Ellies inverter

Dairyfarmer said:
Just because it is 12V doesn't restrict it to one battery. You can link many 12V batteries, in parallel, to increase the Ah (storage) without changing the voltage.

The reason smaller inverters use 12V is cost (you only need one battery to start with, rather than a minimum of 2 for a 24V or 4 for a 48V system) and versatility (you can use it when camping and not have to have a 24V system in your car).

The other reason is the low draw on the battery. With a draw of 600W from a 12V/100Ah with 50% DoD you will get about 1 hour of usage (disregarding the efficiency of the inverter).

Edit:
600w with 100aH/12V battery will give 2 hours
You must never let the battery discharge below 50%, so that gives 1 hour
Modified sine wave inverters (typically used in smaller inverters) are only 75-85% efficient. At 80% you now have 48 minutes.
You generally don't use more than half the inverter rating so 300W will last you 1 hour and 36 minutes.
Your TV, media box / decoder and a few lights will quite comfortably run for over 2 hours.

If you plan to run at the full 600w then you need to add a second and even a third battery to be able to make it through load shedding. 3x100aH/12V, 600W, 50% DoD and 80% efficiency = 2 hours and 24 minutes.
The only other problem is small inverter systems have small battery chargers. So your batteries will take a long time to charge.
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I think what he meant is the wisdom of pulling 1000W off a 12V inverter looking at the current draw, that's why he suggested a 24V system. The advice was obviously based on false information though as I pointed out earlier.
 
PUP Backup said:
I see plenty of 12V UPS's being thrown out (or being used as door stops)
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People using them beyond their design. Many are due to running the batteries beyond 50% DoD. You suddenly go from an expected 500 cycles to less than 20 cycles. The cost per cycle is between 25 and 50 % DoD is not that great, but below 50% it grows exponentially higher.

Overloading is another cause. A 600W can do 1200W for a very short time (motor starting for example). And people tend to run there inverters at almost full capacity. You should rarely go past 50% capacity for long periods of time. You look at the load you want to run all the time and then get an inverter twice the size.
 
PUP Backup said:
I see plenty of 12V UPS's being thrown out (or being used as door stops)
I have a few here for anyone who wants to collect..
Remember that the design for these devices is targeting the US market which has a 120V grid voltage.
We have double that voltage so the inverter has to double the final voltage which you pay a price for with a 12V UPS with high battery current..
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Nothing wrong with 12V UPS's.

People are just too stupid to know they can change the batteries.
 
The_Traveller said:
Exactly, and it’s all about efficiency .

600w off a 24v system is the same as 300w off a 12v.
Click to expand...

I've got 1400w, 24V. Have to buy 2 batteries at a time which is 4K min everytime I want to add or extend. But currently I use around 200W. So a 12V would have been more than enough.
The nice thing is a have the option to run my computers, 3D printer, server TV, other PC's later on if I want to.
 
To check my assumptions I did a test on 2 x 12V (600VA) and 2 x 24V (1kVA) UPS's.
The load I used is 120W (2 x 820 ohm resistors in parallel)

With no load on the output:
The single battery units draw 0.7A from the battery
The dual battery units draw 1.0 A from the batteries

With the load connected:
The single battery units draw 17A from the battery
The dual battery units draw 8A from the batteries

And this is only for 20% of the claimed power capacity for the 12V UPS!
 
PUP Backup said:
To check my assumptions I did a test on 2 x 12V (600VA) and 2 x 24V (1kVA) UPS's.
The load I used is 120W (2 x 820 ohm resistors in parallel)

With no load on the output:
The single battery units draw 0.7A from the battery
The dual battery units draw 1.0 A from the batteries

With the load connected:
The single battery units draw 17A from the battery
The dual battery units draw 8A from the batteries

And this is only for 20% of the claimed power capacity for the 12V UPS!
Click to expand...
What were you proving with this experiment?
 
RedViking said:
Excellent.
View attachment 634470

When you see "LINE MODE" it means it is going to switch over to the batteries when power goes off.




When you see this:
View attachment 634474
It will switch off when the power goes off. You can also test this by hitting the wall switch/unplug. The unit will turn off.


So when you go to town, just make sure it does not show "LINE MODE". Then all will be cool and it won't switch over to batteries. You don't need to unplug anything.
Click to expand...

Please can you assist with a issue we have.

Our Line Mode shows 0.

And the moment the power goes off and when turn on the plugs we selected to use on the inverter, it goes to overload and give error code 1.
 
rustypup said:
Unplug the running fridge, aircon and tumble dryer.
Click to expand...


Thanks, we will try that.

My concern is the Line Mode that shows 0, I am almost sure it did display a number previously. We used it last week and all was well. Not sure what happened in-between.
 
MrsNell said:
Thanks, we will try that.

My concern is the Line Mode that shows 0, I am almost sure it did display a number previously. We used it last week and all was well. Not sure what happened in-between.
Click to expand...
What is connected to the inverter?
Repeated tripping due to overload will soon make sure you can't even switch on the lights and the TV.

0 means there is no incoming 230Vac and the inverter is drawing from the battery to create its own 230V.
 
Its pluged into the wall, to charge.

So when the power goes off, we switch the cables. And switch everything off on the db board and then only put on one cb that is only the tv and router. If we see any appliances also on, on that cd we will unplug them. Sometimes we do one cb that the lights is connected to.

Like I said, we used it last week with no issues and then yesterday this happened.
 
MrsNell said:
Its pluged into the wall, to charge.

So when the power goes off, we switch the cables. And switch everything off on the db board and then only put on one cb that is only the tv and router. If we see any appliances also on, on that cd we will unplug them. Sometimes we do one cb that the lights is connected to.

Like I said, we used it last week with no issues and then yesterday this happened.
Click to expand...

Something was plugged on that pushed it to overload. What happens when you use an extension cord to plug the TV and router directly onto the inverter?
 
thechamp said:
Something was plugged on that pushed it to overload. What happens when you use an extension cord to plug the TV and router directly onto the inverter?
Click to expand...

We will try that, but also I have a electrician coming to check our power later today. I will give feedback.

Thanks for the assistance.
 
My inverter and batteries are 17 months old (24v pure sine wave + 2 x 12v batteries). The charge indicator shows 100%, but immediately drops to 70% when it kicks in due to load shedding.
 
David DJ said:
My inverter and batteries are 17 months old (24v pure sine wave + 2 x 12v batteries). The charge indicator shows 100%, but immediately drops to 70% when it kicks in due to load shedding.
Click to expand...
How have you been looking after the batteries, ie; keeping them on float charge and only using 50%?
 
thechamp said:
Get a proper voltage display if it worries you.
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In other words, ignore the inverters' display? I was hoping for an explanation and cause. Could it be that it was 100% charged when online, but only showing 70% battery capacity when on battery?
 
David DJ said:
In other words, ignore the inverters' display? I was hoping for an explanation and cause. Could it be that it was 100% charged when online, but only showing 70% battery capacity when on battery?
Click to expand...

Don't ignore it but take it with a pinch of salt. There is no other explanation besides the fact that the manufacturer could not be bothered enough to install a proper voltage display.
 
thechamp said:
Don't ignore it but take it with a pinch of salt. There is no other explanation besides the fact that the manufacturer could not be bothered enough to install a proper voltage display.
Click to expand...
Ellies cheap chinese product? :crying:
 
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