Power outages are not a new thing for us. They have been making our lives tougher since always. What is new is the evolving technology in the inverter industry. These days, inverter batteries are capable of running whole households or offices all day long. But you also need to keep in mind that not all batteries are built the same.
Inverter batteries come in various capacities and types. You need to get the basics right to choose the best inverter battery for you. In this blog, we are going to tell you exactly how you can choose the best inverter battery that fits your power needs. Read on.
Selecting the Best Inverter Battery
The thought of browsing through all the inverter battery options to choose the right one might sound a little daunting. But, in reality, choosing the best inverter battery can be broken down into these simple steps:
- Know your power requirement
Probably the biggest factor that determines which is the best inverter battery is what electrical appliances you want to run on the inverter. Some people like to run only the bare minimum on the inverter, while others don’t really want to compromise on their appliance usage.
In the end, what appliances you run is your choice. But to select the best inverter battery for you, you have to add the power consumed by those electrical appliances. Let’s say that you run the following appliances on the inverter:
- Two 70 Watts fans
- One 60 Watts tube light
- Two 25 Watts CFLs
- Two 150 Watts Televisions
Adding these numbers, we now know that your power requirement is 550 Watts.
- Find the VA rating of your inverter battery
VA rating or the Volt ampere rating is the voltage and current an inverter supplies to electrical appliances. At 100% efficiency, an inverter supplies the same power as is required by the appliances.
Generally, inverters have an efficiency of 60% to 80% or a power factor of 0.6 to 0.8.
In other words,
VA rating = Power consumed/Efficiency
Let’s assume the efficiency of your inverter is 0.7
So, the VA of the inverter should be = 500/0.7 = 714 VA.
In this case, an 800 VA inverter will be most suitable for your need.
- Know your inverter battery needs
If you already have the right inverter that serves your need, you can jump directly to the third step. If not, then you can first do some calculations to know which inverter is right for you.
The last step is knowing how many hours you want to run the electrical appliances on the battery. In the market, you can get 120 Ah, 150 Ah, 180 Ah, 200 Ah, and 250 Ah batteries from reputed brands such as Luminous.
If we take the value of battery voltage to be 12C and the backup requirement for 3 hours, then we can calculate the battery capacity by the following formula:
Inverter Battery Capacity = (550 * 3) / 12 = 137.5 Ah
If you want to run two 70 Watts fans, one 60 Watts tube light, two 25 Watts CFLs, and two 150 Watts televisions for three hours on your inverter, a 150 Ah capacity battery would be the best for you. You can change the numbers in the example according to your usage.
Apart from the minimum required capacity, the best inverter battery should also be low maintenance and recyclable.
Summing It Up
Selecting the best inverter battery can be broken down into three easy steps:
- Understanding your power requirement
- Finding the VA rating of your inverter
- Estimating the length of power cuts
Follow these steps, and you will be on your way to getting the best inverter battery. If you are still confused, talk to an expert, and they will guide you with the best inverter battery.