Need Inverter and Battery help

[technomad]

I need power backup for working from home. I live in a rural area so the power is not reliable. If some issue happens in the power lines, we don't get power for the whole day sometimes. Common in monsoon.

I will be needing to power a TV cum monitor, a laptop, two fans and 6-7 lights. That's for the whole night if needed. Although the lights can be limited to 2 if needed.

I will be working a night shift so I need power for laptop and two lights at least to last the whole 8-9 hours in case something happens to our power.
I can shut everything down as they are not needed for my work.

I went to a shop they quoted me 13k for Amaron 150Ah battery + 5k for 1050W inverter.
15k for 200Ah battery and 6.4k for 1275W inverter.
Similar prices for Exide battery.

Are these fair prices? Should I go for 150Ah or 200Ah?
The shop also quoted me 12k for 220Ah Phoenix battery. Idk that brand.

Please let me know your thoughts on this.

 

[anmolbhard004]

I need power backup for working from home. I live in a rural area so the power is not reliable. If some issue happens in the power lines, we don't get power for the whole day sometimes. Common in monsoon.

I will be needing to power a TV cum monitor, a laptop, two fans and 6-7 lights. That's for the whole night if needed. Although the lights can be limited to 2 if needed.

I will be working a night shift so I need power for laptop and two lights at least to last the whole 8-9 hours in case something happens to our power.
I can shut everything down as they are not needed for my work.

I went to a shop they quoted me 13k for Amaron 150Ah battery + 5k for 1050W inverter.
15k for 200Ah battery and 6.4k for 1275W inverter.
Similar prices for Exide battery.

Are these fair prices? Should I go for 150Ah or 200Ah?
The shop also quoted me 12k for 220Ah Phoenix battery. Idk that brand.

Please let me know your thoughts on this.

anyday exide battery get 200ah

 

[technomad]

anyday exide battery get 200ah

Thanks. I'll keep that mind.
What do you think about the inverter? Should it be the same brand if possible?
The shop told me that I'll need a 1275W inverter for what I told them.

 

[variablevector]

Don't get the 150Ah one. Exide, Amaron and Luminous are all good.

Let's say you have a 40" led TV and it needs 50W, the laptop needs 65W, normal/non-bldc fans need 2x75=150W and the led lights you've got need 7*10=70W. That is going to be a load of 335W. Running that for 9 hours requires 3015Wh. A 200Ah battery will only get you 200*12=2400Wh. That's not taking into account 15-20% conversion losses in the 12V inverter or losses within the battery such as Peukert's Law. But it is pretty clear that you will run out of power way before the sun comes up.

On the other hand, let's say the laptop only takes 30W instead of 65W because you're mostly running it at a low load and the fans are run at 50% so 75W total and you've only got two lights on so 20W, then you're looking at 50+30+75+20=175W, or a much more conservative 1575Wh. Adjusting for that 20% loss previously mentioned, you're at 1890Wh. Still within the battery's capacity. You might just survive till sun rise.

That's to say that if you go with the 200Ah battery, depending on your usage, there will be days where you struggle to get 9 hours of backup. You will also occasionally discharge the battery below 50% state of charge, which will reduce its lifespan significantly. Ideally, I would recommend oversizing and going for 2*200Ah system preferably in series or in parallel, depending on the inverter you get. That way you're not stressing the batteries too much and you should have capacity leftover for when you really need it. But that's doubling the cost, so it entirely depends on your budget.

Regarding the inverter, tbh, any of those will cover your needs. But if you plan to add more devices in the future, the 1275W one would be worth it.

 

[technomad]

Don't get the 150Ah one. Exide, Amaron and Luminous are all good.

I'm also thinking about 200 or 220Ah ones.

On the other hand, let's say the laptop only takes 30W instead of 65W because you're mostly running it at a low load and the fans are run at 50% so 75W total and you've only got two lights on so 20W, then you're looking at 50+30+75+20=175W, or a much more conservative 1575Wh. Adjusting for that 20% loss previously mentioned, you're at 1890Wh. Still within the battery's capacity. You might just survive till sun rise.

If need be, I'll only run maximum 2 LEDs, TV and a laptop. Maybe two laptops. That's my optimal use case.
By your maths, that'd be 30W + 65W for the laptops. One high load.
Two lights that's 20W.
And a 28 inch LED TV. That's maybe 40W?
That's a total of 155W.

That's to say that if you go with the 200Ah battery, depending on your usage, there will be days where you struggle to get 9 hours of backup. You will also occasionally discharge the battery below 50% state of charge, which will reduce its lifespan significantly.

The warranty should cover it, no? The excide one has 36 months replacement warranty+ 24 months more pro rata.

