For many people across India, a candle light dinner is still not a romantic dream; it is an uncomfortable fact of life. India’s power sector not only suffers from deficiency in power generation, but also sluggish growth in infrastructure, hampering the entire development process. For most businesses, it is critical to have an office power backup solution in place as a power outage means loss of revenue and potential sales. There is often a need for emergency power backup for critical appliances in offices such as computers, printers, scanners, switchboards, mobile phones, lighting, etc.
By Srabani Sen
Thursday May 20, 2010: Demand for commercial inverters mostly come from offices and commercial establishments, where inverters of 2.5 kVA capacity are required. This is called the ‘high capacity’ segment. Small offices typically require inverter with capacity of 450 VA and below, which is called the ‘bottom of pyramid’ segment.
The market size for inverters in India is approximately $649 million and is growing at a rate of 16-20 per cent. Currently, a major share of the market is being tapped mainly by the local manufacturers. Although the home market is driving the inverter growth in the country, contributing to nearly 78 per cent of the business, the market for commercial and industrial inverters is not left behind. While peak power shortage is growing, offices and industries have been invaded with a lot more electrical and electronic gadgets, devices, equipment, machines, etc, which need more power and 24×7 running capacity. While power shortage rules the day, especially during peak summers, sales of inverters has gone up sharply.
What’s new in the market?
Considering the buyers’ behaviour and market demand, companies are making their products more advance, cost efficient, user friendly and customised. India is a country of great diversity with needs and requirements changing at every 10 km. Manufacturers, therefore, need to cater to a vast variety of customers with different needs.
Based on technology, inverters are divided into three main categories:
• Sine wave inverters: These inverters are very common in the current market as they are useful for loads like fans, lights, TVs, computers, etc
• Square wave inverters: These inverters are slightly cheaper compared to sine wave inverters owing to steep decline in pricing of sine wave inverters. They can run any load but when connected to induction loads like fans, they make a lot of humming noise and so less preferred.
• Solar inverters: This is a new category that is coming up. Although not very popular due to high initial costs, they are promising since they offer greener and cleaner source of energy.
“APC plans to enhance its sine wave technology inverter range this summer and will launch new models soon,” says Gaurav Burman, director, transaction business, APC by Schneider, India.
The battery life of inverters is a vital factor for the smooth running of inverters. Typical life of a tubular battery, when periodically maintained, is three to four years, and for flooded flat plate battery, it is just two years.
Su-Kam Power Systems Ltd will offer two innovative products—Tornado, which is a fully customisable inverter based on field programmable gate array technology, and Blaze, a high frequency inverter, which, the company claims to have the highest efficiency in the market.
Best Power Equipment has launched Inverex, which is based on the latest generation inverting and charging technology. “It has the latest software, embedded microcontroller/DSP chip, enhanced N-channel MOSFET and fast charging capacity profile matching with battery charging profile. This enhances battery life and consumes less electricity,” points out Amitansu Sathpati, director, Best Power Equipment India.
According to Sree Kumar, director, sales and marketing, Convergence Power System, solar powered hybrid inverters are in focus this summer. Convergence is offering all types of inverters like domestic, industrial, sine wave, quasi sine wave and solar hybrid inverters, this summer season.
“DSP based, MOSFET based and IGBT based inverters will sell well this season. We will hit the market with our newly launched ‘Prima DX’ GPH-UPS with inbuilt SMF battery, and ‘Prithvi DX’ for air conditioners,” informs NK Verma, chairman, Parker Power. Uniline Energy Systems will also extend IGBT based user friendly inverters for ACs, lights and fans.
Alfatek Electronics expects its sine wave inverters to sell well. “These inverters with advanced technology not only protects the battery but also reduces frequency of water topping, enhancing the battery life,” says Firoz Hawaldar, managing director, Alfatek Electronics.
upsINVERTER.com’s inverter range this summer will include combo UPS, sine wave combo UPS and, high frequency sine wave combo UPS—Hi-Lite. “We have inverter solutions for every problem,” says Yogesh Dua, director, upsINVERTER.COM. “Though all our products are energy efficient, Hi-Lite is more efficient as it does not contain a heavy transformer. It uses half the electricity than that of its contemporaries, and has a smart feature of no load shutdown that saves battery backup. If there is no load on Hi-Lite and AC mains is not available, it will shut off itself and automatically restart when load is applied on it,” explains Dua.
Luminous will soon launch a special inverter for the rural market that can withstand longer power cuts. This inverter has been specifically designed keeping in mind longer power cuts. The inverter will charge battery faster as in rural area power supply is available for very limited time.
Samarth Power offers DSP based sine wave combo UPS. Its inverters are fitted with tubular batteries which has, five years guarantee.
