Solar & battery
Solar Inverter Battery Calculator
Match a hybrid inverter to a battery and the loads it has to carry during an outage.
Result
Three separate limits have to be satisfied and they are often confused: the inverter's continuous rating carries the load, its surge rating starts motors, and the battery's charge rate controls how fast it refills. A large battery on a small inverter still trips when the well pump starts.
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About this calculator
Why does a big battery not solve a tripping inverter?
Because the inverter is the bottleneck for power, not energy. Capacity determines how long you run; the inverter rating determines what you can run at all.
What limits recharge speed?
Whichever is smaller: the battery's accepted charge rate or what the array can produce at that moment. On a cloudy day the array is usually the limit.
The formula
runtime = usable kWh / continuous load; recharge = usable kWh / the lower of charge rate and array output
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