PRODUCT SURVEY
Inverters
The right battery makes all the difference
In order to buy an inverter that serves your specific purposes, you will need to first assess your power requirements and the appliances you will run on it, and then look at the battery capacity. The latter will determine how many backup hours the inverter will provide and for how many hours your equipments will run. Going cost-effective is not necessarily the prime consideration because better battery life and maintenance may not come at the cheaper prices. In this report we bring to you some useful pointers on inverters and batteries, focusing on aspects such as capacity, types, battery weight and size, and backup time.
For our research, we shortlisted 19 models of inverters and 14 of inverter batteries that provided sufficient information on their capacity, weight, price and warrantee, among other things.
To begin with, know your power requirements and what electrical home appliances you will need/ want to run on the inverter when there is no power. After all, you need that inverter so as to be able to operate your basic household electrical appliances.
The first thing is to calculate how much backup you want, or how many appliances you want to support. Since each appliance has a different power requirement, it is advisable to note down what appliances are a must so that it will be easy for you to decide what capacity of inverter/battery you should purchase. An inverter is an electrical device that converts DC voltage into AC voltage. The DC voltage is supplied to the inverter by the battery that is connected to the inverter, while the AC voltage is supplied to the household circuit by the inverter to run the home appliances. In the layperson’s language, it stores energy (electricity) as a backup in the battery when there is power and distributes it in order to run home appliances during a power failure.
For example
If you want to support 4 fans, 3 tubelights, 3 CFL bulbs and 1 television, the total power requirement is (4 x 80 + 3 x 40 + 3 x 20 + 120) = 620 watts. So you will need an inverter that can support those 620 watts. Considering a power factor of 0.8, you will need an inverter/ UPS of 775 VA, or higher, capacity. Here is a compilation of the all-important things you should know before making the final purchase decision.
Types of inverter
There are three types of inverter based on the wave forms. • Sine-wave inverter (most recommended): This is the correct waveform on which all electronic equipment, televisions and computers are designed to run. They filter the output voltage well. Although a bit costly, these are the best when it comes to handling electronic/heavier appliances.