“Oops! Another Power Cut!” …India’s most chanted sermon during monsoon and summers. Sadly, these cries fall on deaf ears…more like ‘shooting in the dark’; literally. These ruthless outages continue to trample on our sighs, disregarding our happiness in little things. Not to lose hope though. And not because we have a savior in shining armor to miraculously bring back the electricity; but because we are living in the era of Inverters.

The challenge however, is choosing the right inverter and battery that breathes life into it. So, here is a simple 3-step guideline to bring in the best ‘inverter+battery’ fit for your power needs-

Step 1: Identify Your Power Requirements
Do not get baffled by the word ‘Identify’. There is no rocket science to it. Just list down the appliances you wish to operate on inverter power. Suppose you plan to connect 2 tube lights (60 Watts), 1 fan (70 Watts) and 2 CFLs (40 Watts). In this scenario, your total power requirement will be: 60 + 70 + 40 = 170 Watts

Step 2: Check the VA Rating of the Inverter
Now, the next step is to buy an inverter with proper Volt Ampere (VA) rating. VA implies the voltage and current supplied by the inverter to the appliances. So, how do we decide how much VA would suffice our electricity requirement? It could be better explained through below equation viz., the ratio of total power requirement by the appliances to the power factor of the inverter.

VA = Power Requirement/Power Factor
Power Factor is nothing but the ratio of power required by equipments to the power supplied by the inverter. The average power factor of inverters is 0.7 or 0.8.
VA= 170/0.7
VA= 242.85 Approx.
Hence, in our situation we should be looking for an inverter of around 250 VA

Step 3: Get an Appropriate Battery for the Inverter
A proper battery is the backbone of an inverter. It wields the performance and life of the inverter. Now, we arrive at the pivotal question – “How long will the inverter provide back-up for the appliances?” This question is answered by the battery capacity which determines the back-up time expressed in Ampere Hours (Ah). So, how to decide the battery capacity? Let’s say you need a back-up for 6 hours.