Review On Solar Inverter & Battery Buying Guide

Are you planning to buy a new solar inverter or upgrading your old one? Yes, buying an inverter is the best way to conquer power cuts from the grid. But the right one matters. This guide can help you make a smart decision in the guide to buy the perfect solar-powered inverter for your needs.

Stated in this review are some reasons why you should choose inverter instead of other power sources. We both know how power works here in Nigeria right?

I mean, do you remember that time you were watching your favourite TV programme and you were filled with so much suspense because you were at the most interesting part of the programme, but suddenly everything went dark and you felt infuriated?

Looking for the right steps in choosing the right inverter and battery when buying, pay attention to the NOTE below before reading the whole article.

Before you plan to buy an inverter, first understand your power requirement alongside the power consumption, find the VA rating of the inverter you need, know the battery your inverter needs also the battery backup duration.

NOTE THIS PLEASE

Good news, you do not have to go through that anymore because I am going to be giving you invaluable information. Do you know you can stay independent of any power distribution company and still enjoy electricity in silence, free from the raging noise generators make? “How is this possible” you might wonder, it is possible with good and quality inverters.

I know you have this burning desire to get yourself an inverter, you want to be able to turn on the light and turn it off on your own will. Slow down, there are things and factors you have to consider first before you get yourself an inverter.

We have hundreds and thousands of inverter brands in Nigeria and abroad and if I were to talk about all of them, I am not sure you would be done reading before next Christmas. But not to worry, I have successfully highlighted the most essential things you should put into consideration. So come on, let us delve in.

Power Inverter and Battery buying Guide

Contain below are all the information you may wish to know about the inverter buying guide, how to choose an inverter when buying, how to choose the right best solar inverter and batteries for your home, office, and industry.

Where to buy an Inverter

Konga Nigeria – See Offers

Inverter Type

When considering buying inverters, you need to know that there are only two primary types of inverters you can get from the market which are:

• Modified Sine Wave
• Pure Sine Wave

If you are looking for an inverter to only power up small appliances like light bulbs, TVs, fans, then Modified Sine Wave should be your preferred choice since it is affordable and it has high effectiveness. This will give you electricity that you can compare with that of your power distributors but it is not exactly the same.

If you looking to power up bigger appliances like Air Conditioners, freezers, fridge, pressing iron, photocopy machines, medical equipment and so on, you should get the Pure Sine Wave inverter. This type of inverter is most used for motor start-ups, they don’t make noise so you do not have to worry about turning up your TV volume all the way to 100 just to watch your favourite TV programme, they give enough power equivalent to what your power distribution company would normally provide. Before you start clamouring for a Pure Sine Wave inverter, you must know that they cost near twice as much as an equivalent Modified Sine Wave inverter.

Inverter Size

Like a popular saying goes, “never bring a knife to a gunfight”.  You need to be adequately prepared and well informed when you are looking to buy an inverter and one of part of this preparation is considering what size would suit you better.

To select the right inverter size for your needs, you need to calculate the wattage of all the entire appliances you have and would like to be powered by the inverter.

In doing this calculation of finding the wattage your appliances, check the label or manual of every appliance and add up all the wattage.

The total wattage is what you hope to get and if you want to narrow your cost down, you only need to add up the wattage of the appliances that are important. The table below is an example to put you true:

Equipment	Common Energy Consumption in Watts
Laptop	20W
Ceiling Fan	50W
DSTV	20W
Televisions	150W
Desktop Computer	85W
4 Energy Saving Bulbs	60W
TOTAL	385W

Now, you know that you need an inverter that can power more than 385W of appliances, but I recommend that you get an inverter that can accommodate double the total wattage so you do not risk overloading your inverter.

Battery Bank

Batteries are an essential part of an inverter setup. They are required to store energy from your power distributor, generators or any renewable energy source like the famous solar energy. Battery Banks act as the essential parts of any power back up system.

The durability and life span of your inverter is mainly dependent on class of batteries you use.What determine the required minimum size of your battery bank are the voltage requirements of your inverter. For example, a 12 volts inverter requires a 12 volts single battery, but a 24 volts inverter requires two 12 volts batteries in series. Nevertheless, you can also use a single 24 volts battery instead.

