How to choose the right inverter & battery for your home?

Guidelines to choose right inverter

Are you planning to buy a new inverter or upgrade your old one? Whatever maybe the reason, it is very important to understand what is the right inverter for your home. The power requirement at your home can be different from you neighbor’s home. So do not just blindly install the same inverter (in terms of power) in your home. Before buying an inverter for your home do a little homework and understand the basics.

At the end, we’ll also recommend some reliable and secure batteries from sellers that you can trust on Amazon.

First understand your Power Requirement

One of the most important factor that you must know before buying an inverter is your “Power requirement”. In simple words- what all electrical appliances (like fan, tube lights, television, CFL etc.) you want to run at the time of power failure. The power requirement is addition of the power consumed by various electrical equipments.

Suppose you want 3 Fans, 3 Tube lights, 1 CFL & 1 television to operate at the time of power failure. Below is the power consumed by these items:

1 Fan – 70 Watts

1 tube light – 60 watts

1 CFL – 25 watts

1 Television – 120 watts

Therefore your total power requirement is ( 3*70 +3*60 + 25 + 120) = 535 watts

Find the VA rating of the inverter you need

It stands for the Volt ampere rating. It is the voltage and current supplied by the inverter to the equipments. If an inverter operates with 100% efficiency, then the power requirement of the electrical items and power supplied by inverter is same. But we all know that 100% or ideal conditions don’t exist in real.  Most  inverters have the efficiency range from 60 % to 80%. This efficiency is also called power factor of an inverter and is simply  the ratio of power required by the appliances to power supplied by an inverter. Power factor of most inverters ranges from 0.6 to 0.8.

Hence Power supplied (or VA rating of inverter) = Power requirement ( power consumed by equipments in watts) / Power factor( efficiency).

Here average value of power factor or efficiency  is considered i.e. 0.7

Power of inverter (VA) = 535/0.7 = 765 VA

In the market 800 VA inverters are available. So an inverter with 800 VA will be the right choice for your home.

Know the battery your inverter needs

 Battery is the backbone of an inverter system. The performance and life of an inverter largely depend upon the battery quality. The next big question is “how much back up will an inverter provide?” or for “how many hours it can run all of your equipments?”. This is what is called the battery capacity. It is the battery capacity that decides the back up hours. It is expressed in Ah (Ampere Hours).

In the market batteries with capacity of 100 Ah,150 Ah, 180 Ah etc.  are readily available. So how to decide which one do you need? To find this out lets do a reverse calculation. Consider that you need a battery that provides back up for 3 hours.

Battery capacity = Power requirement  (in watts) * Back up hours ( in hrs) / Battery Voltage (in volts)

Battery Capacity = (535 * 3) / 12 = 133 Ah

** Value of Battery voltage is taken 12V

Therefore a battery with a capacity of 130 Ah will work for you.

So if you want to run 3 fans, 3 tube lights , 1 CFL and 1 TV for 3 hours during power failure you would need 800VA inverter and 130 Ah battery.

By understanding this simple calculation you not only save yourself from the misleading information shared byΒ inverter dealers but also Β help yourselfΒ inΒ taking correct decision.

Our Pick

Here are some batteries on Amazon that we highly recommend.

Mr. Right believes in making its customers smart and aware of the home repair and improvement.Β ForΒ Β inverter repairΒ in Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and PuneΒ contact Mr.Right.

Our Pick

Some of the other best selling Inverters available online are:-

  1. Luminous Cruze 2KVA Inverter with RC 18000 Battery (2 Batteries) 
  2. Luminous Zelio 1700 Inverter with Red Charge 18000 150 Ah Tubular Battery 
  3. Luminous Zolt 1100 Inverter + RC 25000 200 Ah Tall Tubular Battery + Trolley

Updated

Which is the latest inverter technology in 2022 in India?

As the technology is evolving in the inverter space, higher efficiency and reciprocative solutions are making the overall energy ecosystem far more stable. For the less than 2KW to 3 KW requirements, MPPT based inverters are the best for smaller residential applications. With the efficiency as high as 96%, MPPT based inverters are most preferred solutions.

As the power requirements are on the rise, so are the solutions, like high frequency inverters or string inverters, which are customizable and are capable of delivering stable results under stress conditions. These high frequency inverters have amazing capabilities with lead acid batteries and Lithium ion batteries alike. Further more the high frequency inverters are light weight and hence can be mounted on walls, and more importantly are IoT based which makes them smart and efficient. These high frequency inverters are best use case for large to very large solutions like bigger homes or commercial locations.

To make the best quality inverter solution reach the last mile, Loom Solar is offering a complete range of inverters from 50W to 100KW, making it a one stop solution for inverters

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185 Comments

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    Thank you very much for your step by step explanations .
    I had found what I am looking for my home.
    I am from Burma.

    Thank you πŸ’–πŸ’–πŸ’–πŸ’–πŸ’– 😊😊😊

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    Wonderful explanation, how would someone know the exact power factor (I.e it can be 0.7,0.8, 0.9 or unity). How can I tackle this sir, am from Kano Nigeria.

  7. 7

    This is really helpful information. By reading the reviews on websites, one would generally buy an inverter with a higher VA number, but you have explained very well how that number is derived and how much is really needed. Thanks a lot for this explanation.

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    Solar power systems happen to be designed for decades, but possess truly become popular with all the average home owner recently. Adjustments as well as enhancements in the engineering help make these modern solar power systems far more effective, a smaller amount extensive and more long lasting than ever before.

    Regards
    LK Verma
    CEO,PowernSun
    https://powernsun.com/

  11. 11

    is an inverter of 24vdc using two 300 watts solar panels each an two 100ah deep cycle batteries good enough to charge a laptop an i light of 20 watts energy saver globe and a fridge,and for how many hours.

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    i would like to ask ,i recently installed an inverter of 24 vdc with two 300 watts solar panels an 100ah deep cycle batteries, to run a 16amp plug to charge a laptop an 1 light of 20watts energy saver globe and a fridge of 1200 watts,i would like to ask if the inverter will; be able to carry the load an for how many hours

  13. 13

    Nice article but I think your battery capacity calculation is not correct. Because no inverter will drain 100 from a battery. Secondly our requirement is 535 watts but inverter is not 100% efficient so it delivers 765 watts.
    Please check what i said. And please also notify me if i m correct.

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      The battery capacity ought be between 220ah to 300ah taking 50% discharge rate into consideration.inverter size very okay for the load.thanks.henry ojarikre

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    Hi Admin,
    First, understand your Power Requirement
    Find the VA rating of the inverter you need
    Know the battery your inverter needs
    Nice Step by Step heading
    If anyone from Chennai , You can meet Inveretr Battery Dealers in Chennai

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    I really love the explanations above. Please where can I get a good solar inverter with battery(Solar Energy). Am in Lagos, Nigeria. Also I need the price range in naira please. Thank you.

  21. 22

    Explanation to understand my in-house inverter + battery requirement is very simple and easily understandable. It’s really makes very easy to understand his requirement and to choose right inverter + battery capacity for a person like me who is new to all this and looking to buy for his/her home.
    Many thanks.

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    I want to know about luminous battery 220ah and luminous inverter eco watt 1050 is combination is right or wrong for 2 fan 4 led bulbs and 1 led TV.

  25. 26

    Good information. Can now make informed decisions.
    Can yo also suggest the batteries for 500 AH and more? Are they easily available at all?

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