hi there!
looking for a 1-1.2kva 12v home inverter that is efficient, has low fan noise, compatible with lifepo4.
Have also heard that one should go for inverters that have inbuilt surge protection for sensitive devices. How true is it? Does external surge protector like honeywell power strip work equally well in case inverter does not have surge protection inbuilt?
Are you looking for a Combo Device or a standalone one. Combo are models which have inbuilt Battery. Also are you going to plan for a Solar Panels support. If you already have battery, please post specs of it.
Even I was considering this setup. For now decided to wait it out.
looking for a standalone device. No solar requirement. An inverter that is efficient, has copper transformer, is less noisy and compatible with lifepo4. Load requirement 400-500 watts with pc.
I recently got this : ELECTRENT ESS 2500 in-Built Lithium Inverter Battery 2500VA with 25.6V /100Ah Battery for Home Office & Shop | Fast Charging | Compact & Long Life Backup | Wall Mountable | Maintenance-Free : Amazon.in: Home & Kitchen
Have been very happy so far.
They have 1.2KVA model for ~30k (27k with SBI) : ELECTRENT ESS 1350 in-Built Lithium Inverter Battery 1200VA with 12.8V /100Ah LFP Battery for Home Office | Fast Charging | Wall Mountable | Lightweight & Long Life Backup | Maintenance-Free : Amazon.in: Home & Kitchen.
how about its service network?
Microtek has a inverter 1275 which is compatible with both lead acid and lfp batteries. Costs around 6000 rs
The 100 ah lithium battery is about 19-20k.
You should be able to get both for around 25 in the local market.
@desi_gamer I am thinking of going for this. Genus MaxiLion 2400 VA (2.4 KVA) Inverter with Upto 12 Year Life Integrated 2560Wh Lithium-Ion Battery for Home, Office & Shops (Runs Even 1HP Motor) : Amazon.in: Home & Kitchen
Electrent is new to me. Did you compare it with other brands before buying? What made you choose Electrent over established brands like Genus or Luminous?
I’m also looking for a lithium inverter + lifepo4 battery.
I found Eastman had a few but it says square wave inverter with transformers.
I had seen a YouTube video where the efficiency of transformer inverters is just 70% when tested immediately. Also some research says they Thakre 20-100w constantly to keep the magnetic field on (i have no idea about the mechanism but the power usage seems releavnt).
Lifepo4 batteries are supposed to have 95-98% efficiency. Ie if you input 1kwh you can take out nearly 950-980kwh.
So there’s much lesser losses.
However i havent been able to find anything without transformer.
Now I’d like to buy inverters and batteries such that later they could be used for solar storage and use as lifepo4 batteries have 5-6k cycle life. Which is like around 16yrs life if used daily. Or atleast the batteries should be usable in a hybrid setup where the solar is used at home first and fallback on grid when load can’t be covered by the battery+inverter.
Looking at current escalation in electricity prices it’s going to become more and more normal.
I get about 1.5L electricity bill every year. Avg unit price in 6 months - (march- August) of summer goes to 15rs per unit. Recently they increased again so next will be more.
They are very active over whatsapp, but no match to the likes of legacy players. But you don’t need much support with LFP batteries. But yeah, that’s a serious con if local support matters to you.
I needed something portable as I have to move a lot. Only electrent was offering a compact solution. It’s a simple plug and play device that can be wall mounted.
Genus was bulkier and needed additional wiring. Luminous was more expensive. All three of them offered the same warranty - 5yrs on battery and 3yrs comprehensive. So electrent came on top.
So there’s a little to unpack here. The low efficiency are for low-frequency inverters with aluminum secondary windings.
You get higher efficency with full copper inverters — the creme de la creme of these in our market is Ashapower.
With low-frequency inverters, you get strong surge handling capacity, Ashapower specs theirs as 200% for 3 seconds.
The newer stuff that’s way more efficient are high-frequency inverters, they don’t have as robust surge capacity but they’re way more efficient.