Ideally, I would recommend oversizing and going for 2*200Ah system preferably in series or in parallel, depending on the inverter you get. That way you're not stressing the batteries too much and you should have capacity leftover for when you really need it. But that's doubling the cost, so it entirely depends on your budget.

Regarding the inverter, tbh, any of those will cover your needs. But if you plan to add more devices in the future, the 1275W one would be worth it.

I can't actually do the double battery setup. My budget doesn't allow that.

Thanks for the detailed answer. It cleared up a lot of things.

 

[anmolbhard004]

Don't get the 150Ah one. Exide, Amaron and Luminous are all good.

Let's say you have a 40" led TV and it needs 50W, the laptop needs 65W, normal/non-bldc fans need 2x75=150W and the led lights you've got need 7*10=70W. That is going to be a load of 335W. Running that for 9 hours requires 3015Wh. A 200Ah battery will only get you 200*12=2400Wh. That's not taking into account 15-20% conversion losses in the 12V inverter or losses within the battery such as Peukert's Law. But it is pretty clear that you will run out of power way before the sun comes up.

On the other hand, let's say the laptop only takes 30W instead of 65W because you're mostly running it at a low load and the fans are run at 50% so 75W total and you've only got two lights on so 20W, then you're looking at 50+30+75+20=175W, or a much more conservative 1575Wh. Adjusting for that 20% loss previously mentioned, you're at 1890Wh. Still within the battery's capacity. You might just survive till sun rise.

That's to say that if you go with the 200Ah battery, depending on your usage, there will be days where you struggle to get 9 hours of backup. You will also occasionally discharge the battery below 50% state of charge, which will reduce its lifespan significantly. Ideally, I would recommend oversizing and going for 2*200Ah system preferably in series or in parallel, depending on the inverter you get. That way you're not stressing the batteries too much and you should have capacity leftover for when you really need it. But that's doubling the cost, so it entirely depends on your budget.

Regarding the inverter, tbh, any of those will cover your needs. But if you plan to add more devices in the future, the 1275W one would be worth it.

am pretty confused between luminous and microtek inverters

 

[variablevector]

am pretty confused between luminous and microtek inverters

Never had a problem with my existing luminous inverter in the 5+ years I've owned it and it switches over fast enough for my PC in case of a power cut. But I've never used microtek so I can't say if they're as good or not.

@technomad Make sure you get a pure sine wave inverter. Not square wave.

 

[technomad]

@technomad Make sure you get a pure sine wave inverter. Not square wave.

Yes, absolutely. I've heard that it helps with electronics especially.

 

[codwapeace]

Buy the largest VA sine wave inverter that runs on one battery. The price difference is not that high and the highest cost is of the battery in any case.

 

[enthusiast29]

Buy the largest VA sine wave inverter that runs on one battery. The price difference is not that high and the highest cost is of the battery in any case.

Luminous Eco volt 1550 is the max size for 12V single battery. It's decent.

 

[rockstah]

Luminous Eco volt 1550 is the max size for 12V single battery. It's decent.

I got this, it's possibly the max for single battery which supposedly can support 1300w. It could be an older/cheaper model though, as there's no display like my older Exide.

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Op, as others have mentioned get the 200ah battery and a good 1500va pure sinewave inverter.

Don't get the 150Ah one. Exide, Amaron and Luminous are all good.

Let's say you have a 40" led TV and it needs 50W, the laptop needs 65W, normal/non-bldc fans need 2x75=150W and the led lights you've got need 7*10=70W. That is going to be a load of 335W. Running that for 9 hours requires 3015Wh. A 200Ah battery will only get you 200*12=2400Wh. That's not taking into account 15-20% conversion losses in the 12V inverter or losses within the battery such as Peukert's Law. But it is pretty clear that you will run out of power way before the sun comes up.

On the other hand, let's say the laptop only takes 30W instead of 65W because you're mostly running it at a low load and the fans are run at 50% so 75W total and you've only got two lights on so 20W, then you're looking at 50+30+75+20=175W, or a much more conservative 1575Wh. Adjusting for that 20% loss previously mentioned, you're at 1890Wh. Still within the battery's capacity. You might just survive till sun rise.

That's to say that if you go with the 200Ah battery, depending on your usage, there will be days where you struggle to get 9 hours of backup. You will also occasionally discharge the battery below 50% state of charge, which will reduce its lifespan significantly. Ideally, I would recommend oversizing and going for 2*200Ah system preferably in series or in parallel, depending on the inverter you get. That way you're not stressing the batteries too much and you should have capacity leftover for when you really need it. But that's doubling the cost, so it entirely depends on your budget.

Regarding the inverter, tbh, any of those will cover your needs. But if you plan to add more devices in the future, the 1275W one would be worth it.

I think 200ah would last 8 hours easily, I have a 4+ year old 150ah Amaron battery which lasts the whole day during full day power cuts with 2 lights, 2/3 fans and TV on for half the time.

