Correct battery size for 550va and 1000va inverters

[ILFE]

Greetings Folks,

I am currently in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. It is a lovely place, but I am experiencing major black outs here. I'm talking sometimes as long as 14 hours per day.

I need to power some appliances in a small apartment. I am considering going with a 1000 watt inverter for a refrigerator and television, and a 500 watt inverter for my computer network, a couple of lamps, and a fan.

Can you tell me about what size (Amp Hour) battery (or batteries) I should connect to the inverters, to run them up to 14 hours each?

The voltage here is 230vac, if that matters.

[Mike90250]

Welcome Paul.

First, you need to make an energy budget:
Computers, 280 watts total, 5 hours = 1400 watt hours
Lights 72 watts total, 7 hours = 504 watt hours
fan 85 watts 14 hours = 1190 wh

and so on...
If possible, get a "clip on" or "clamp on" AC amp meter, or even better, a Kill-a-watt meter (I don't know if they make a 240V version of it) to measure your appliances.

If you design too small of a system you damage the batteries. Too large and you waste $$. So spend a week or so, measuring your loads, and get things sized just right.
design post: http://www.solarpaneltalk.com/showth...Battery-Design

Another way, is to look at your monthly electric bill, that's generally in KWh, and you can just divide it down to daily average. 300KWh month = 10kwh per day.
The very smallest battery you could do that with, would at 48V, be 208 ah, or about 16 golf cart batteries, 6V, 200 ah each, wired in series. And you need to put them somewhere.

[Sunny Solar]

There are many similar meters to the kilawatt meter and available in 240v and 50 and 60hz. Only bad thing about most of them is the text on the screen is about 5point txt and damm hard to read..

Running a refrigerator in a hot part of a country is very heavy on batteries. This is where it is very necessary to know just how much power your ref really does use per 24hrs,, Dont go by what the manufacturer claims, especially in 3rd world countries.

[ILFE]

Hi, I am sorry for not replying sooner.

So far, I am averaging about 6.25 Kilowatts per 24 hours, total usage, over the course of a month. (I am at 150 Kw on the meter, since I moved in 24 days ago.)

I have decided that, since the ref tends to remain cold all day anyway, I am going to only concern myself with running my computer, one external hard drive, one light and one fan, during power outages. I am sure that will cut down my consumption quite a bit.

My problem has been, so far, in finding (or not finding) deep cycle batteries here in Cambodia. When I lived in the Philippines, deep cycle batteries were readily and commonly available. Here, it is another story all together. So, I do not know what I will do, if I am unable to secure the batteries I need.

[Naptown]

Hi, I am sorry for not replying sooner.

So far, I am averaging about 6.25 Kilowatts per 24 hours, total usage, over the course of a month. (I am at 150 Kw on the meter, since I moved in 24 days ago.)

I have decided that, since the ref tends to remain cold all day anyway, I am going to only concern myself with running my computer, one external hard drive, one light and one fan, during power outages. I am sure that will cut down my consumption quite a bit.

My problem has been, so far, in finding (or not finding) deep cycle batteries here in Cambodia. When I lived in the Philippines, deep cycle batteries were readily and commonly available. Here, it is another story all together. So, I do not know what I will do, if I am unable to secure the batteries I need.

Consider how much more you would use if the power stayed on 24 hours. If power is down during the day for 8-10 hours that would be your peak use time.

[ILFE]

Updates on deep cycle batteries available here.

Thanks, Naptown.

After doing extensive research in town, but not finding anything here, a member of a Cambodian related forum turned me on to two companies, both in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, and about 4 to 5 hours from me.

One offered me a Ritar RA12-100D, deep cycle battery (see attachment for specs), at $165 USD. They offered another battery, the 200AH version of the 100D, at $325 USD, each.

Another company offered me an EB-130, 130AH, 12vdc Yuasa deep cycle battery (see attachment for specs), for $120 USD. A considerable difference in price. Both companies would ship the batteries to me, at the cost of $3 to $4, each. (Pretty reasonable shipping costs, if I may say so.) So, I just have to decide between these two and have them shipped to me.