Pollution-free invertors score over noisy gensets

CHANDIGARH, May 9: A hot summer afternoon: the cooler or air-conditioner makes life bearable until .... wham! Power shutdown. It is momen...

CHANDIGARH, May 9: A hot summer afternoon: the cooler or air-conditioner makes life bearable until 8230;. wham! Power shutdown. It is moments like this that separate the prudent from the improvident, the prepared from the feckless. While the latter resign themselves to dark, sweaty discomfort; the former fall back on their generators, inverters and photo-voltaic cells to get the cool air flowing again.

Invest Rs 18,100 in a portable generator manufactured by a company of repute and you can be sure of 525 watts of energy to run four to five fans and tubelights. If you want the whole house to operate normally during the power shutdown, dish out Rs 1,06,000 and forget about power shutdowns.

The problem with these kerosene-run generators is that their starting process can be cumbersome. When the power fails in the middle of the night, getting the generator going means getting up and fiddling around by candlelight until the motor kicks over. Women typically feel intimidated by generators, especially the type which resemble the motor of an autorickshaw with the initial revv being supplied by a sharp tug on a rope.

Of course, a range of automatic generators and three-phase generators is also available in the market. They only require a flip of a switch but they sell for a hefty amount. Demand for these is low and they are not easily available.

The generators make a lot of noise and they smell of burning kerosene. If one has to choose between bearing the noise and smell and sweating it out, most would choose the former but the point is that howsoever good generators may be, they are far from perfect.

But, easier to install, noise and pollution-free are the quot;invertorsquot;, the rage of the market these days. Invertors are so called as the battery of an invertor quot;invertsquot; the direct current DC into alternative current AC for consumption. The device gives out the stored energy during a power shutdown and is much cheaper than a conventional kerosene-run generator. These are mostly locally assembled and start from Rs 7,700, depending upon the technology used in them.

The 400 VA volt-ampere invertor with battery costs around Rs 8,000 and can run two fans, two tubelights and a television set for approximately four hours. An invertor is noise free, has no starting hassle and comes at a minimal recurring cost. Battery terminals must be cleaned from time to time and waterlevel must be maintained, but that is all.

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Invertors have been gaining popularity over generators as these are cheaper, easier to run and user-friendly.

But cheapest of all is the panel of photo-voltaic cells that makes electricity from sunshine 8230; India8217;s most abundant resource.

Running costs are nil; the only investment is the cost of the device. Solar panels that convert the sun8217;s energy into electrical impulses run devices such as specially made lanterns and fans. A simple device that includes a reflector and a lantern comes at a subsidised rate of Rs 3000 from the UT8217;s Department of Science and Technology. According to officials, the local department purchases the devices from state government-run manufacturing units in places like Jaipur and Delhi.

The solar cells that are used in the devices are mostly locally manufactured. The demand for these units is also increasing as the devices don8217;t take much of space. A solar panel running a 7-watt lantern needs as little space as 2 foot by 1 foot on the rooftop. An expert notes: quot;These devices operate best if kept in the sun only.quot; They are noise-free, pollution-free, environment-friendly and getting more sophisticated all the time.