Good Sine wave power backup option. Review on Sine Wave UPS E²

With view of the summer, I was looking at a good power back-up option to ensure unlimited power supply at Home. When I went to the market, I found that there were a slew of power inverters being offered in the market. There were inverters being offered by a number of companies including Microtek, Su-Kam, V-Guard and other lesser well known companies. So, when you visit the dealer or distributor, please do your "Word of mouth" research as well as Online research reading about inverters before you approach dealers/distributors.they tend to confuse you when they come to know that you aren't well versed with the types of inverters available and the cost range, etc. I would always advise you to do extensive "word of mouth" research

The distributor I went to was the official distributor for Microtek inverters. He showed me a printed circult board of a SU-KAM inverter and told me that it blew last week and wasn't covered in warranty. Hence, he asked me to prefer a MICROTEK inverter. He also suggested a OKAYA BIG YELLOW tubular battery along with it which is again a Microtek Product. I made some enquiries and found that there are two types of inverters broadly for household use:

1. Square wave inverters very commonly sold and cheaper,

   
   




2. Sine wave/pure sine wave inverters which were more expensive and less commonly bought.

   
   

More research using my smart fone on the street near the dealer's place brought me to the conclusion that all appliances(especially those which convert current) are safe with the sine wave inverters.

Pros of square wave inverters:

1. Cheaper to buy,

   
   




2. Can run fans, tubelights, basic appliances.

   
   

Cons of Sq wave inv:

1. Output is square wave, not sine wave. Hence, may damage those appliances which use converted current such as high tech audio equipment, LCD TVs, mobile chargers, etc.

   
   




2. A booming sound may be heard from fans when inverter is in operation

   
   

Pros of Sine wave inv:

1. Natural sine wave output like raw power we get from the electricity board

   
   




2. Safe to use with all kinds of appliances

   
   




3. No booming sound from any device.

   
   

Cons of Sine wave inv:

1. More expensive to buy than Sq wave inverters

   
   




2. More expensive to maintain

   
   




3. May reduce the life of the battery(as per the service person).

   
   

How do you choose the capacity of an inverter? Well, generally, to run around 2 - 3 lights, 2 - 3 fans, a tv, misc stuff for around 3 hours, you would need a 135 kw capacity battery and a 850 VA Inverter.

I went for the Microtek SW900 pure sine wave inverter.

I would also recommend you go for a tubular battery.

I went for a Okaya XL6000 Big yellow battery(was overpriced by 2000 rs at least) but if you can afford it, please buy an Exide tubular battery.

The combination of these 2 would suffice my usage for more than 4 hours(using 3 25W CFLs, LCD TV, Laptops and 2 - 3 fans) though power's never been down that long as yet.

Also, do remember that its the battery that costs around twice or a little less than that of the inverter. Hence, spend time researching the right battery at the right price as well.

Very important to check for warranty of both battery and inverter and the terms and conditions.

Another thing to check is the after sales service reputation of the dealer/distributor you are buying from.

Finally, the wiring of my house was very haphazard. Both the 16 ampere and 5 ampere lines were connected together. The wiring technician who was installing the Inverter had to open all boards and correct the lines. He took around 700 Rs from me for this effort additionally.

Though the initial installation of the inverter will pinch you, it does help getting an inverter/battery combination that can last for around 4 - 5 hours depending on your usage. I am now enjoying the benefits by God's grace and I do hope it lasts.

Best of luck on your inverter hunt and kindly do rate my review or post your views/comments.

After more than 1 year:

The UPS and battery are still intact with zero maintenance. They still serve very well during power outages and I haven't had a single failure thanks to God's grace. I would also like to update two positive aspects: 1. On the tubular battery, the distilled water is still near full and doesn't seem to have reduced much. 2. I have had power outages for an entire day and the UPS has worked the whole day running a few fans, the TV and set top box along with an odd CFL. I admire my UPS+battery setup everytime I lose power and am glad I took this decision of purchasing it before last year's summer. I am sure their prices must have shot up now.