The performance of your home inverter depends on its battery to a great extent. That’s because the inverter draws its energy from the battery in order to power the home appliances during a power cut. So in a way, it won’t be wrong to say that the battery is the backbone of a home inverter system. And therefore, it becomes all the more important to purchase the best battery for inverter. That said, in this post we discuss some of the key points that you should consider when looking for a battery for your inverter. Come, let’s take a look.
1. Battery Capacity
The battery capacity is a measure of the charge it can hold. This in turn will help determine the number of backup hours the battery can provide during a power cut. The number of hours would differ based on power consumption. The unit of battery capacity is Ah (Ampere Hours). Typically, the battery capacity for residential setups vary anywhere between 60 Ah – 220 Ah.
How to calculate the required battery capacity for a home/office:
The formula for battery capacity is as mentioned below.
Battery capacity = =(power requirements watts *backup-time*aging factor)/ (battery voltage*battery efficiency*inverter efficiency) Now let us first calculate the Power Requirement
Let’s say you need to run the following appliances during a power cut
● 8 LED Lights (7 Watts each)
● 3 Tube Lights (40 Watts each)
● 3 Fans (70 Watts each)
● 1 LED Television (70 Watts)
● 1 Refrigerator (140 Watts)
(A) Now if you add these up the total required power consumption would be
[(8*7)+(3*40)+(3*70)+(1*70)+(1*140)] = 596 Watts
(B) Let’s say you need 2 hrs of battery backup
(C) Let’s assume you are using a 12 V Lead Acid Battery
(D) Aging factor=1.25
(E) Battery efficiency=0.8
(F) Inverter efficiency=0.8
Battery Capacity = 596 * 2 * 1.25 / 12 * 0.8 * 0.8= 194 Ah
To be on the safe side, buy a battery with 5-10% additional capacity.
Which means you should buy a 200 Ah battery in this scenario.
2. Single or Double Battery
Whether you should buy a single battery or a double battery depends on the duration of power cuts. So let’s say in the above mentioned scenario there’s a power cut of 4 hrs.
This means the total power requirement would be 596 watts * 4 hrs which is double the requirement as discussed in the previous scenario. In this case, you would therefore need twice the battery capacity (200 Ah*2 = 400 Ah) that is two batteries of 200 Ah each.
3. Battery Type
There are two main types of batteries that you can choose from. Flat plate batteries and tubular batteries. Let’s read about them one by one.
Flat Plate Batteries
Flat plate batteries are a type of lead acid battery. These batteries are made of two flat plates – a positive plate and a negative plate. If you live in an area where power cuts are frequent but the duration is not too long, a flat plate battery is ideal for you. The best part about flat plate batteries is that they are economical and they have a faster rate of charging. However, these batteries come with a shorter life span.
Tubular Batteries
Tubular Batteries can further be categorized into tall tubular batteries and short tubular batteries. Tall tubular batteries provide a longer power backup as compared to a short tubular battery. Unlike flat plate batteries, tubular batteries can be used for heavy duty applications. They also need very little maintenance. The best thing about tubular batteries is that they have a longer operational life. They are more expensive as compared to flat plate batteries.
Looking for a Reliable Inverter Battery?
Now that you know what factors you need to consider to buy the best battery for an inverter, the next thing you gotta do is look for a reputable brand. We suggest you check out the wide range of batteries Luminous has to offer. They are one of the most preferred brands when it comes to home UPS systems. And the good thing is that you don’t have to step out in the heat to check their range of products. You can simply go to their website and check out the wide array of products they have to offer.
