Saturday 15 March 2014

We Don't Lose It Now - Inverter IV


We Don’t Lose It Now – Inverter IV

My Heart Lies On A Highway Toast

It was a pretty day, the sun was out and I was thinking of meeting Adrianna.  We both had been so tied up with our work that it hadn't occurred to either one of us that we would miss each other.  When you have met someone every single day of your life for the last 6 months, it was a wonder that we hadn't thought too much of each other these two weeks, and then last night, I had this apparition, that she was ill. It was 8:30am and I landed up at her place, we left within 15 minutes, the last I had hadn't seen her this long had been when I had been travelling to Mexico, that had been a seven days hiatus, and a week had been long enough for us to want to catch up.  

She had been thinking of quitting her job for sometime now, she had ideas that she wanted to bring to fulfillment now, it had been a long journey reaching where she had, it had taken her 10 years of work to find that working for somebody didn't do her disposition any good, she had this innate talent for music and a deep voice to go with it, and a great sense of humour.  Once she and I had been sitting with this guy who wanted advice on business, and she told him the best business model is with the tea cafes.

"Tea Cafes?" it was my turn to question her; the other guy had been too stunned to say a word.
"See basically you make yourself this cup of tea and get back to your workstation, then finish the cup and go back to the cafeteria for another cup, only this time you get lots of cups and no tea."
"Logic?" the other guy spoke up now.
"You will get it soon," I told him, she had an acute business sense that was too hard to ignore and it was probably the right time to get into business.  


The Genesis of Business

Business was something that ran in my blood, I realised that if you are stuck in a job that doesn't do you any good, then you just:

If you can then CHANGE YOUR JOB..............if you can't then follow the crap on motivation, how-to-improve-performance, 100 tips, 1000 examples, etc etc.........reading the crap and following it and thinking that things have changed might help you spend your remaining days until you retire..............and mind you when someone advises look for a better job, HR Gurus might say "Don't Run Away".....but remember Thinking about the well being of oneself is not running-away from job problems.....changing for the better is sometimes necessary to survive in the politics of work life.. and of course this had been my motto all along .. the reason that I got into business.

Shine like A Mystery

My mom’s uncles were fruit sellers, did I ever mention that.  As a matter fact that is very Sikh like, to do your own business and leave the thoughts of slavery of petty minded bosses behind.  Even though I have worked for someone all my life, I understand this thought of retaining ones freedom as the most important thought process in my psyche. 

We are free birds, love to roam the sky, so my mom’s uncles opened up their own business.  It ran so well, that even their pets started having fruits at breakfast and as evening fillers.  And, then something changed it.  It was painful when uncle died, all of sudden there was nothing in Rani Aunts family.  All the energy, the longing and desires went from the family.  All that remained was some dull memories of those moments of joy and laughter and paranthas with white butter for breakfast.  God !! how it pained me to see their sorrow.  If only I could comfort this strong Punjabi family with my words.  There were only tears I had and maybe they wanted more from me. 

Uncle was a cult figure, landed in India after the partition in 1947, built a business out of nothing but a few rupees.  So what do you do when you got to feed your family and got nothing at the end of the day.  You plant a garden of fruits, so if they don't sell, you eat them for dinner.  Not such a bad idea after all, no inventory to keep and all profits to reap at the end of the day.  Uncle till he died and it was in his late 80's was eating four piranhas’ cooked in pure ghee for breakfast.  Some say that he actually died because the docs couldn't believe anybody could live with the kind of oily diet he had. 


And If It Didn’t Work Out

A residential inverters job is to transform DC electricity received from the Solar Panels and/or Battery to AC waveforms suitable for home use, normally at 120 VAC or 240 VAC.  It would be prudent to make sense of all the data that comes in the form of spec sheets with the inverter.  In this article we analyse the Rated Continuous Output Power.

Rated Continuous Output Power
Inverters come in different specifications and ratings, the Rated Continuous Output Power can be imagined by realising that the inverter is just sleeping till it receives a waveform at its inputs.  Immediately it gets into action and the tempo picks up, and all your worries are laid to rest with the house lighting up, the CFL/LED and the fan, the refrigeration units all start to hum.

The inverter is very fickle and loves the feel of DC that needs to be converted to a rating that it can handle, an oft heard refrain when the ratings are mismatched, is “Decay,” or “Discharge” or “Short” and all these are terminologies which are self explanatory, though most likely here’s what happened :


                  
                1.     The DC input was alright
2.                                                                                                    2.The AC output was appropriate for a lower Continuous output
3                              3.  The Inverter wasn’t designed to handle this high an AC load.
4                                     4.  Change the loads that run simultaneously in the residence.
5                                            5.  Or change the Inverter



Celebrating the Easy Transform
Let’s take an example, in my house the continuous load required is as follows:
·        A Refrigerator Load of 1000 watts
·        6 LEDs at 15 watts
·        4 Fans at 30 watts
·        DSL modem and desktop at 100 watts
This would mean an inverter with a Continuous Output Power of 1400 Watts or 1.4kW and other specs as follows:
·                                        Grid-Tie, Back-up or Standalone Power
                      • Sine wave Output
                             • Intelligent Battery Charging with Generator Support
                                   • 1.4 kVA Continuous Power Output
                                           • High Surge and Charger Ratings
                                   • 3-Phase 400VAC Capable
                             • Sealed Chassis For Harsh Environments
                        • Corrosion Resistant Internal Components
                      • Field Serviceable

               
                      “Want To See You Every Night on the Downtown Train.”