Going green can be seen as a move towards cutting costs and reducing environmental pollution; however, the whole move can end up being an exercise in futility if you do not understand the concept of power management, and also if you do not understand the concept of having power-saving appliances. This is because the absence of a good power management plan would definitely make your solar inverter setup feel very inadequate.
Having said all that, if you don’t know how to identify power-saving appliances for solar setups, then you should stick with us until the end, as we will run through a list of home appliances that aren’t power-hungry and also show you how to identify them.
The first on our list are inverter Air conditioners and Inverter Refrigerators.
1. Inverter Air Conditioners and Refrigerators
The challenge with regular Air conditioners and refrigerators is basically how their compressors work. Regular compressors run at full power when they function, and after they have reached the needed temperature, they shut off and then turn back on when there’s a drop in temperature. This frequent cycling off and on by these regular compressors results in a combination of startup power surges that can go up to 3 times the normal operating power.
On the other hand, the inverter compressors on Inverter Air conditioners and refrigerators are better at power saving, and this is because they offer variable speeds to meet cooling demands without having to turn on and off, which in turn eliminates the incessant start-up power surges seen on regular compressors.
2. Inverter Washing Machine
Similar to how we have inverter compressors on Inverter Refrigerators and Air Conditioners, there are also inverter washing machines that run on Inverter motors. These Inverter motors offer variable speed.
They measure the weight of the load inside it, and then proceed to proffer the amount of power or speed needed to wash the clothes. By doing this, Inverter washing machines are able to use less power and operate quietly with reduced noise, which is unlike the regular washing machines, which run on a fixed speed regardless of the amount of clothes.
3. Low-Powered Pressing Iron
Pressing Irons are legit one of the most power-demanding appliances out there. The situation with them is so bad that you would hear many solar technicians advise against the use of pressing irons on your solar inverter setups, as you can find some pressing irons rated above 1,200 watts. But the good news is that there’s actually a back door you can explore.
There may not be any inverters here, but there are low-powered pressing irons that you can tag as solar-inverter-friendly. These pressing irons can go as low as 300W and below, which is about four times lower than the wattage of a regular pressing Iron. Having this kind of pressing iron means you don’t have to bother much about huge power drains and inverter stress when having your clothes pressed.
You can also move further towards having DC pressing irons that you can connect directly to your DC source, without having to worry about the Pressing Iron putting a strain on your battery.
4. Fan
This one is very simple, as the logic here is to go for electric fans that consume very low power when compared to the size of your battery bank in your setup. For knowledge’s sake, there are even fans that consume as low as 25W. Such fans consume less and require less power to hit maximum speed.
You can check the body of the fan or ask the seller to inquire about the wattage of the fan. Side Note: You could also use a watt meter to correctly ascertain the wattage consumed by the electric fan.
Summing Everything Up With Special Advice
Taking a careful observation with the information already passed, you can infer that the key to finding the best appliances for your solar inverter setup is to take cognizance of their mode of operation, and also the power they consume, get the appliance with the lowest power cosumption and make sure you get appliances whose power consumption is very insignificant when compared to the total size of your battery bank. For example, if the size of your battery bank is 2500W, then it goes without saying that a 25W load won’t be a huge strain.
Away from power consumption and mode operation, there are also habits solar inverter users can imbibe. One of which is to run heavier loads during the day when the sun is at its peak; this way, you can minimize the effect of these loads on your battery, and also, with the same move, have enough power reserved for the evenings when the sun will be out.
Another habit you should imbibe is unplugging appliances from outlets after they have been turned off. This is because there are actually appliances that consume power when they are turned off. These types of appliances are called phantom load, and examples of such appliances include TVs, computers, MicroWave ovens, etcetera.
Final Words
Hope you found this content to be very insightful, and most importantly, I hope you have learnt how to identify the best power-saving appliances for solar inverter setups and have also learnt about good power-saving habits. And I hope you imbibe them. Thanks.
