12/12/2019 Selection of Various Types of Inverter-(Part-3) | Electrical Notes & Articles

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Selection of Various Types of Inverter-(Part-

3)

JANUARY 1, 2019 4 COMMENTS

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How to select Right Inverter

Before buying an inverter for, It is very important to understand what is the right
inverter for our requirement for that we do understand the basics criteria of Inverter.
In order to make a good estimate of your power needs, you’ll need to take a look at all
of the devices you plan on plugging into your new inverter.
If we only need to use one device at a time, then that’s the only one you’ll need to look
at. However, you’ll need to add together the numbers from multiple devices (like an
LCD screen and a video game system) if you plan on using them at the same time.

(A) Power Requirement:

One of the most important factors that we must know before buying an inverter is
Power requirement.
Power requirement means all electrical appliances (like fan, tube lights,
television,Pumps, CFL etc.), we want to run at the time of power failure. The power
requirement is simply addition of the power consumed by various electrical
equipments.
The thing we must understand that Inverter is not a Generator. Inverter has its own
limitations. If power requirement is more than our estimation, then an inverter alone
cannot create demands effectively.
High power inverter can run our refrigerator and air conditioners, but ba ery will not
last more than few hours. Hence it be er to estimate Inverter Load Carefully

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The selection of correct size Inverter is very important, If we need to power small
appliances like energy efficient light bulbs, we do not need to buy a 2000W power
inverter because it will consume more power even in standby mode and work very
inefficiently with small appliances. On the other hand, if we connect a coffee machine
to a 150W inverter we will quickly blow a fuse, Therefore power estimation is
important thing.
The size of Inverter depends on the wa s (or amps) of what we want to run. It is
recommend that we choose at least 10% to 20% more than our requirement.
Suppose you want 1No Fans, 1No Tube lights, 1No CFL and 1No television to operate
at the time of power failure. Therefore the total power requirement to be (1×90 + 1×50 +
1×25 + 1×120) = 285 wa s. Here Total Load is 285 wa s.

(B) Surge Power (Starting Power):

Starting and running power requirement of all electric appliances are different.
Starting power of Electrical Equipment is several times greater than their normal
working power.
An 18 Wa s CFL takes around 25 Wa s power to start and after few seconds it works
on 18 Wa s. Some appliances like Refrigerator, Washing Machine etc take almost
double power to start as compared to the normal running power.
For example Gridding Machine have normal working power 1000W, their starting
power is higher than 4000W, so inverters with continuous power 2000W are not
suitable because their peak power is limited by 4000W.
For selecting right Inverter, Always take into account starting power requirements of
your equipment, especially devices with electric motors, Electronics Choke, Capacity,
inductive
The Size of the inverter should be chosen based on the power consumption of your
load.
Resistive loads: All resistive loads like toaster, coffee maker, electric range, iron,
Incandescent lamps, flood lighting. Laser Printers use Nichrome resistance wire in their
heating
The Starting Power or Surge Power rating should be 6 times the Wa rating
Inductive Loads: All Inductive Load like induction motor, reciprocating pumps and
compressors, refrigeration, air-conditioning, Oxygen Concentrators have more starting
current.
The Starting current (LRA) should be 5 times the full load current (FLA).
Capacitive Loads: Switched Mode Power Supplies (SMPS), electronic equipment like
ba ery chargers, computers, audio and video devices, radio etc.
The Starting Power or Surge Power rating should be 3 times the Wa rating
Microwaves :
The Initial power consummation by the microwave will be 2 times the cooking
power.
A Water Supply Pump:
The starting surge can be 3 times the normal running rating of the pump

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The inverter should, therefore, be sized adequately to withstand the high inrush
current.

