Using a Power inverter in Nigeria

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Posted by Felix Okoli on Monday November 23, 2015 at 13:22:29:

For over 20 years since the 1990s, Nigerians have long understood that there should never expect power always since the National Electric Power company of Nigeria(NEPA) now known as the Power Holding Company of Nigeria(PHCN) has not been able to meet the nation's electricity demands as at 2015 and what many Nigerians rather are used to is power rationing or load shedding which is a situation in which electrical power is supplied to people on a time shared basis such as 1 to 3 or 6 hrs a day.

As at 2013, Nigeria's former Minister of Power, Professor Nebo Chinedu was reported to have said that Nigeria needs at least 200,000 MW of electricity to meet the nation's demand but as at that same year, electricity generation by the PHCN still stood at less than 5000 MW. It means that Nigerians

Most Nigerians have long been used to finding alternative means of generating electricity and their most commonly used device for doing that are electro-mechanical power generators. The problem with such power generators is that they use fossil fuels, generate a lot of noise and release poisonous gases to the immediate environment of the user. Smart Nigerians are now making use of power inverters and deep cycle batteries to bridge the gap between the supply and their demand for electricity.

What really are Power Inverters? Power inverters are basically electronic devices that can convert the electric energy stored in DC form in Deep cycle batteries to Alternating current which is in a form more suitable for most home and office appliances.

One of the main reasons why I love Power inverters is that they don't make noise as much as electric power generators which most Nigerians use although you might just hear a humming sound which would be negligible unlike the one made by electromechanical generators. This is because Power inverters don't operate mechanically as they don't have move-able parts like conventional power generators do.

A Power inverter system would store electrical energy when it is supplied from the Power company such as during a load shedding period so that you'd be able to use it when there is a blackout in your area and this is common in Nigeria. Always being prepared for a black out or power cut is something most Nigerians are used to because it has become a Nigerian factor. Electrical supply in this part of the world is not yet reliable and so a power inverter system with a battery is a good backup plan Nigerians can use to stay prepared.

Imagine that you are watching an entertaining show or news on your TV and suddenly or without any warning, the electricity just goes off. Well, this is regular in Nigeria and smart Nigerians are now aware that they can make use of inverters to keep that TV or electrical device powered on irrespective of whether the PHCN or NEPA keeps supplying them with light.

Power inverters and their batteries do not only rely on electricity from the grid such as the one supplied by PHCN to work by storing energy but they can also be powered by Solar energy as well as electro-mechanical power generators. Yes, even when there is no power from NEPA and your inverter power system is not charged enough, you can still juice it up using a Solar power system as long as there is sunlight.

For powering your inverter with Solar energy, you'd just need to include Solar panels and a charge controller by connecting them to a switch that your Inverter's Deep cycle battery can be connected or plugged into so that get charged up without having to rely solely on the electrical grid. For powering it with a generator, you just need to connect the output power of the generator to a switch that your power inverter and batter can be plugged into other than the grid or Solar energy power output.

Who really needs and inverter? Well, first and foremost, if you live in a place or country where electricity supply is not available for 24 hrs of the day, then a power inverter system would be right for you so that you can have power for up to 24 hrs of a day. If you also live in an isolated place where there is no connection at all to a local or national power grid but has enough solar energy from the sun, a power inverter system would also be right for you unless you just want to live without electricity.

Inverters are good for powering small and less energy demanding devices like bulbs, computers, TVs, radios, printers, refrigerators and so on. The only thing is that the more power your device draws, the more likely that you are going to need a higher grade of inverter and battery system and hence that would cost you more. At times it may just be cheaper to buy a power generator than an inverter such as when you are operating a large factory but if you just want to power an office or home that has little equipment with stationary devices, an inverter system is recommended.

How much power can a Power inverter really provide?
It mostly depends on what type of inverter you are using and the capacity of the batteries that it's using. This would first of all depend on your power needs.

Let's assume that you need to have about 600 Watts of electricity everyday to power 2 TVs set(300 Watts), a Decoder(20 Watts), DVD player(20 Watts), 3 Electric Fan(180 Watts), a laptop(20 Watts) and 3 low energy light bulbs(60 Watts).

The next thing you should calculate is the actual power the Power inverter can supply to meet your demand while at the same time allowing for a bit of inefficiency. Let's assume that the inverter has an efficiency of 80% or 0.8 and is required to provide a power of 600 Watts, then the VA => Power/Power Factor => 600/0.8 => 750 VA. This means that we need an inverter with about 750 VA specification. The next step is to find out what type of battery we should use with such an Inverter.

