To calculate the total amount of power your home uses, you will need to add up the wattage of all the appliances you want to run during a power outage. You can find the wattage of each appliance on the label or in the manual. Once you have a total wattage, you can determine the size of the inverter you need.
To determine how long you can run your appliances during a power outage, you will need to divide the total watt-hours of your battery bank by the total wattage of your appliances. This will give you the number of hours of run time. However, you should also take into account the fact that some appliances, such as air conditioners, have a high startup wattage that can last for a few minutes. This high startup wattage can cause a temporary drain on your battery bank. To overcome this, you should try to minimize the use of appliances with high startup wattage during a power outage.
1000watt = 1 Kilowatt so draining 1kWh (1 Kilowatt per hour / 1000watt) from a 5.32kW battery will allow you to +- sustain that power draw for around 5 hours.
Another pitfall to consider is that the inverter’s efficiency can vary depending on the load, meaning that the inverter will use more power when running at full capacity than when running at a lower capacity. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the inverter you choose is efficient and runs at a high power factor.
Overall, when considering a backup power solution, it is important to consider not only the total power consumption, but also the duration of use and the potential impact of high-startup wattage appliances on your battery bank.
Use the chart below to calculate what your estimated power draw will be.
