FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN MAKING A PURCHASE.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN MAKING A PURCHASE.

The technician that put my setup together would at this point argue that he did not sell me an true inverter. To a large extent, I would agree with him. Inverters usually run independent of a main electricity supply, so they do not normally come standard with a 110/230V plug that you can connect to a wall socket. My unit plugs into the mains and uses an integrated charging system to automatically switch the unit to batteries when the power dips below a pre-determined voltage and back to mains when power is restored. It also re-charges the battery once it has dropped below optimum voltage. Pretty much how a UPS functions, so what are the differences?

Well, price for one. A quick search on the Internet showed me I was getting excellent value for money. An industrial type UPS rated to provide backup power for the 4-5 hours I required would have cost me a lot more than I paid for my setup.

On the subject of pricing, when making your choice it’s important to note that there are two types of UPS’s and inverters. One produces a pure-sine wave and the other a modified-sine wave.
The pure or true-sine wave is the closest you can get to the power produced by the public utility power grid system. The modified or square-sine wave models (mine falls into this category) are the most common of the inverters and are much cheaper than their thoroughbred cousins. Be sure to check which model you buying before settling on price.

Apart from a few exceptions, the modified-sine wave inverters will run just about any household appliance. Laptops and desktop computers have no problem running off these.

Another difference I found, and probably the most significant, is the fact that my model and most other inverters like it does not have any built in surge protection against lightening strikes and power spikes. It is essential to run the inverter/UPS through a surge protection unit.

A lot of the better off-the-shelf UPS’s come with monitoring software which enables you to interface with your PC via a USB cable. This is one feature you will be very hard pressed to find when shopping for inverters or UPS of this nature.

Your standard home UPS (600 VA) only has a 0.5 or 1 amp charger at best.
The models from the Inverex range come with a much larger charge capacity (up to 8 amps) which enables you to recharge a large battery to 80 percent of its capacity within 6-8 hours.