Starting Factor

Type of Device Starting Factor

Air conditioner 5
Refrigerator / Freezer 5
Air Compressor 4
Sump Pump / Well Pump / Submersible Pump 3
Dishwasher 3
Clothes Washer 3
Microwave 2
Furnace Fan 3
Industrial Motor 3
Portable Kerosene / Diesel Fuel Heater 3
Circular Saw 3
Bench Grinder 3
Incandescent / Halogen / Quar Lamps 3
Laser Printer / Other Devices using Quar Lamps
4
for heating
Switched Mode Power Supplies 3
Photographic Strobe / Flash Lights 4

(C) Rating (VA rating) of the inverter:

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 100% or ideal conditions
does not 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.
Rating of inverter (VA) =Power consumed by equipments (wa s) / Power factor
(efficiency).
Power of inverter (VA) = 535/0.7 = 765 VA
In the market 800 VA inverters are available. So Size of an inverter with 800 VA.

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(D) Type of Battery

The performance and Life of an inverter depends on the ba ery Quality.

Ba ery stores the energy needed to run appliances during power cut.
There are three Type of Ba ery
Lead Acid Ba ery
Tubular Ba ery
Maintenance Free Ba ery
Normally high power Lead Acid ba eries are used to power inverters.

(E) Battery Capacity (Ah):

Capacity of a ba ery is expressed in terms of Ampere Hour (Ah). It is decide the back
up hours of Inverter.
It indicates the rate of current a ba ery can supply for a given duration. If the capacity
of a ba ery is 100 Ah, that ba ery can supply 100 Ampere current for 1 Hour or 1
Ampere Current for 100 Hrs
Ba ery capacity = Power requirement (wa s) x Back up hours (hrs) / Ba ery Voltage
(volts) x Ba ery Efficiency x No of Ba ery
Example: If Inverter Load is 390 Wa , We need 3 hours back up and Ba ery Voltage is
12V, Ba ery Efficiency is 90%
Ba ery Capacity = (390 x3) / 12×0.9×1 = 109 Ah
Therefore a ba ery capacity of 120 Ah.
In reality ba ery performance degrades with usage, so you are recommended to buy 5-
10% higher capacity ba ery.
Therefore a ba ery with a capacity of 150 Ah is suitable for our requirement.
If we use series – parallel ba ery combination for backup is
Backup capacity(hours) = N series X Volts X Ba ery Ah X N parallel / (UPS capacity
in VA)
Where, N series = no. of ba eries in series and N parallel = no. of parallel ba ery banks

(F) Backup Time (Hr):

Backup (hours) = Ba ery Ah X Ba ery Voltage X Inverter Efficiency / Total Load

(Wa )

(G) Battery Voltage (12V, 24V or 48V):

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We can choose Ba ery Voltage of 12V, 24Vor 48V for inverter. The selection is very
important for Voltage drop and Cable size of Inverter.
To control load current within limit, as load increase, we should select higher size of
Ba ery Voltage.
Let’s take example.

Wa Volt Amp Cable Resistance(Ω) Voltage Drop (V)

1000 12 83 0.01 0.8
2000 24 83 0.01 0.8
4000 48 83 0.01 0.8
As per above table, as the load increase, by selecting higher voltage,load current within
limit.
Let’s take example of selecting different voltage for same load (Wa )

Wa Volt Amp Cable Resistance(Ω) Voltage Drop (V)

4200 12 350 0.01 3.50
4200 24 175 0.01 1.75
4200 48 87.5 0.01 0.88
At Higher Load (Wa ), by selecting lower voltage (12V).The load current is high. The
higher the current needs the bigger the components. High currents require large
diameter cables and fuses, which are expensive and the entire system is not safe.
By only doubling the voltage we can get double the power (Wa ) at the same current.
12 Volt used to be a standard for extra low voltage power systems. Today, mostly
systems are 24V or 48V and include a 230V AC inverter. This means the wiring of the
house does not have to be different from any other grid-connected household and
cabling cost is greatly reduced.
The Ba ery Cost for higher Voltage is not more for same rating of Ba ery. For 12KW
Load, Instead of buying a ba ery which has a capacity of 1000AH at 12V, (12KWH) we
can rearrange the ba ery as a 24V 500AH (12KWH) or 48V 250AH (12KWH). The total
power available from the ba ery is exactly the same, but with lower losses in the
cabling and inverter.
A higher volt inverter will be more expensive than a lower volt one, and for small
setups, that extra expense is unnecessary. If we are going to have high load demands,
it makes more sense to go with a higher-volt inverter for a variety of reasons.

