How Big of a Power Inverter Do I Need?
You can’t really figure out how big of a power inverter you need if you’re unfamiliar with how an inverter works. You also need to have a basic know-how of how much power individual appliances at your home need. Let’s start by explaining a power inverter.
What is a Power Inverter?
A power inverter is a device that changes DC (Direct Current) into AC (Alternating Current). To put things into perspective – the current stored in your regular battery is DC. If you want to use it to power electric appliances like fans, TV, laptop, etc. in your home, you’ll need to convert it into AC (Alternating Current).
This is where an inverter comes in, however, your inverter must be able to supply the required wattage to power the appliances in your home. This is why choosing an inverter is the most important purchase when installing solar panels or UPS in your home.
Two Things You Need to Understand: Surge and Typical
You have to consider your power needs from two perspectives when choosing an inverter.
Typical
Firstly, you need to determine how much continuous power you will need at any given time. For instance, some folks prefer installing solar panels solely for their AC unit. In such a case, if the AC has a one-ton cooling capacity, you’ll need an inverter of 1000 watts.
Some people have a UPS backup and most of their lights and fans are connected to the inverter – in such a case, you’ll have to combine a total load of all your appliances and the inverter you choose must have a power greater than the combined load to run them all at once. This is known as typical power that an inverter has to supply at all times.
Surge
The other consideration is the surge power that some appliances need to power up. Appliances with electric motors need a much higher power to start up than they do while running. Air conditioners, compressors, and pumps are the most common example in this regard. So if you wish to run one of these appliances, you’ll need an inverter with higher peak power.
How Big of an Inverter Do You Need
So here’s what you need to do – if you’re looking for an inverter for your complete house, start by adding the power requirements for each appliance. We suggest consulting with an electrician but the following figures should serve as an excellent starting point:
- Lights – around 200 watts
- Heater – around 1000 watts
- Air conditioner – around 1000 – 2000 watts (depending upon size)
- Microwave oven – around 1200 watts (depending on size)
- Ceiling fan – around 80-200 watts (depending upon size)
If you combine the above requirements roughly, you’ll get around 2500-3000 watts. This will be your typical requirement out of an inverter. But since there’s an air conditioner and microwave oven in the setup, we suggest taking the total watts up to 4500 (just to be on the safe side so your inverter can handle the surges as well as 2-3 fans at the same time).
This should give you a nice idea of how to calculate the size of your required inverter. The second thing you’ll have to consider is how long you want to run these 2500 watts. Calculating this will help choose a reliable battery that can run for 6-8 hours.
Is a Bigger Inverter Better?
You can get away with a smaller inverter, but we’d only suggest going down that road if you’re only setting up for a room or two – and that too should be without any motors, pumps, or air conditioners in the setup. So basically, if you’re buying for a room that only needs lights, a laptop, a phone charger, and a fan – you can get away with a smaller inverter (200-300W would do). Even if you’re going small, we suggest taking in all your appliances and adding 20% on top.
In other words, a bigger inverter is always better – it’ll give you extra power to work with. If you go too small and try to save bucks on the wrong setup, you’ll potentially only be setting yourself up for an expensive failure.
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