Hi guys, 

We just had a 5kva inverter installed... Everything is on it except the geysers, pool pump and oven. 

We're aware that we're not supposed to turn on high power consuming appliances like the kettle, toaster, etc,. But we mistakenly used the airfryer for 15min while the inverter was on, not realising it was loadshedding. 

Nothing happened though as the inverter continued to work for the duration of loadshedding after using the airfryer. 

So my question is, although no errors occurred and no overload alarm went off, did or could the airfryer do any lasting damage to the battery? 

 

2 hours ago, Pops said:

Hi guys, 

We just had a 5kva inverter installed... Everything is on it except the geysers, pool pump and oven. 

We're aware that we're not supposed to turn on high power consuming appliances like the kettle, toaster, etc,. But we mistakenly used the airfryer for 15min while the inverter was on, not realising it was loadshedding. 

Nothing happened though as the inverter continued to work for the duration of loadshedding after using the airfryer. 

So my question is, although no errors occurred and no overload alarm went off, did or could the airfryer do any lasting damage to the battery? 

 

Hi @Pops your airfryer is inverter-friendly, and so is fridge, poolpump, angle grinder, lawn mower, hair dryer, electric guitar, chainsaw, jumping castle. The important thing is learning the power consumption of each appliance, and make sure the agregate power does not go beyond the kW rating of your inverter. If it does the inverter will protect itself by switching off, that does mean not it has failed, it will reset again if load is lower again. 

Edited January 8, 20232 yr by BritishRacingGreen

2 hours ago, Pops said:

We're aware that we're not supposed to turn on high power consuming appliances like the kettle, toaster, etc

"high power" is relative.
Your Inverter has a kW rating. Your appliances use a percentage of that. As long as whatever you use doesn't exceed the inverters rated output capacity, you are good to go.
I am running off grid and I use my 3kW geyser element everyday as long as I have enough solar input to cover the usage. That still leaves me with 2kW spare.
It's all about managing the higher powered appliances sequentially to maximise the available energy within the Inverter limits.
 

48 minutes ago, BritishRacingGreen said:

Hi @Pops. If it does the inverter will protect itself by switching off, that does mean not it has failed, it will reset again if load is lower again. 

It might be inverter specific. Some will not self reset and you have to press the thermal overload button to reset once tripped. 

On 2023/01/08 at 6:48 PM, Pops said:

Hi guys, 

We just had a 5kva inverter installed... Everything is on it except the geysers, pool pump and oven. 

We're aware that we're not supposed to turn on high power consuming appliances like the kettle, toaster, etc,. But we mistakenly used the airfryer for 15min while the inverter was on, not realising it was loadshedding. 

Nothing happened though as the inverter continued to work for the duration of loadshedding after using the airfryer. 

So my question is, although no errors occurred and no overload alarm went off, did or could the airfryer do any lasting damage to the battery? 

 

I just had a 3kw Growatt inverter installed - according to the installer it may run microwave, air fryer, fridge, freezer etc but will run the battery charge down quicker... please note that all the above is for a worst case scenario... not all appliances on all at the same time

On 2023/01/09 at 2:47 AM, BritishRacingGreen said:

Hi @Pops your airfryer is inverter-friendly, and so is fridge, poolpump, angle grinder, lawn mower, hair dryer, electric guitar, chainsaw, jumping castle. The important thing is learning the power consumption of each appliance, and make sure the agregate power does not go beyond the kW rating of your inverter. If it does the inverter will protect itself by switching off, that does mean not it has failed, it will reset again if load is lower again. 

Mostly

Inductive current can exceed the load-rating you think a device is supposed to have and Trip the inverter

Had a client that always had trips when their old central aircon came on - even though the rated current was below their aggregate limit,the inrush when it switched on was about Double

Edited May 22, 2024May 22 by PsyWulf

2 hours ago, shahzaz said:

I just had a 3kw Growatt inverter installed - according to the installer it may run microwave, air fryer, fridge, freezer etc but will run the battery charge down quicker... please note that all the above is for a worst case scenario... not all appliances on all at the same time

 

Air fryers are fine but pay attention to the label: my old one was rated at 1.5kW; my newer (larger) one is 2.5kW.

On a 3kW inverter you'd want to lean towards the lower-rated models to prevent tripping.

 

2 hours ago, PsyWulf said:

Mostly

Inductive current can exceed the load-rating you think a device is supposed to have and Trip the inverter

Had a client that always had trips when their old central aircon came on - even though the rated current was below their aggregate limit,the inrush when it switched on was about Double

Inductive loads can be killer: my (non-VSD) pool pump spikes at nearly triple it's current rating on startup!

Edited May 22, 2024May 22 by JayMardern

I had 3 kw 24v inverter for years and used kettles , microwave , toasters , hair dryers, with out issues . 

It's more down to what battery's you using .

Gels will suffer with high loads .

Most lithium can handle up to 100amp loads some 50amp but the BMS will cut the power so protecting the cells from overloads . 

You have 5 kw inverter around 51v so amps draw from battery's is half the 3kw 24v inverters at the same Wats load so don't think you have anything to worry about on your 5kw if you using lithium with discharge max rating is 100amp .

 

Edited May 23, 2024May 23 by GMAC

On 2024/05/22 at 1:17 PM, PsyWulf said:

Had a client that always had trips when their old central aircon came on - even though the rated current was below their aggregate limit

Most of these appliances are driven by induction motors. By nature these motors draw up to 5 times rated current for startup if the terminal voltage is maintained. If you measure less it's due to voltage drop in the feeding line caused by the high current. This applies also to fridges and freezers.

1 hour ago, Beat said:

Most of these appliances are driven by induction motors. By nature these motors draw up to 5 times rated current for startup if the terminal voltage is maintained. If you measure less it's due to voltage drop in the feeding line caused by the high current. This applies also to fridges and freezers.

Luckily the air fryer is a mostly resistive load so no need to allow a x times starting current. 

My 1.5kW uses 1.52kW from switch on through the on period.(DC measurement) I have not checked what the duty cycle is while in use. The 59A is handled by my 24V batteries but due to the long on time we never use it during LS. Average on time for air fryer is about 25min. About 625Wh.

The microwave drawing 41A we use a lot during LS but that's never longer than 6min. About 114Wh.