The easiest way to tell the difference between the two is probably weight. A 3kVA low frequency inverter is probably over 30kgs, while a high frequency one is under 10kgs.
So if we are looking for something that works all day, then high efficiency right?
Any difference in pricing? Suggested models?
Same test here -46% loss according to him. Crazy. This is Microtek inverter!
Same shit here too → I think this the ELECTRENT one @desi_gamer got.
So they’re giving Lithium batteries and cutting corners on the inverter. And if this guy didn’t test we wouldn’t know.
AAAAND this video explains my Electricity bill for last few months. FML.
TLDR - Constant usage from grid by the inverter 24/7 even if nothing is going on - 80W per inverter
That’s 2 units per day 60units per month. At 15rs avg that’s 900rs per inverter per month extra bill.
I have 2 inverters. so around 1800.
Now my battery was fucked, so it could be constantly charging it too. So that’s even worse. Might be better to shift completely to more efficient inverters and lithium batteries with cut off.
I love this kind of stuff, but the math is more nuanced.
While charging, they recorded ~70% efficiency:
1.34kWh into the battery while pulling 1.94kWh from the wall.
While discharging, it delivered ~82% efficency:
1.04kWh out from the inverter while taking 1.27kWh from the battery.
Battery efficiency is then 1.27/1.34 = 95%
Inverter efficency is 1.04/1.94 = 54%
Pretty mediocre inverter, decent battery.
But this is expected for 12V inverters, they need super beefy wiring to overcome these kind of losses.
The market solved this problem with 24V and 48V and higher inverters. The losses due to inadequate wire guage is much less for those systems.
This one had a full system efficiency of 2.27/3.33 = 68%
I’m a little concerned how two 200W bulbs pulled only 330 watts, that’s typically not how bulbs work.
I’d want to see the power draw of those bulbs from a calibrated meter to be sure about that number.
For what it’s worth, I’m currently seeing 91% battery efficiency with my low effort setup:
I expect that to go up when I make better connections.
Then later I’ll test my inverter efficency.
I am watching this thread for more options. I too have the same requirements as Party_Monger but a tad less power requirements.
All that maths and power tariffs are quite confusing. Do post your state and Source when adding that power tariffs?
For me it’s a quick calculation of 10x
1kWh = Rs 10.
Am sorry to hijack this thread,
But in line with the same discussion,
Is building one by yourself viable ?
Considering all the safety and hazards too !
No, nearly everyone’s time is worth more than anything DIY. You go the DIY route because you’re enthralled with it, you’re willing to invest in the tools/equipment, and you want something more than what the market offers.
Amazon has branded 12V LiFePO4 packs starting at 15k before card offers, that’s a good price for something that costs around 12k in raw materials and it comes with warranty.
A few years ago, it made financial sense to DIY, but that’s no longer true if you want a quality product. You can hit a lower price point with DIY using subpar/used/crashed-ev cells, if that’s your goal.
I’m fascinated by the idea of building my own packs because I see it as a stepping stone to going completely off-grid some day. I love the technology, the metrics, everything — it’s like adult legos for me.
Some people are passionate about pasta, I’m passionate about batteries.
Basically, with the ELECTRENT inverter/ups/battery thing, you’re paying 47% extra per unit consumed during a power outage.
So if you have a power outage for 1 hour and you run your 1000W full body massager for that entire 1 hour, the inverter will have provided you with 1kWh of energy — and when power is restored it would take 1kWh / 68% = 1.47kWh to charge back up to full.
If your per unit tariff is Rs 10 like it is for me, every unit you consume during a power outage is Rs 15 instead of Rs 10.
electrent claiming efficiency to be of 95% for their battery+inverter combo unit, is this efficiency of the battery or the inverter?
Has to be just the battery. To get that kind of efficency from an inverter, you’d need to spend 40k or more just for the ups/inverter, without a battery.