Innovations rule the market
Today’s manufacturers are consumer centric and aim to make products more convenient and comfortable for the consumers. With technology advancing in a fast pace, customers are also demanding inverter solutions with advanced technology and are desiring the most feature packed products, doubling the competition in the market. Most innovations that are happening in inverters for offices are focused on increasing efficiency. This helps in saving power and the environment as well.
“A lot of innovations are taking place in inverters. Su-Kam’s new products will revolutionalise the industry,” says Venkat Rajaraman, CEO, Su-Kam Power Systems Ltd.
“Sine wave inverter is a major innovation through which a consumer gets pure power from Inverters. These inverters don’t make any humming noise and are suitable for sensitive appliances like music systems, washing machines, plasma TV, AC, etc. All high capacity inverters above 3 kVA are sine wave inverters and can run all high capacity appliances. These are now being used in petrol pumps, nursing homes, hospitals, data centres, etc,” states Rakesh Malhotra, founder and managing director, Luminous Power Technologies Pvt Ltd.
The latest in the market are of two major types—MOSFET based and IGBT based sine wave inverters. The innovative ones are those which are trasformer less units, smaller in size occupying less space and has faster changeover time—less than 10 minutes.
According to Sathpati, high power factor with reduced distortions and better efficiency with lowest possible downtime are some of the innovations that are taking place in inverters used for offices. “We offer full microcontroller/DSP controlled, pure sine wave inverters,” he adds.
Explains RK Bansal, managing director, Uniline Energy Systems, “Innovations are usually happening to make the inverters more user friendly and easy to operate by incorporating the displays. The new types of inverters can take care of high rate of discharge and high rate of charging for long hours of blackout.”
Hybrid inverters, industrial high capacity inverters, inverters with better charging algorithm are some other innovations that have taken place in inverters. “Solar inverters are slowly being adopted despite their high cost as a long term solution to greener power. Other innovations include increasing the inverter efficiency, better management of battery banks, etc,” informs Burman.
Says Dua, “Huge demand for inverters come from semi-urban and rural areas where power is poorly distributed and heavy voltage fluctuations are common. These areas need rugged inverters which can work efficiently in such conditions. Our inverters have been innovated and made rugged enough to work efficiently in such difficult conditions as well. These inverters are capable of charging batteries at wide input voltage range such as 90 volt to 285 volt.”
Technological changes
Technology is changing fast and inverter manufacturers have to keep pace with it as customers demand products with the latest technology. Until recently, local vendors were offering low end technology based inverters. However, with the advent of foreign brands, Indian consumers have now access to technology at par with global standards. Owing to this and considering the fragmented nature of the market, vendors are forced to follow a path of continuous innovation to control costs and offer better quality products to differentiate from competitors.
“Over the years, technologies changed from transistors to MOSFET and now from MOSFET to IGBT, analogue to digital, and microcontroller to DSP,” states Kumar. “IGBT technology replaces bulky iron core transformers with ferrite core smaller transformers, improving the efficiency and life of the inverters. UTL’s high frequency sine wave combo UPS has been made without using SMD components,” says Dua.
Rajaraman points out that technological changes are mostly three fold—first, improving the efficiency of the inverters so that power consumption is lesser and consumers get back their invested money by way of lesser electricity bills; second, improving the charging technology so that life of the battery is extended. This is a key feature as a good technology would provide 100 per cent pure DC charging and can adjust the charging current based on various battery parameters like battery capacity, battery temperature, etc. Third, providing customisable features that make inverters easy to customised.
Advanced technology is also making inverters smaller in sizes. Every season manufacturers vie with each other to come up with something new. “Luminous inverter is the only inverter in the market which is made with surface mount technology. Through this technology, a small chip has been incorporated inside the inverter that works as the brain of the inverter and controls all functions,” states Malhotra. Technology has also made the charging profile of inverters match with the battery charging profile, making battery life longer.
Says Hawaldar, “Inverters now come with cold start capability and has overload and short circuit protection with auto reset. These inverters are also capable of synchronised changeover and has inbuilt intelligent fan controller. It also has user friendly graphical alerts as well.
User friendly features
Inverter systems are now very user friendly which are fully automatic with digital display meters for users to see the parameters and function displays. Inverters with one touch switch that does all settings and configurations are quite popular. In fact, after installation of these inverters, users can just relax. These units are also noise and pollution free. “Our systems come with graphical display and some with LCD displays,” says Verma.
Rajaraman explains that users want mass products uniquely customised to their specific needs. They want the product to come with paper less warranty. Most of the time, they can’t find the warranty papers when they need them and they don’t want to get bothered with it when the product needs service. The capacity of the battery varies with the user’s backup time needs. Typically it varies from 100 AH to 200 AH. They need inverters that can automatically sense the battery capacity so that the charging current can be adjusted accordingly, which in turn, can maximise the battery life and give maximum backup time. Users would also like to know the state of health of the batteries so that they have upfront information about the condition of their batteries even before the need comes for replacing the batteries. All these features are incorporated in Su-Kam’s latest inverters.
