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A 150Ah 12V tubular battery runs 4 tube lights + 2 fans + billing computer for about 1 hour 30 minutes. That load averages 420W, and the battery holds 630Wh usable once you apply 70% inverter efficiency and the 50% depth of discharge lead-acid batteries are limited to. 630Wh / 420W = 1.5 hours.
A retail counter that cannot stop billing when the grid drops. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LED Tube Light | 20W | 4 | 60 min | 80W |
| Ceiling Fan | 70W | 2 | 60 min | 140W |
| Desktop Computer | 200W | 1 | 60 min | 200W |
| Total average hourly load | 420W |
On paper a 150Ah 12V battery stores 150 x 12 = 1800Wh. 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 150 x 12 x 0.7 x 0.5 = 630Wh.
India's best-selling home inverter battery 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 1 hour 30 minutes this is a High Load setup — Battery Buddy flags anything under 2 hours, because a single long outage will empty the bank before the grid returns.
Runtime and capacity are two different questions. With every appliance on at once this profile draws 420W continuous, which sizes to (420W / 0.8) x 1.25 on average draw and lands on a standard 800VA inverter.
The start-up surge test is the one most calculators skip. Desktop Computer spikes to about 240W for a second or two when its motor kicks in, so peak demand is 420W continuous + 240W surge = 660W. Against a 800VA inverter that is 18% 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% | 495Wh | 1 hour 11 minutes |
| 60% | 540Wh | 1 hour 17 minutes |
| 65% | 585Wh | 1 hour 24 minutes |
| 70% (default) | 630Wh | 1 hour 30 minutes |
| 75% | 675Wh | 1 hour 36 minutes |
| 80% | 720Wh | 1 hour 43 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 | 1 hour | High load |
| 120Ah | 504Wh | 1 hour 12 minutes | High load |
| 135Ah | 567Wh | 1 hour 21 minutes | High load |
| 150Ah (this page) | 630Wh | 1 hour 30 minutes | High load |
| 165Ah | 693Wh | 1 hour 39 minutes | High load |
| 180Ah | 756Wh | 1 hour 48 minutes | High load |
| 200Ah | 840Wh | 2 hours | Moderate |
| 220Ah | 924Wh | 2 hours 12 minutes | Moderate |
| 250Ah | 1050Wh | 2 hours 30 minutes | Moderate |
And this is the same 150Ah battery against every other load profile we model.
| Load profile | Average draw | Estimated backup |
|---|---|---|
| 2 ceiling fans + 3 LED bulbs | 167W | 3 hours 46 minutes |
| 1 ceiling fan + 2 LED bulbs | 88W | 7 hours 10 minutes |
| 3 ceiling fans + 5 LED bulbs | 255W | 2 hours 28 minutes |
| 2 fans + 4 lights + TV + WiFi router | 246W | 2 hours 34 minutes |
| Refrigerator + 2 fans + 4 LED bulbs | 276W | 2 hours 17 minutes |
| Laptop + WiFi router + 1 fan + 2 lights | 163W | 3 hours 52 minutes |
| 2 fans + 6 lights + TV + refrigerator + WiFi | 404W | 1 hour 34 minutes |
| Air cooler + 2 LED bulbs | 198W | 3 hours 11 minutes |
| 4 tube lights + 2 fans + billing computer (this page) | 420W | 1 hour 30 minutes |
| 1 fan + 2 lights + 2 mobile chargers | 98W | 6 hours 26 minutes |
| TV + set-top box + 2 fans + 3 lights | 242W | 2 hours 36 minutes |
| 3 BLDC fans + 6 LED bulbs | 144W | 4 hours 23 minutes |
About 1 hour 30 minutes. The load averages 420W and the battery delivers 630Wh usable at 70% efficiency and 50% depth of discharge, so 630 / 420 = 1.5 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 1 hour 11 minutes. Measure yours with the efficiency estimator.
A standard 800VA inverter. The sizing rule is (average load / power factor 0.8) x 1.25 safety margin, which on 420W gives 656VA 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 150Ah x 12V = 1800Wh nominal becomes 630Wh 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 1 hour 30 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.