw a bit when idle, but in the 12wt range. The inverter parasitic draw is in the 20wt range and the microwave is unmeasurable.

With everything connected the total draw is ~48wt, including cabin lights. A very reasonable parasitic load on the 120v circuits.

2

Is it the cooker or the inverter? Inverters tend to have a parasitic draw when turned on. As you stated, it’s far simpler and less costly to install a way to use fossil or solid fuel to produce heat.

Only thing I use electricity for is LED lighting, fans, a radio, and device charging. Allowed me to go with a small and efficient solar/battery system with a 150 watt panel and one 100 amp AGM battery. I heat and cook by other means.

1 Like
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I choose the all electric to keep propane/gas/fumes out of the living space. I am far more comfortable with high power electrical circuits than gas lines :slight_smile: I am fortunate to have the resources to go that route so it really came down to esthetics, not cost.

Heat, when I get around to that, will need to be fossil fuel. Probably a petrol version of cabin heater connected to the aux fuel port on the gas tank.

4

I guess there’s more than one way to skin a cat. I could have gone with more electric and certainly have the skills to do it, but decided to keep it simple and more redundant.

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Greetings & Welcome!

Winter’s coming, and I’m concerned that 200 watts of solar isn’t going to be enough…

Good Luck & keep us posted.

Cheers!

"Don't be scared, BE PREPARED!" ~ Road Warrior