In a solar power system, the inverter draws power from a battery bank to run the appliances. So when you have a 3000 watt inverter, How many batteries will you need for your inverter battery bank? The answer to your question is not that difficult to answer and we have made this post to guide you to choose the correct battery size for your 3000watt inverter. Keep on reading to get the full knowledge on how you can even calculate the battery size to suit your appliances.
150ah, 12v, or 200ah, 24v battery can run your 3000 watts inverter but how long will it run the load is another thing to consider. 150ah, 24v battery will give you a capacity of 3600 watts that can run the inverter on a full load for an hour or less. While 200ah, 24v will give a capacity of 4800 watts which can run the inverter over an hour on full load.
We still have the efficiency of the inverter to consider, the depth of discharge of a battery, and the current capacity to get our accurate size of the battery for our 3000-watt inverter. Those factors will be discussed later in this article but before them let’s look at how to calculate the battery requirements for the 3000-watt inverter.
How to calculate the battery requirements for a 3000-watt inverter.
We use 24V battery for illustration in this article because most 3000watt inverter comes in 24V. But that doesn’t mean we can get a 3000-watt inverter with 12V.
multiplying watts by battery voltage will gave you the Amp-ho needed to run the inverter on a full load.
let’s say you want to go for a 12V battery for your 300watts,12V inverter.
3000W / 12V = 250ah.
So, 12V 250ah battery will run 3000watts inverter on a full load for an hour or less, depending on the efficiency of the inverter and the % of DOD of the battery.
When the inverter is a 24V inverter, we still use the same methods to calculate only that we will change the voltage to 24V.
3000W / 24V = 125ah.
So for a 3000watts, 24V inverter. 125ah, 24 volts will run the inverter on a full load for an hour or less.
If you can’t find the 24V battery to use you can connect two 12V batteries in a series to give you a 24V battery.
Now that we have known the minimum batteries needed to run our inverters, is time to consider the duration If time of can last. Because I know most of us would like to run our inverter for like 5 – 6 hours daily. So let see how long the battery will last on 3000watts inverter.
How long will batteries last on a 3000watts inverter.
Here we will calculate and design the numbers of batteries or watts of battery to last as we want instead of only running for an hour.
Inverter Power load (watts) × Runtime (hours) = Required amp hour(Ah).
Let’s for instance, you want to run a load of 1500 watts for 4 hours on your 3000watts inverter. This is how you determine the battery size to use. Using the above formula,
1500W × 4hr = 6000 watts.
So you need a 6000watts battery to run your 1500watts load for 4 hours. Now we convert the 6000 watts to Ah to choose the appropriate battery because batteries are rated in Ah.
6000W / 12V = 500Ah.
6000W / 24V = 250Ah.
To run the 1500-watt load for 4hr, when using a 12V inverter you need a 500Ah,12V battery. And if the inverter is 24V you will need a 250Ah,24v battery.
It might be difficult to get a 500Ah,12V battery in the market. But a combination of a five 100ah battery in parallel will give you 500Ah, 12V battery bank. These go with 250Ah, 24V battery. Check the link to see how you can connect your batteries.
Those estimate is the minimum required battery to use. So when running the inverter with these load, it will keep the battery in full discharge which is not ideal for deep cycle batteries. Because they can only discharge 50% level.
So doubling the estimated battery will be ideal for your system because of the battery Depth of discharge (DOD) and the inverter efficiency. Instead of 500ah, 12v you go for 1000ah,12V for 12V, 3000W inverter. And 500Ah, 24V battery instead of 250ah, 24V for 24V 3000W inverter
Does inverter Efficiency matter in battery consumption.
Yes, the efficiency of the inverter matters a lot about the inverter battery consumption. This is because the inverter is responsible for converting DC to Ac and during this process, there are loss of energy. So the higher the efficiency of the inverter the less energy ot consume.
A good inverter efficiency should be around 90% to 95% for new ones and 80% for other ones. Anything less than that won’t give you a good result. So take note when purchasing an inverter to go for a high efficient ones. The question now is how do I calculate for the efficiency of the inverter.
How to calculate the efficiency of 3000 watts inverter?
Only in the Ideal state can 3000 watts inverter generate 3000 Watts per hour. But is unfortunate that the ideal state does not exist in real life.
When we say the efficiency of a 3000-watt inverter is 95% efficient, what it means is that the inverter can deliver 2850 watts after conversation from DC to AC.
3000W × 0.95 = 2850W.
So as you can see from the calculation the 3000watts inverter will not be able to give out 3000watts an hour. But the 2850 watt from a 3000watts inverter is a good one we can go with.
Will 3000 watts inverter be enough to run my appliance.
3000 watts inverter is enough to run most of your home appliances but on the other hand, it depends on your appliances. The watts and how long you wish to run them at a time. So good to check out what 3000watts inverter can run and how long it can run them.
What type of batteries can I use for 3000 watts inverter.
You can make use of lead-acid batteries, deep cycles batteries, marine batteries or Lithium Ion batteries. But in all I recommend lithium ion batteries because it has a good depth of discharge.
Lithium ion batteries might be expensive to others but is best for solar power bank.
tips to check out when going for a 3000-watt inverter.
- Review your energy consumption per month: You are expected to know your monthly electricity bill, list of the watts of your appliances you want to be running on the inverter. How long you would like to run the loads daily.
- Plan ahead. will 3000watts inverter be enough for your appliances. When you already know the total energy you consume, use it to determine the right size of inverter to for.
- Choose the battery type to use. Most of the inverter comes in 12V or 24V. But when it comes to 3000watts inverter they are mostly designed to run a 24V. You might not be able to find a 24V battery in the market. You can make use of 12-volt batteries by connecting in series or parallel to achieve your aim.
- Consider the efficiency of the inverter. When choosing for an inverter to buy, go for inverter with efficiency greater than 85% for a better result.
- Avoid running the inverter at its peak. Just as we demonstrated before, 3000 watts inverter can’t run 3000 watts load per hour because of inefficient. So trying to run the inverter at its peak can cause an inverter overload fault. Consider going for higher higher-capacity inverter instead of running the inverter on a full load.
conclusion.
Is not always about having a high-capacity inverter system like 3000 watts inverter. Is about knowing the number of batteries to use it with to make them function effectively. So study the article well and find out the capacity of the battery to make use of. Always remember not to run your inverter at a full load.
I believe the article helps you determine the number of batteries, for your 3000 watts inverter.
