How To Select A Backup Power System
What You Need To Know When Choosing A Backup Power System
Power Packs incorporate a power inverter (rated in watts or w), a 12v battery (rated in ampere-hours or aH), and a battery charger (rated in amperes or A). When selecting a unit, the most important factors you will need to consider will be as follows:
- What is your wattage requirement? (To determine this, add up the total number of watts for all of the appliances you plan on using with your power pack)
- What is your run-time requirement?
Wattage Requirements
Before you do anything, you will need to determine what your wattage requirement is, for the electrical application you wish to operate. To find this out, reference your user manual, the name plate rating or the contact the manufacturer of your electrical appliance. Often times one of these sources will provide you with the wattage rating as required. Other times, they will not. If a wattage rating is not found, then the wattage rating can be found getting the amperage rating. If the amperage rating is found then you can multiply the amperage rating by the voltage rating and that will give you’re your wattage rating. For example, if you are able to find the amperage rating in your user guide as 3.7 amps and your voltage rating in the user guide is 115v, then your wattage rating will be 425.5 watts. 425.5 watts minimum size power pack you will require to operate your electrical appliance. Anything less than this will not operate
Battery Requirements
The greater the ampere-hour or aH rating of the battery, the longer the run-time you should expect for your Power Pack. Once you’ve determined what your wattage requirements is, you will want to select a Power Pack that meets or exceeds your wattage requirement and one with the largest aH rating to maximize the run-time of your electrical appliance.
The aH rating of the battery will determine the overall run-time you will expect from the Power Pack. Selecting a higher wattage rated Power Pack alone will not impact your run-time.