If you curl your hair on a daily basis then you might be worried about the power consumption. This could be for a number of reasons including total electricity usage and the ability to use your curlers in an RV. The good news is that these are low powered devices, but let’s take a deep dive into the numbers.
Below we will discuss and test curling iron wattage, explain how to work it out for yourself, and calculate the total electricity required.
How Many Watts is a Curling Iron?
The average curling iron uses between 50 and 100 watts.
The exact number depends on the size and model of your curling iron. Many people overestimate the power consumption of these devices because of the heating elements.
During tests, I found that most curlers sit at around 100W when heating up and then drop to below 50W when up to temperature. Plus some low wattage flat irons never even reach more than 50W, even when heating up!
When in use, you will notice the power pulse a bit as the device maintains a constant temperature. For example, if the heat starts to drop, the power consumption increases a little to regain heat.
How to Find Out Your Curling Iron Wattage
There’s 3 ways you can work out the wattage of a curling iron.
- Check Product Specification
The quickest way is to look at the curling iron’s specification. The watts (W) is usually written on a sticker on the base of the appliance. If not, you can check the user manual or the manufacturer’s website for technical details.
- Use a Wattmeter
A wattmeter is brilliant for getting a live wattage reading and tracking total energy usage of any appliance. You can plug it into your curling iron to get instant information.
I used one to test my curling iron which gave an average reading of 52.8W.
- Wattage Formula or Calculator
If you know the amperage and voltage of your curling iron you can use this to find the maximum watt rating. Simply use the formula Amps x Volts = Watts. Or you can head over to the ‘Watt Calculator’ to work this out.
Curling Iron Wattage Test
How Much Electricity Does a Curling Iron Use?
You can use curling iron wattage to work out how much electricity it uses. Plus this can be useful in understanding how much it costs to run your curling iron.
A watt (W) is a measurement of power at a single point in time. A watt-hour (Wh) is the total amount of electricity used in an hour. For example, a curling iron drawing 40W would use 40Wh when running for an hour.
Happily, electricity bills are recorded in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A kilowatt is simply 1000 watts. So a 40W curling iron running for 1 hour uses 0.04kWh.
In reality, you use a curling iron for 20 minutes a day. This means a curling iron uses about 13Wh or 0.013kWh electricity a day. That’s 0.39kWh a month and 4.745kWh a year.
That’s an electricity cost of $0.71 a year to curl your hair for 20 minutes every day.
Using a Curling Iron Off-Grid
If you’re planning to use your curling iron in an off-grid situation like a power outage, RV, boat, or semi-truck, the information above is important. It enables you to pick the correct electrical equipment and know how long everything can run.
You can either use a power inverter, generator, or portable power station, to generate AC electricity.
To make sure everything runs smoothly you should check two things on this equipment – wattage capacity and total energy capacity.
Your power source, like an inverter, should have a wattage capacity of at least 20% more than your curling iron. This ensures it will be able to deliver enough power as they are never 100% efficient.
Secondly, you need to ensure your energy source, like a battery, has enough energy to run the curling iron for the required amount of time. As we already know, it will use about 13Wh electricity for each usage. This is the equivalent to 1.08Ah on a 12V battery.
How Many Watts Does a Curling Iron Use Summary
I hope you now have a clear understanding of how many watts a curling iron uses.
We have discovered that these are very low powered devices drawing no more than 100W when heating up. Once up to temperature, a curler runs at less than 50W! This is a surprise to many people who think the heating element will have a higher power consumption. This means it uses minimal electricity and can easily run in an off-grid scenario.