 

[variablevector]

I'm also thinking about 200 or 220Ah ones.

If need be, I'll only run maximum 2 LEDs, TV and a laptop. Maybe two laptops. That's my optimal use case.
By your maths, that'd be 30W + 65W for the laptops. One high load.
Two lights that's 20W.
And a 28 inch LED TV. That's maybe 40W?
That's a total of 155W.

Yeah, for a 155W power draw, 200/220Ah should serve you well.

The warranty should cover it, no? The excide one has 36 months replacement warranty+ 24 months more pro rata.

3 years replacement is a good warranty. But you can get many more years of life out of a lead acid by using them more conservatively.

The number of charge/discharge cycles you can get from them falls off a cliff when you start to use 80-100% of their capacity. Many inverter shops will tell you to buy something that has just enough capacity for your needs, but going above that can improve lifespan by a lot. Anyway, you can always just increase your capacity by adding another battery in parallel later on.

I got this, it's possibly the max for single battery which supposedly can support 1300w. It could be an older/cheaper model though, as there's no display like my older Exide.

EXIDE INVERTERZ STAR(STAR12V1625) Inverter System

Get EXIDE INVERTERZ STAR(STAR12V1625) Inverter System at best price. Check out the details.

www.exidecare.com

Op, as others have mentioned get the 200ah battery and a good 1500va pure sinewave inverter.


I think 200ah would last 8 hours easily, I have a 4+ year old 150ah Amaron battery which lasts the whole day during full day power cuts with 2 lights, 2/3 fans and TV on for half the time.

For OP's use case, you're right. But it depends heavily on your usage patterns, as demonstrated by the math above. It's easy to use way more than you think. I have a 5-year old 150Ah battery too, and it quit in 5-6 hours last time we had a full day of no power (that was with me monitoring it and shutting things off as much as I could) and that is the reason why I'm in the process of upgrading to a much larger capacity. But I also had a lot more electronics connected to the wall.

We also forgot to mention any wifi routers/modems etc, as that could easily take another 30-40W. Another point is charging time. If you lose power on night 1, and then the following day only has intermittent power, then you may not have enough power left in the battery for night 2 of power cuts. Particularly applicable during monsoon. But yeah, it will probably be fine for this case.

 

[technomad]

Buy the largest VA sine wave inverter that runs on one battery. The price difference is not that high and the highest cost is of the battery in any case.

Yeah I'll buy the largest one my budget permits.

 

[anmolbhard004]

Luminous Eco volt 1550 is the max size for 12V single battery. It's decent.

am planning on luminous optimus

 

[technomad]

Yeah, for a 155W power draw, 200/220Ah should serve you well.

3 years replacement is a good warranty. But you can get many more years of life out of a lead acid by using them more conservatively.
View attachment 206582
The number of charge/discharge cycles you can get from them falls off a cliff when you start to use 80-100% of their capacity. Many inverter shops will tell you to buy something that has just enough capacity for your needs, but going above that can improve lifespan by a lot. Anyway, you can always just increase your capacity by adding another battery in parallel later on.

To be fair, the long power cuts are rare in my area. The power goes out for a few hours a day. But longer power cuts where I will use up the battery capacity will be rare. So I don't think the battery will degrade that fast.

 

[anmolbhard004]

guys for a 24v inverter can I use
150 ah and 220 ah battery?

 

[dvader]

I was on the same board as @OP. I bought a 1500 VA (I think) and a 220 ah battery. The load however was pushing it to its edge. I finally decided to go with Luminous Optimus 2800 (VA), 24 V with two 150 ah batteries, life has been easier since then.

@OP do whatever you want, just buy a full sine wave inverter. That's crucial.

 

[codwapeace]

guys for a 24v inverter can I use
150 ah and 220 ah battery?

I don't think it's a good idea to use 2 different capacity batteries as they are in series and current has to pass through both of them. Your battery(ies) will definitely burn out faster.
These double battery inverters put batteries in series assuming that both the batteries are of the same capacity and at the same stage in their life degradation.

 

[technomad]

I was on the same board as @OP. I bought a 1500 VA (I think) and a 220 ah battery. The load however was pushing it to its edge. I finally decided to go with Luminous Optimus 2800 (VA), 24 V with two 150 ah batteries, life has been easier since then.

Tbh, that's kind of out of my budget.

@OP do whatever you want, just buy a full sine wave inverter. That's crucial.

Absolutely. Pure sine wave is what I'm getting.

 

[dvader]

Tbh, that's kind of out of my budget.

Absolutely. Pure sine wave is what I'm getting.

Yeah thats fine. I would still recommend optimus line. Optimus 1250 is around 8k, in your local market it would come down to 7-7.5k if you buy the battery too.