Summer is already here! If you are deciding on buying an inverter - this video will explain how to select the right size for your home. I’ll explain the concepts of purchasing the right specifications in this video which is important before you decide which specific inverter to buy - I’ll compare different inverters in my next video.
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So for purchasing power backup - you first need to decide your requirements. How many fans, lights and appliances you plan to run. You may need to check your appliance for specific power consumption - but a general rule of thumb is shown on the screen. You can go to the page I’ve linked in the description for more appliances or better still look at the consumption by your appliance directly. There are also some handy calculators you can use.
Now - that said, let’s say you want a few things running - 2 LED bulbs, 2 fans, 1 refrigerator and your 32 inch tv. Sum it up to get your total power requirement per hour. So in this example - the total per hour power requirement is - 10W (LED) x 2 + 80W (Fan) x 2 + 200W (fridge) x 1 + 60W (tv) x 1 = 440W
Now with this understanding - we are ready to select what your inverter capacity needs to be.
So what do you have to look for in the inverter:
In general - inverters will display a VA or Volt Ampere rating for the inverter.
Voltage supported - either 12V or 24V typically
WHAT VA RATING INVERTER TO BUY?
To know what the right VA is for YOUR power requirement - let’s do a quick calculation. Normally - inverters don’t work with full efficiency. What this means is if they consume 500W power, their output may be only 400W if they are operating at 80% efficiency or 450W if they are operating at 90% efficiency. Or 350W if they are operating at 70% efficiency. So you need to buffer for this power efficiency when purchasing your inverter. So how to find the efficiency? The manufacturer may say - operate at 75% of peak load OR may highlight the rated power which should give you an indicator of the efficiency. If they have not highlighted it - most inverters these days come with atleast 70% efficiency - so you can use that as a reference.
So to calculate the right VA for your requirement of 440W in the above example - just divide your power requirement by the efficiency. I.e., 440 / 0.7 = 628 VA. There are 650 - 700VA inverters available - so that would be enough for your usecase. If your requirement turns out to be higher - there are inverters with 1000+ VA as well - which I will compare in the next video.
WHAT BATTERY CAPACITY IS REQUIRED FOR INVERTER?
Next - we have to calculate how much battery capacity is required. So again for this - we need to understand how long you want the inverter to run. Let’s say you want it to run for 4 hours continuously. Then the minimum battery capacity you need will be:
440 (power requirement) * 4 (hours) / 12 = 147 Ah.
If your power requirement and/or running time is much higher, then you may need to select inverters that support 2 batteries i.e., 24V in total - in which case you will divide this by 24 (which is 12V for each battery input to the inverter)
There are a number of batteries available for 150Ah or 200Ah - so based on what the above calculation turns out for your home, you can decide the capacity of the battery.
So in this example that we used - you will need an inverter with 650-700VA and a battery with 150-200Ah.
WHAT TYPE OF BATTERY IS REQUIRED FOR INVERTER?
Now let’s talk about the types of batteries and inverters:
Batteries are available in 2 types - flat plate and tubular batteries. These days Tubular batteries are more popular due to better energy efficiency and longer battery life. So it is better to go for Tubular Batteries.
WHAT TYPE OF INVERTER TO BUY?
Inverters are available in 2 types as well - normal inverters and solar inverters. Normal inverters operate only with electricity input while solar inverters have an option to operate with solar as a priority and electricity as second priority. You will need to purchase additional solar panels which require about 100 sq ft of space (or more based on the capacity you need). So if you have the space for the panels - you can go for that as in the long run (typically calculated in 20 years) - your overall savings will match or better your upfront investment for the panels.
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