Before setting out to buy an inverter for your home, it is always best to know beforehand the rough estimate of your total power consumption. Take any average summer day and make a note of what all you need to power. An inverter is very different from a generator in the sense that it cannot run all the electrical appliances of your house when the electricity goes out; you have to select the few indispensable appliances you want to stay running all through the day, no matter what!

Determining the combined load that would be run using the inverter is critical in purchasing an inverter of adequate size. The watts of power drawn by every single appliance you will connect to your inverter can help decide the VA rating of your inverter. An inverter can back heavy electricity drawing appliances such as refrigerators as well. Saying that, powering such devices has its downside—the inverter battery is going to last for fewer hours than it would if devices such as heavy refrigerators were not powered using it.

#2)Understand how an inverter is different from a home UPS

A home UPS is the same as an inverter, as far as the functionality aspect is concerned—both the devices are used to convert direct current to alternating current, which is used as a backup option to generate power.   However, there is a main distinction between an inverter and a UPS. The difference is that there is no time lag between the devices being powered off in the event of a power cut.

However, with devices powered by an inverter, there is a very short period of total blackout when the electricity goes out. Most computers and laptops in homes and offices are connected by UPSs instead of inverters for this exact reason. This lets the users save their critical data before powering their machines off.

#3)Know which appliances you can power using an inverter

An inverter can run appliances such as fridges and air conditioners. However, the motors of the aforementioned appliances are equipped with compressors. They require vast amounts of currents, especially to start up. Thus to cater to such heavy-current-drawing appliances, it is best that you buy inverters that have high VA values and sizes or inverters specially designed to cater to refrigerators and air conditioners.

#4)Know the VA rating that your inverter requires

VA ratings and watt ratings are not to be taken interchangeably. House appliances such as lights, bulbs, refrigerators, air conditioners et al are the ones that consume power and hence are rated in Watts. In contrast, power generating equipment such as inverters, uninterrupted power supplies, generators et al are rated in VA.

VA is apparent power and is the product of the voltage and the current supplied by the equipment. The ideal case scenario calls for both, the VA value and the watt value to be the same. However, in actual circuits, it is not practically possible for them to be the same. Do not be misled by manufacturers into believing that both are the same.

#5)Miscellaneous Considerations

As with any product, with a UPS and inverter, you must make sure that the products are guarded under a stipulated warranty period by the manufacturer. Inverters require close to no maintenance at all until and unless they stop functioning altogether. An inverter is not 100% efficient because it uses a part of its energy to power its circuitry and run a cooling fan.

Now that you know everything there is to buy the perfect inverter, make sure you buy only from reputed manufacturers. Luminous, Microtek, Su-kam, Galaxy and Exide are among the most renowned inverters and home UPSs manufacturers.