Feb 19, 2007 06:18 PM
11203 Views
Dear Thomas Alva Edison,
Why did you discover electricity? Were we not well off without it? Do you know what you have done to me?
When I was a kid (Oh no!! I am starting this again!!) whenever there was a power failure it would mean children rushing out of their houses akin to being released from jail. Especially at night, with only candles, moon and the stars being the source of light, it would mean time to play the spookiest games and trying hard to act bold even though you know you are dead scared deep down.. having family dinner by the hurricane lamp... gazing at the stars and make out the constellations... run behind the glow worms. Phew, I feel sad for my children. They sure are missing a lot in life!!
Nowadays, (I sound like an old lady) a power cut even for an hour means that the world stops rotating. The rising heat rising your temper as well. And God forbid if it happens in the middle of night. It leads to tossing and turning and the consequent dark circles next day! Right from our kitchen to our jazzy gizmos, from K-serials to the "net", we depend on this simple discovery!
After successful addiction, now we face the wrath of power outages. The blessed (not by you!!) place where I stay has them as much as 3 hrs in the peak noon as per the requirement of "diminishing supplies" versus "increasing demands".
Dear Edi, thats when I heard of this thing called inverter. The Inverter is a sinewave back-up power supply intended to serve house loads. It is rated for 800 VA/500W at 230 Vac, 50-Hz, and operates on a wide range of input voltages (100 - 265V). If the input voltage goes out of range (less than 100V or more than 265V) (in laymans terms, if the power goes off), the utility is isolated and the inverter supplies power to the load from the internal batteries (means inverter starts working, simple!). The Inverter can serve inductive loads (flourescent lamps, ceiling and table fans), resistive loads (incandescent lamps), and switched mode power supply (SMPS) loads (television). (Well well, Edi, dont look at me like that, I copied these terms from their manual :)
After just enough survey, we decided to go for APC Inverter. APC stands for American Power Corporation Ltd. Apart from backups and UPS, APC also offers other products like video surveillance, access control, and environmental monitoring solutions, Surge protection, Portable power solutions for mobile devices and so on. Refer https://apc.com for details.
Under home inverters we had 2 choices. One rated for 800VA and the other for 1000VA. We went for 800VA. The typical backup time with the primary battery pack at full load is approximately 2 hours. In laymans terms, I can operate 4 tubelights and 4 fans for 2 hrs when the battery is fully utilised. The cost of the inverter was appx 11K with a warrantee of 2 years.
Luckily for me, the inverter and the battery come with decent looks. The battery is stationed within a box and the inverter sits above it. In effect, they look like a music system (I have been asked the question!! lol). So, till such time, I put them in the loft, they sit in a corner.
The appliance has enough indicators and controls for dumbheads like me to comprehend.
~Circuit Breaker Switch(Rear Panel) - When in ON MAINS mode, if the system draws more than 10A, circuit breaker will trip. To reset the circuit breaker switch, we need to push the switch fully inward.
~Inverter Indicators- The Inverter provides LED indicators to show whether I am going over the top with the usage of the batteries. i.e. Load Status (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, and OVER LOAD). The indicators also show INVERTER DISABLE, ON MAINS, ON BATTERY, and FAULT status.
~AWAY/HOME switch - When I go out of station, I do not have fear of battery getting discharged the way I worry for my car. In the AWAY position, the Inverter goes into standby mode and will not switch to battery power in the event of a power outtage. However, in this position, the Inverter will charge the batteries until a utility power failure occurs.
~TEST/MUTE- Well the MUTEposition (push in for 5 seconds), is for people like me who tend to spill over to OVERLOAD and this push button switch silences the low battery buzzer. In TESTmode, when ON MAINS LED is lit, on pressing this push button, the unit will do self test to determine the state of the system. During On Battery self test it will also show the load status which can be used to find out the load capacity.
After installing the inverter, I have not noticed any radical change in my electicity bill too. So, my initial inhibitions proved wrong. Customer Care is one area I cannot comment upon since I have not faced any problem till now.. touchwood! But they were very prompt in installation and demonstration.
So, Edi, this is what you have done to me. Made me buy this stuff just because there is so much dependance on your baby. I am worried, Edi, I am worried. You have spoilt me rotten. Can you do something about it?
Yours electrically,
The Reviewer
Title of the review . Courtesy Daya!
