Home / Backup time / 135Ah with 2 fans, 3 lights
A 135Ah 12V tubular battery runs 2 ceiling fans + 3 LED bulbs for about 3 hours 24 minutes. That load averages 167W, and the battery holds 567Wh usable once you apply 70% inverter efficiency and the 50% depth of discharge lead-acid batteries are limited to. 567Wh / 167W = 3.4 hours.
The default Indian evening load-shedding setup: two rooms cooled, three lights on. Duty cycle matters here: Battery Buddy multiplies each appliance by the minutes it actually runs in an hour, so a fridge that cycles 40 minutes an hour is counted at two-thirds of its nameplate wattage instead of full blast.
| Appliance | Watts each | Qty | Minutes per hour | Average draw |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ceiling Fan | 70W | 2 | 60 min | 140W |
| LED Bulb | 9W | 3 | 60 min | 27W |
| Total average hourly load | 167W |
On paper a 135Ah 12V battery stores 135 x 12 = 1620Wh. You never get that. Lead-acid tubular plates are rated for roughly 50% depth of discharge, and the inverter loses more converting DC to AC, so the honest figure is 135 x 12 x 0.7 x 0.5 = 567Wh.
Common flat-plate / short-tubular retail size. If you have already measured your own system with the efficiency estimator, put your real factor into the calculator — that single number moves the answer more than any other input.
At 3 hours 24 minutes this is a Moderate Load setup — it clears the 2-hour danger line but stays under 5 hours, so a long monsoon outage will need you to shed something.
Runtime and capacity are two different questions. With every appliance on at once this profile draws 167W continuous, which sizes to (167W / 0.8) x 1.25 on average draw and lands on a standard 600VA inverter.
The start-up surge test is the one most calculators skip. Ceiling Fan spikes to about 210W for a second or two when its motor kicks in, so peak demand is 167W continuous + 210W surge = 377W. Against a 600VA inverter that is 37% headroom — it holds.
Battery age, electrolyte level, cable thickness and terminal corrosion all show up as one thing: a lower effective efficiency. Here is the same battery and the same load across the realistic range.
| System efficiency | Usable energy | Estimated backup |
|---|---|---|
| 55% | 446Wh | 2 hours 40 minutes |
| 60% | 486Wh | 2 hours 55 minutes |
| 65% | 527Wh | 3 hours 9 minutes |
| 70% (default) | 567Wh | 3 hours 24 minutes |
| 75% | 608Wh | 3 hours 38 minutes |
| 80% | 648Wh | 3 hours 53 minutes |
Run the two-hour test on the efficiency estimator to replace this guess with your own measured factor.
If you are still choosing a battery, this is the whole shelf against exactly this load.
| Battery | Usable energy | Estimated backup | Band |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100Ah | 420Wh | 2 hours 31 minutes | Moderate |
| 120Ah | 504Wh | 3 hours 1 minutes | Moderate |
| 135Ah (this page) | 567Wh | 3 hours 24 minutes | Moderate |
| 150Ah | 630Wh | 3 hours 46 minutes | Moderate |
| 165Ah | 693Wh | 4 hours 9 minutes | Moderate |
| 180Ah | 756Wh | 4 hours 32 minutes | Moderate |
| 200Ah | 840Wh | 5 hours 2 minutes | Low load |
| 220Ah | 924Wh | 5 hours 32 minutes | Low load |
| 250Ah | 1050Wh | 6 hours 17 minutes | Low load |
And this is the same 135Ah battery against every other load profile we model.
| Load profile | Average draw | Estimated backup |
|---|---|---|
| 2 ceiling fans + 3 LED bulbs (this page) | 167W | 3 hours 24 minutes |
| 1 ceiling fan + 2 LED bulbs | 88W | 6 hours 27 minutes |
| 3 ceiling fans + 5 LED bulbs | 255W | 2 hours 13 minutes |
| 2 fans + 4 lights + TV + WiFi router | 246W | 2 hours 18 minutes |
| Refrigerator + 2 fans + 4 LED bulbs | 276W | 2 hours 3 minutes |
| Laptop + WiFi router + 1 fan + 2 lights | 163W | 3 hours 29 minutes |
| 2 fans + 6 lights + TV + refrigerator + WiFi | 404W | 1 hour 24 minutes |
| Air cooler + 2 LED bulbs | 198W | 2 hours 52 minutes |
| 4 tube lights + 2 fans + billing computer | 420W | 1 hour 21 minutes |
| 1 fan + 2 lights + 2 mobile chargers | 98W | 5 hours 47 minutes |
| TV + set-top box + 2 fans + 3 lights | 242W | 2 hours 21 minutes |
| 3 BLDC fans + 6 LED bulbs | 144W | 3 hours 56 minutes |
About 3 hours 24 minutes. The load averages 167W and the battery delivers 567Wh usable at 70% efficiency and 50% depth of discharge, so 567 / 167 = 3.4 hours.
Because 70% is an assumption, not your measurement. A battery two or three years old, a low electrolyte level, thin cabling or a charger that never completes a cycle in short grid windows all pull the effective factor down. At 55% the same setup gives 2 hours 40 minutes. Measure yours with the efficiency estimator.
A standard 600VA inverter. The sizing rule is (average load / power factor 0.8) x 1.25 safety margin, which on 167W gives 261VA and rounds up to the nearest retail tier.
No. Lead-acid tubular batteries are rated for roughly 50% depth of discharge — draining past half state of charge sulphates the plates and shortens life sharply. That is why 135Ah x 12V = 1620Wh nominal becomes 567Wh usable.
Cut the load, not the comfort. Replacing induction ceiling fans with 30W BLDC fans and any remaining CFLs with 9W LEDs typically removes 40-45W per fan and 6W per bulb. On this profile that is the difference between 3 hours 24 minutes and materially more, at a fraction of the cost of a second battery.
No. Battery Buddy is a free, brand-neutral calculator from Flocci Technologies. It shows the formula for every number so you can check it against any dealer's quote, and it needs no sign-up.
Battery Buddy is free, needs no sign-up, sells no batteries and shows every formula it uses. It is built by Flocci Technologies, an India-first AI-native software studio behind 30+ apps that share one Flocci identity.