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16/12 Home Inverters :How to Select the Right Inverter for your House

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by ksetu

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Home Inverters :How to Select the RightInverter for your House

Published: November 12, 2008 Last updated: January 5, 2009

Selecting the right inverter for your

home has become a tough task these days. There are so many terms we need to

understand - 800VA/ 1000VA, Tubular Batteries/ Flat Batteries, Half Load/ Full

Load and the list goes on. And on top of all these, availability of multiple power

back up solutions and misleading information provided by sellers have further

added to buyers woes. So I did some research and study before buying an

inverter for my home and I'm sharing the details of same so that you don't have to

go through the same problems while buying an inverter.

So What do You Need - UPS or Inverter?

This is one of the basic confusion people face, so let me start with answering this

first. UPS and Inverter are words used interchangeably though there are not

exactly same. UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) is just a system which allows

INSTANT switchover to the power back-up source in case of a power failure. The

power back-up source can be a battery or something else. Whereas an Inverter is

a system which converts direct current to alternate current hence enables using a

battery for backing up equipments running on AC power supply. Inverter uses a

battery to provide power back-up. Computer UPS comes with in-built battery whichworks as back-up power source and can provide back-up for 15min. to 30 min. So

if that much of back-up is sufficient for you, you should be fine with buying just a

UPS for your need. But Inverter comes with more powerful battery and can provide

support for electrical equipments, computers, home appliances etc. and also gives

more hours of back-up. Most of the inverters come with in-built UPS which ensures

that power failure doesn't cause fluctuation and your system switches instantly to

Inverter's Power Back up battery.

What Capacity of Inverter is Good for Your Home?

Once you are sure that you are looking for an Inverter, it's important to calculate

the capacity of Inverter that will suit your requirement. Following table will give youbrief idea about the power consumed by various equipments.

Tubelight - 60W

Fan - 70W

Television - 120W

Laptop - 100W

CFL - 25W

Modem - 50W

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Now you are in a position to understand as what capacity inverter do you need

and I'll let you do that in 3 simple steps -

1. Calculating your power needNow I'll explain you how to use above table to calculate the right capacity Inverter

for your need. Let's say you need Inverter to run 2 Tube lights, 3 Fans, 1TV and 1

Laptop. As per the table above, you'll need a total power of 550W(=2X60 + 3X70 +

1X120 + 1X100) to support all of your equipments at the same time.

Your Total Power Need = 550W

2. Calculating required inverter's capacityNow that you know how much power is required, it's easy to get the VA rating of

inverter. In ideal condition, the VA rating would have been same as the power

need i.e. 550VA. But in practical conditions, the power factor of Inverter is less

than 1 hence power supplied by 550VA Inverter won't be 550W but lesser than

that. Assuming power factor of Inverter to be 0.7, following are the details of

calculation -

Required VA of Inverter X 0.7 = 550W

Required VA of Inverter = 550/0.7 = 786 VA

Now luckily we have inverters available in the market with 800VA capacity, so suchinverters will fit into my requirement.

3. Calculating battery capacityTill now, you will have clear understanding of the Inverter capacity required for

your need. But the next question is that how much back up will the inverter provide

and for how many hours you can run all of your equipments. And that's where

battery capacity comes into picture. It's the battery which determines the back-up

hours. The higher capacity battery you have, the more back-up hours you'll get.

So lets get into the calculation fast.

Required power(in Wattage) X Required back-up hours(in Hours) = Inverter

Voltage(in Voltage) X Battery Capacity (in Ampere Hours)Let's look for an Inverter which can give back-up of up to 3 hours, so for our case -

550W X 3Hours = 12V X Battery Capacity

Battery Capacity = (550 X 3)/12 = 137 Ampere Hours

So we need a battery of 137AH capacity but if you check the market you'll find

batteries of 130AH capacity. So that should be more or less sufficient for your

need.

Conclusion

Finally, we have come to the conclusion that if we go for800VA Inverter with

130AH battery, I can run 2 Tube lights, 3 Fans, 1 TV and 1 Laptop for up to 3

hours. And by the end of this article you don't need to rely on sellers for

understanding your need as you can do the calculations yourself in just 3 simple

steps. Hope this article helps you in some way in making the right decisions. Let

me know if you need any other inputs.


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