Let us look at an analogy. Imagine a battery being a bucket of energy which if it becomes full, it can’t take any more. It can only hold a fixed amount. Even if you charge it for 600 years, it will still only give you 12hours of energy if that is its full capacity.

Now let us talk about battery capacity; battery capacity is indicated in Ampere-Hour (AH), vividly showing the inverter’s current supply rate per hour of use. For instance, a 100AH inverter battery can deliver 100AH of current for every one hour of activity. The most common inverter batteries you can find in Nigeria are 100AH and 200AH.

The minimum needed battery size may or may not be sufficient enough to meet your needs. But not worry, you can determine the correct size for your home by using a method called Battery Backup Time Calculator using the formula below:

Amp rating of battery ×inverter voltage (assuming a 80% efficiency and depth of discharge) ÷ total load wattage

You might want to grab a calculator for this because we are going to engage ourselves in simple mathematics.

Example

100AH (Amp rating of battery) × 24v (voltage of inverter) assuming 80% efficiency and depth of discharge ÷ 310 watts (load)= approximately 6 hours of activity.

The illustration above is the outcome of constant 310 watts load. So in real life, the backup time could significantly be different by managing the number of appliances that you have working at any stipulated time.

Like turning off your fan and air conditioner when it is too cold to bear or switching on your TV only when your favourite program is on. Using this approach will save you significant amount of money and it’ll significantly prolong the durability of your batteries.

Battery Type

Inverters can run on different type of batteries. They can run on lead-acid batteries but this type of battery is used to deliver exceptionally high currents for short period and that is why it is used in by cars mainly for starting the ignition of motors. So, for this reason, lead-acid batteries are not exactly compactible with inverters.

There is another type of battery called Dry Cell Deep Cycle batteries.This type of batteries is suitable for inverter systems because they do not need maintenance. Dry Cell Deep Cycle batteries are great for home use, small office operations where battery maintenance does not look likely to happen regularly. Dry Cell Deep Cycle batteries can be left unattended to for a very long time unlike Wet Cell Deep Cycle batteries.

We also have Tubular Wet Cell Deep Cycle batteries that are endowed with refined designs, which make sure of good electrical efficiency coupled with a great lifespan.  Tubular Wet Cell Deep Cycle can last as long as 10-11 years and they can be expensive to maintain and kept in shape, so it is required that you do not leave them lying around dormant for long periods of time.

They require constant usage to maintain high level of performance. There is also one small detail that you have to consider, they come with detachable caps that need to be removed so that you can add distilled water every 6-12 months and when you are using this type of battery, you need to place it in a well-ventilated area.

Shopping Inverter Online

Konga Nigeria – See Offers

Inverter Efficiency and Battery Charging

An efficient inverter should only draw minimum energy from the power your power distributors provide or from your generator to fully charge its batteries, while non-energy efficient types require a large amount of energy to charge its batteries and waste a valuable amount of that energy during charging time thus; it will result to large bills from your power distributors.

Battery Brands

In the Nigerian market, there are a lot of inverter battery brands available. The issue is that, compared to those from the dedicated inverter battery manufacturers, the majority of these batteries are relatively low-quality. This is why most experts suggested that reputable manufacturers, such as Mercury, Prag, and Luminous are of good quality.

Warranties and Guarantees

A good warranty means that the manufactures of your inverter have agreed to provide maintenance and repair services of some selected components for a designated amount of time if a fault occurs. Warranties can even replace faulty parts if need be.

Due to the cost of inverters generally and specifically because of the valuable cost of Deep Cycle batteries it is better to buy a new inverter unit so that you can have the advantage of a guarantee if problems arise.

Conclusion

Here is all the information you needed to know about the inverter before buying one for your home, office, or any other places like industries, business, and commercial places etc. This guide contains all the necessary information that will put you through any time you’re buying solar inverter anywhere (either online or offline).

Should in case there is any question about inverter buying guide, contact us or comment below. We’re always online 24/7 to assist you in making a good power inverter purchase both offline and online.