The reliability of an inverter batteries is assessed by whether it can provide adequate back up (for the number of hours of a power outage) for your appliances chosen, as well as doing so at an economical cost. The cost can be controlled only when conversion losses are minimized. To arrive at the right choice, it is important to understand a few basics. Otherwise, you could get confused or misled by the dealer.

While it may be obvious, it is worth stating that inverters do not generate electricity. A diesel gen-set does, but then that consumes energy from diesel to generate power. An inverter, instead, consumes grid power (when the mains are on) to store electricity in batteries. Now that you have understood that there is power consumed in providing a power back-up, we look at how to minimize conversion losses.