APC inverters offer quite a few user friendly features—home/away switch that can help the user to switch off the output leaving the input power to the inverter on. This feature is particularly useful when the user is away from home for some days and does not want his battery to get discharged.
Another great feature is the inverter/UPS switch which allows the user to select the output voltage based on the equipments that he wants to run. If the product is in the UPS mode, the user can run sensitive electronics such as a PC, while he can choose the inverter mode to power up fans and lights. “There are many advanced safety features and inbuilt pro-active alerts that makes the unit extremely user friendly,” says Burman
“UTL’s Hi-Lite high frequency sine wave combo UPS can be operated and managed just with a push of a button. The LED lights operates automatically with each press of the button. The same button is used for fast or slow charging as well,” explains Dua.
Samarth Power inverters charges the battery optimally as per its charging requirement at any given point of time. The LCD model can display load percentage, power voltage and battery status. They also indicate short circuit protection and return phase protection.
Power saving features
Inverters are now more efficient, resulting in low power consumption, which means cost saving. In case batteries are fully charged, the system cuts off automatically, explains Bansal. According to Hawaldar, sine wave inverters are 40 per cent more energy efficient as compared to square wave inverters, and saves 70 per cent of electricity charging.
Highlighting on the power saving features, Rajaraman explains, “One important power saving feature is the charging algorithm, a newly patented algorithm which reduces the power consumed during the ‘float charge’ conditions. These inverters are also transformer less, which provides high efficiency. These features are found in Su-Kam inverters.
Some power saving features found in Luminous inverters are smart charge technology that ensures faster battery charging and intelligent continuous profile adjustment. This means that Luminous inverters charge battery as per the charge requirement of the battery, which saves power and increases the life of the battery. These inverters have advanced battery management, which enhances battery life up to 70 per cent.
Says Dua, “High efficiency in DC to AC and AC to DC conversion, no load shutdown, optimised battery charging management, and low internal power consumption in parts like cooling fan, display, etc are features that help in saving power.”
Some other power saving features are fuzzy logic, which converts DC to AC very efficiently; fuzy logic charger, which controls charging management, autosleep mode, etc.
Kumar says, “The fuzzy logic technology makes sure of less power drainage during charging. The high quality transformer designs also ensure low no load current.”
APC inverters are equipped with features like three stage battery charging that help in charging the batteries faster and better, thereby saving a lot of power. The home/away switch also ensures the battery does not discharge power creating unnecessary energy wastage “Samarth Power inverters are loaded with intelligent features to save power and maintain battery efficiency. In case of no power failure for five-six days, these inverters cut battery charging to save energy. In case of frequent power cuts, it adjusts competently to provide optimum battery charging. Thus, they not only save power but also increase the life of the batteries, says Ravindra Kurhe, partner, Samarth Power. when the user is away from home.
Buyers’ requirements
Earlier, consumers used to buy inverters for their lighting needs. But now their need has increased many fold and inverters are expected to power up loads like LCD TVs, PCs, audio systems, fax machines and other devices used in offices. This has led to preferences for units with higher VA point ratings, says Burman. “Buyers usually demand low cost but reliable and user friendly product,” states Bansal. “For commercial use, anything above 3 kVA is required as the power backup requirement is more and is required for longer backup time also,” says Malhotra.
States Rajaraman, “Buyers are becoming more technology savvy. They understand the importance of efficiency, advantages of pure sine wave inverter, etc. They are also moving away from unbranded names. They want inverters with good aesthetic design that can be kept in their living room.” Agrees Hawaldar, “Today, buyers are intelligent and look for superior products at reasonable prices.” Adds Dua, “Buyers look for inverters that are rugged, energy efficient, competitively priced, compatible with different appliances safe to use and portable.”
Buying tips
Before buying an inverter one should keep the following points in mind:
• One should always buy a branded inverter rather a cheap inverter. This can lead to risk
• Make sure to gauge your power needs against the capacity of the inverter
• Buy an inverter that conforms to your power needs. If your power requirement is minimal and you buy a large inverter, the efficiency will be low
• The inverter should provide protections against overload or excessive heating
• Always buy an inverter through a reputed dealer
• Understand the features before buying an inverter
• Your buying decision should not be judged by the cost. Some products may seem to be attractive due to low price, but it will turn to be expensive if a quality inverter is not chosen
• Be sure of the after sales service support given by the brand
• Judge the inverter against the intended applications
• Look at the efficiency of the inverter and also check if the inverter can work with all types of batteries such as VRLA, flooded, tubular, etc
• Check the track record of the company and past performance of the product, don’t go by the best advertisements
• Look for inverters that require low maintenance and help increase the life of batteries
Electronics Bazaar, South Asia’s No.1 Electronics B2B magazine
