If you’re considering buying a power inverter, one of your first concerns is how long it will take to empty your battery.
Answering this basic question will ensure that you choose the right size for your needs and know what you can run and how long from your power inverter.
The features of the power inverter, for example, can impact the battery’s ability to power up electronics and appliances. We need to extend the battery life of our gadgets as much as possible.
This post will show how to get the most out of your battery life and how it will be drain speedily.
Power Inverter Attributes that Affect Life of a Battery:
- What might be a better approach to ask this question is how long do you want your load to run? You can make specific calculations to help you identify the appropriate size of your car battery by asking this question.
- Your appliance’s operating time is also determine by its power consumption, which is commonly measure in watts, and battery capacity.
- It’s also worth noting that inverter inefficiency and poor battery wiring during installation can drastically lower the running life of your appliance, so make sure you follow expert guidance when installing.
Units for Evaluating Electricity Features
Multiplying volts by amps is a decent approach to figure out the watt measurement. The capacity in Amp-Hours, or A.H, is refer as this.
A 12-volt inverter system requires roughly 10 DC amps from its battery for every 100 watts. A 24-volt inverter system, on the other hand, requires 10 DC Amps from the battery for every 200 watts. These values are crucial to remember since they determine the effectiveness of your battery.
If you calculate the total watts of the load, you can figure out how long your battery will survive. Look at the input electrical nameplate on an appliance and sum up the total required. It provides you a hint on how much power your device could accept.
However, there are some loads that aren’t fixed, which is why it is important for them to get estimations.
For example, a refrigerator that’s receives the power of a 750 watts compressor. If it regulates 1/3 of the time, it will run around 250-255 watts hourly.
The size of the battery storage can be measured once the running time and load are established. To do it, first, you must divide its watts load by 10. This is if your appliance runs on 12 volts. If it runs on a 24-volts system, then divide it by 20.
Meanwhile, the duration that you use your inverter to run your appliances will depend on your battery’s power capacity.
Draining the Battery When the Engine Is Operational
The alternator charges the battery and gives electricity to the electrical system while the automobile or truck’s engine is running. Although the battery is still necessary for alternators to function effectively, the alternator is made to handle the heavy lifting when the engine is operating.
When everything is working properly, the alternator charges the battery, powers electrical systems and components such as your stereo and lamps, and leaves enough power for extras such as an inverter.
Your electrical system may enter a condition of discharge if the alternator isn’t up to the task of supplying all that power either because it’s damage or because it’s not powerful enough. If you have a charge meter on your dash, you’ll observe it dip below 12 or 13 volts at that point, indicating that power is discharging from the battery.
When a situation like this to go on for too long, the battery eventually declines to the point where there isn’t enough power to run all the vehicle’s electronics. You will most likely have drivability issues at that point, or even earlier. It’s possible that the engine will die.
How Long Can You Run an Inverter Before the Battery Drains?
The amount of time you can use an inverter to power your electronics is determine by the quantity of power you utilize and the battery capacity. If you know the wattage of the devices you wish to use and the battery’s reserve capacity, you can apply the following formula:
(10 x [Battery Capacity] / [Load]) / 2
You can see that if your battery has a capacity of 100-amp hours and you wish to use a laptop that is using 45 watts, you’ll get roughly 11 hours out of it.
(10 x [100 AH] / [45 Watts]) / 2 = 11.11 hours
There’s a potential that if you run a 45-watt load for 11 hours. On a 100 AH battery, there is not enough power remain in the battery to run the starter motor. Larger loads, such as a desktop computer, television, and a variety of other electronics, drain a battery even faster.
Author Bio
Maria loves to write for a topic like home improvement, Automotive tips, interior decor, garden tips, and travel-related topics. She has a passion to write about various metal buildings and their uses in various industries. Her goal is to help people with the true knowledge she has and assist them with the best suggestions on various industries like Metal carports, barns, custom, steel utility storage buildings, metal garages, and huge commercial steel buildings.