What type of battery do we use?
It's definitely going to be a Deep cycle battery and not a car battery since we need a battery can can survive been discharged up to a low value and can work well with an inverter. It's easy to find the battery type and capacity using the calculation we already have above while also considering how long we intend to use the battery.

Let's assume that we want to use a 12 Volt battery that would be able to provide that 600 Watts for up to 4 hrs through the inverter then we can use this formula =>

Battery capacity(Ah) = Watt*hrs/Volts

Ah = 600*4/12 => 200 Ah

So, from the calculation we can see that a 200 Ah 12V deep cycle battery can do the work. If you need more power supply per hour such as 300 Ah and higher, then you just need to connect more batteries of the same type in parallel to increase the Amperage-Hour(Ah).

If you are using a higher capacity inverter like a 1.2KVA, then you'd need more 12 V batteries connected in parallel and I think 2 200 Ah batteries would be ok for that.

How are inverters installed?
Some retailers sell complete inverter systems with helpful installation guides that make it easy for you to install them yourself at home and it has to be placed in a place where there is enough ventilation and away from people and kids. It shouldn't be in the same place as you sleep but close to the exterior of your home or office. Inverters generate some heat and emit small gases while in operation. It should be first plugged into a wall socket that connects it to your grid for up to 24 hrs before use so that your battery would be fully charged before use and hence last longer. It's advisable that the battery and inverter are placed on a platform or rack that elevates it a bit from the ground in a well ventilated environment. If you don't know how to install it or would rather not want to bother yourself about it, the seller can do that for you and you'd probably pay and extra fee for it.

What is the price of getting an Inverter power system in Nigeria?

Inverters come in different prices and brands but what determines their prices includes the quality, warranty period, capacity and country of origin. As at 2014, Inverters were not made in Nigeria and were mostly imported from countries in the Middle East, Europe and North America. The North American brands are more expensive while the Asian or Middle Eastern brands are among the cheapest.

As at November 2015, here is a list of prices of some Inverters I've seen in the market:

- Falcon 800 VA inverter sold for N36500
- Sinergy 875VA 12V Pure Sinewave Inverter sold for N29,000
- Luminous 875VA 12V Bravoe Inverter soldfor N30,000
- Nexus 12V Pure Sine wave Inverter sold for N38,000
- Binatone 3.5kVA/48V Inverter with Built in AVR sold for N110,000

The higher the VA value, the more it costs and so a 2KVA inverter for instance would cost more than a 900VA or 1KVA inverter.

Battery Prices:
Since Inverters also need Deep cycle batteries to store power, here are prices of some inverter batteries as a November 2015:

- Sinergy 200AH 12V Inverter battery for N69550
- Luminous 200AH 12V SMF Inverter battery for N58800
- SuKam 12V/200Ah inverter battery sold for N57,500

If you are living in Nigeria and want to have an uninterrupted power supply, then you need to invest in an inverter power system to keep your electronic devices online so that you'd be able to enjoy electricity even when the power company is unable to supply it.

Does using an inverter increase your electricity bill? Well, I think yes if you are billed on a pay as you use basis because an inverter system basically uses electricity power supplied from the grid to store energy for later use. So, if you are using a prepaid meter for instance, you are ultimately going to spend more money to buy meter units or tokens but if you are still on post paid estimated billing which is the old system many Nigerian still use, you are probably going to keep paying a flat bill irrespective of how many hours you recharge your inverter battery. You can however reduce the electricity usage of your inverter by simply powering it with Solar energy using solar panels.

An inverter basically helps to store electricity when it is available into a battery so that when it goes off, you can still use it to power your stuff. It works like an electricity bank than won't fail you like NEPA does and the more money you invest in it in terms of batteries and inverters, the longer it can serve you in terms of hours. Some Nigerians use their inverter for up to 24 hrs while some use it for just 4 hrs. It basically depends on how many batteries you have connected to it and the capacity of the inverter.

Comments:
Re: Using a Power inverter in Nigeria Posted by Yakubu on Tuesday November 24, 2015 at 3:30:23:

How about the solar Panels. How are they roamed? How many Panels will be required for a 1.2KVA inverter if your load is about 600watts and you want at least 6 hrs usage after sunset.

Thank you

Re: Using a Power inverter in Nigeria Posted by Felix Okoli on Tuesday November 24, 2015 at 3:30:23:

Yakubu, a 900 or 1200 Watt Solar panel can do the job for you as long as it receives at least 4 hrs of sunlight daily. This is if you actually use 600 Watts daily.