If you are thinking of using your low power home inverter for running your air conditioner then you are mistaken. You need a high power inverter that can deliver power in kVa and will easily handle the load of your AC.
What is Inverter?
Inverter is a type of electronic device that converts DC current into AC current.
DC: Direct Current
AC: Alternating Current
Your home gets AC current supply for running various appliances.
Inverter is useful when the power supply goes OFF.
“Inverter” is used with “batteries”.
These batteries supply DC current.
To use this current for your appliance you need an AC current.
The inverter converts this DC current into AC.
Be it a fan, LED bulb, TV, or other low power devices it can handle the load easily.
Will your Home Inverter be sufficient for running your AC?
Home inverters are designed to handle loads of “low” power devices like a bulb, fan, etc.
The power or capacity of an inverter is measured in wattage(W) or VA.
Let’s see the wattage or power needs of few home electronic devices
Fan = 60
LED Bulb = 10
TV = 100
Note: The above values are assumed average. Your home device’s power can vary.
If you want to run a single fan then you will need an inverter with
60 ÷ 0.8 = 75 VA
The 0.8 value is here because there is a certain power loss with electronic devices.
So you will need an inverter with a 75 Volt-Ampere(VA) rating.
What about your Air conditioner?
Assuming you have a “1-ton” air conditioner.
Then the load here is,
1 ton = 3.5 kilo-watts(kW)
You will need an inverter with rating,
3.5 ÷ 0.8 = 4.37 kVA
You need an inverter with a rating of 4.37 kVA or higher.
Compare this rating with the previous rating calculated for a single fan.
Notice the “k”.
It stands for kilo.
There is a difference of 1000 times for a fan and an air conditioner power rating.
Now you can see that your home inverter cannot run your air conditioner.
An air conditioner is a high load appliance and you need an inverter that can handle high load appliances.
Can Inverter AC run on Inverter?
Whether you have inverter AC or normal AC.
Both can run from inverter power assuming the inverter along with the batteries is sufficient enough to power the air conditioner load.
The capacity calculation for the inverter will be the same as in the previous section.
You need the air conditioner tonnage to calculate the capacity of the inverter.
Can 1.5 ton AC run on Inverter?
A 1.5 ton AC can run from inverter power assuming the inverter is of capacity 5 kW or 6.5-7 kVA.
Lower than that will not be sufficient for running a heavy load appliance like an AC.
You will also need several battery packs that will be used with the inverter.
The cost of such a high power inverter along with many batteries will be high.
This amount can go even higher than the actual cost of your AC.