(H) Battery Charger:

The ba ery capacity is limited to the size of the charger. Usually, the ba ery capacity
should be no more than 12x the maximum charge current i.e. a 5A charger can only
accommodate 60AH of ba eries (5 x 12 =60).

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If discharges are expected to be less frequent than once in every 10 days, We may use
formula of 20x the maximum charge current.

(I) Discharge Rate:

Lead acid ba eries have few Amps hour if the discharge rate is fast.
Generally, the lead acid ba ery discharge rate is slow. It is 20 hours.
At high discharge rate, the capacity of the ba ery drops steeply. Suppose the ba ery is
10 Ah and its discharge rate is 1C. One hour discharge of the ba ery at the rate of 1C
(10 Amps in 1 hour), the capacity reduces to 5 Ah in one hour.
Suppose we want to run a load at 20 Amps for 1hour. Then the capacity of the ba ery is
20A x 1 Hour = 20Ah.
Keep discharge rate to maximum 80%. Then the ba ery capacity should be 20Ah / 0.8 =
25 Ah
So a 25 Ah ba ery can give 20 Amps current for 1 hour to run the load.
But it is be er to drain the ba ery to 50% only then, 25 Ah / 0.5 = 50 Ah.
Hence it is be er to use a 50Ah ba ery to run the load at 20 Amps per Hour to keep
50% charge in the ba ery.

Ba ery Capacity Hours of Discharge

100 20
90 10
87 8
83 6
80 5
70 3
60 2
50 1

FILED UNDER UNCATEGORIZED

About Jignesh.Parmar
Jignesh Parmar has completed M.Tech (Power System Control), B.E(Electrical). He is
member of Institution of Engineers (MIE) and CEng,India. Membership No:M-1473586.He
has more than 16 years experience in Transmission -Distribution-Electrical Energy theft
detection-Electrical Maintenance-Electrical Projects (Planning-Designing-Technical
Review-coordination -Execution). He is Presently associate with one of the leading
business group as a Deputy Manager at Ahmedabad,India. He has published numbers of
Technical Articles in “Electrical Mirror”, “Electrical India”, “Lighting India”,”Smart

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Energy”, “Industrial Electrix”(Australian Power Publications) Magazines. He is Freelancer

Programmer of Advance Excel and design useful Excel base Electrical Programs as per IS,
NEC, IEC,IEEE codes. He is Technical Blogger and Familiar with English, Hindi, Gujarati,
French languages. He wants to Share his experience & Knowledge and help technical
enthusiasts to find suitable solutions and updating themselves on various Engineering
Topics.

4 Responses to Selection of Various Types of Inverter-(Part-

3)

Olakunle Roleola says:

January 2, 2019 at 8:01 am
Hi, please send me the part 1 and part of the subject. Thank you.

Olakunle Roleola

On Tue, 1 Jan 2019, 2:56 pm Electrical Notes & Articles, wrote:

> Jignesh.Parmar posted: “How to select Right Inverter Before buying an > inverter for,
It is very important to understand what is the right inverter > for our requirement for
that we do understand the basics criteria of > Inverter. In order to make a good estimate
of your power need” >

Reply
Mahmoud Awad says:
January 2, 2019 at 8:27 am
Dear Sir,
how to select ba ery charger 110 VDC in parallel feeding loads & ba ery banks for
power plant
Thanks

Reply
panayioti says:
January 7, 2019 at 5:30 pm
Thank you very much sir.
I think its nice to talk, maybe useful, to see’ power factor issue.
I don’t remember if converters can do this.

thank you very very much. greetings. good new epoch..

Reply
sadashiv salaskar says:
February 15, 2019 at 1:22 pm
How to calculate ba ery sizing is also needed

Sadashiv Salaskar

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