Owner's Manual
Table Of Contents
Sizing
the
Battery
To
determine the minimum battery bank Ampere-hour
rating that you will
need
to operate appliances from the
inverter,
and
any
DC
appliances powered by the battery
bank. Follow these steps:
1.
List the
maximum
wattage that the inverter
has
to
provide
(as
above).
2.
Estimate the number of hours the appliances will
be
in
use
between battery recharges. This will vary
depending
on
appliances.
As
an
example,
a typical
home-use coffeemaker draws
500
Watts
during its
brew
time of 5 minutes, it maintains the temperature of the
pot at about
100
watts.
Typical use of a microwave
oven
is
only for a
few
minutes.
Some
longer operating
time appliances
are
lamps,
TV's,
computers, and
refrigerator /
freezers.
3.
Determine the total watt-hours of energy needed.
Then
multiply the average power consumption in
watts by the number of hours of
run
time.
For
example:
2000
Watts
for 1 0 hours =
20,000
Watts
hours.
Using
the
2000
Watts
(or 200
Amps)
for
10
hours
example
as
above,
then
200
Amps
is
needed
for
10
hours. This provides
us
with the basic
Amp-hours
(AH)
of battery that is required.
Ten
hours
at
200
Amps equals
2000
Amp Hours
(AH).
This
answer
is just a beginning because there
are
other conditions
that determine actual
run
time.
These include:
•
AC
appliance load
and
time in
use
(Basic Amp Hour)
• Cable gauge
and
length
•
Charge
level of the batteries (between
use,
chargers
have
to
be
able to fully charge the batteries)
• Temperature of the batteries (colder batteries provide
fewer
Amps)
•
Age
and
condition of the batteries (older batteries
lose
capacity Amp hours)
• Compliance with turning off unnecessary
AC
and
DC
loads.
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