There are many types, sizes, brands, and models of inverters and batteries. Choosing which ones are best to be used to accommodate your needs & budget can be overwhelming. There is no such thing the “best” inverter or battery for all purposes. What may be best for a house may not be what is best to be used in a caravan!

Many factors can be in play when selecting an inverter and batteries. Questions like – are these going to be used in conjunction with solar panels, must the inverter have a charger incorporated or will the batteries be charged independently as well as the type of equipment and appliances to be powered, will all make an impact when choosing an inverter and batteries.

E4Electrical is able to source and supply many different brands, types, sizes and makes of inverters and batteries to suit every need.

Some of the brands of inverters we can supply include the following:

• Victron
• Rentech
• Sungrow
• Luxpower
• Deye

 

 

There are three different types of inverter, classified in terms of their electrical wave form that they produce at 230volts AC. Each one of these will have its own “best-suited-to” applications. Below is a brief explanation of the three different types of inverter.

• Pure Sine Wave Inverter
  A sine wave is what you get from your local municipality (or ESKOM) power and from generators.  This is because the power is generated by rotating AC machinery and sine waves are a natural product of rotating AC machinery. The major advantage of a pure sine wave inverter is that ALL of the 230 volt AC equipment which is sold is designed for a sine wave. This guarantees that the equipment will work to its full specifications. Some appliances, such as those with motors, as well as microwave ovens will only produce full output with sine wave power. Some appliances, such as bread makers, light dimmers, will not work at all if there is no sine wave power driving it! An important thing to note here is that Pure Sine wave inverters are always more expensive than others – possibly as much as 2 to 3 times higher priced.
• Modified Sine Wave Inverter
  A modified sine wave inverter actually has a waveform more like a square wave, but with an extra step or so. A modified sine wave inverter will work fine with most equipment, although the efficiency or power will be reduced with some. Motors, such as refrigerator motor, pumps, fans etc will use more power from the inverter due to lower efficiency. Appliances with electronic timers and/or digital clocks will often not operate correctly. Many appliances get their timing from the line power – basically, they take the 60 Hz (cycles per second) and divide it down to 1 per second or whatever is needed.  Because the modified sine wave is noisier and rougher than a pure sine wave, clocks and timers may run faster or not work at all. Something like variable speed drills will only have two speeds – on and off.
• Square Wave Inverter
  There are very few of these in the market these days and when you can find them they are usually quite cheap. E4Electrical does NOT recommend the use of this type of inverter.

Investing in an inverter and proper batteries is not a decision that should be made in haste. There are many questions that you need to ask around your needs and a correctly matched solution needs to be selected.

The staff of E4Electrical are trained and are able to assist you in making the decision on which inverter and batteries to invest in, to suit your needs and budget. Please visit us or contact us so we can advise you further.

E4Electrical Knysna are able to supply a comprehensive range of cable and wire to suit a multitude of applications – the building industry, security, agricultural, commercial, industrial,automotive & even hifi and sound system requirements.

South Ocean Cables & Alvern Cables are the two primary manufacturer/suppliers to E4Electrical Knysna. Other, more specialised cabling is sourced from a number of other importers, manufacturers or suppliers.

Our basic stock range includes Domestic cables (Surfix, Flat Twin & Earth, General Purpose House Wires, Illumination cable), Equipment cables (Welding Cables, Panel flex), Flexible cables (Cabtyres, Ripcords, Special Ripcords and Silicone cables), and Power & Control cables (Submersible Pump cable, Communications cable, Co-Axial cable & Trailing cable).

If you have an enquiry on Cable & Wire, please click here.

1. LED lights are super energy efficient. This is probably the single biggest advantage that LED lighting offers, over the old incandescent and halogen type lighting. LED lamps use up to 90% LESS energy compared to those!

2. LED lights last longer than the traditional incandescent and halogen lamps. Their typical life expectancy is over 25 000 hours. If you  consider that an LED lamp may, on average, be used in a home for around 5 hours a day, then those lamps would last almost 14 years. Obviously, LED globes that are used in outdoor and security applications would be switched on for longer periods (all night) but even then, the life expectancy could be over 7 years.

3. Because LED lights use considerably less electricity and run on DC (direct current) power, it makes them the ideal option for use in solar powered lighting, the sometimes only choice you may have, for getting light to areas where there is no 230volt mains power. Take a closer look at these solar powered flood lights which are ideal for use anywhere you do not have mains power, or where it may be difficult to run power cables.

4. LED lights are safer to use as they seldom make use of glass anywhere on the lamps. Old fluorescent tubes are now replaced with LED tubes which are usually manufactured from plastic. LED lights do not contain any dangerous mercury and are, for the most part, pretty resilient, being able to handle vibration and certain levels of impact.

5. LED lighting is more robust than the old lamps and can better handle the power surging & power outages we experience.

6. As technology develops, more LED lamps are being manufactured to look almost the same as the old incandescent ones. LED lighting is being used in some very decorative lamps which are great for use in environments where a warm atmosphere needs to be created. These decorative LED lamps are perfect for  use in home and restaurants alike.

7. LED lighting has become so technically advanced, that many colour options are now available. The LED modules themselves are manufactured in predominantly warm white, cool white, natural white and daylight colour rendering, but they can also be supplied in red, blue, green, pink, yellow and even colour-changing! This makes it very easy to cater to specific light colours for any special project like landscaping, wall-washing and mood-setting.

There are LED lighting products available to suit any lighting needs you may have. Take a look at our product categories – if you don’t see what you’re looking for there, contact us and we can work personally with you.