With the increase in unscheduled power cuts, domestic inverters and batteries are back in much demand in the city.
Manufacturers and dealers in the city say that though there has been a steady market for inverters over the past few years, demand has been increasing steadily over the past week as domestic consumers are experiencing power cuts up to eight hours a day. With the exams fast approaching for students and the summer just round the corner, there could be an upsurge in demand for inverters and batteries.
“Enquiries are on the rise over the past few days and we have planned accordingly to ramp up production,” says S. Suresh, managing director, SJS Power Controls, an inverter manufacturer.
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With a large number of middle income group families already having gone for inverters over the past couple of years, the demand for inverter batteries have increased. “The demand is more for batteries than inverters, which are found in most middle income group households these days,” says S.Sudarsan Kumar, chief executive, UEL Power, another inverter manufacturer and also a dealer in a leading brand of battery. There has been a gradual increase in enquiries for inverters too, he adds.
While the city has a handful of inverter manufacturers, the market is also flooded with branded inverters. A cross section of the dealers say that they expect demand to increase in the coming days.
Most inverter manufacturers and dealers recommend tubular batteries, which come with the latest technology and three year warranty and entail lesser maintenance. Battery service centres in the city also report a sharp rise in people coming for servicing of batteries. “We get about 20 to 25 inverter batteries for servicing every day now,” says an employee of one of them in the city.
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Mr.Sudarsan Kumar recommends that people should use inverters, even tubular ones, for limited purpose of lighting and essential household appliances so as to derive a longer battery life. For every deep (full) discharge, it requires 18 hours of continuous re-charging for batteries to regain their full charge. This may not be possible at times of frequent power interruptions and hence people should avoid operating television and other electrical equipment, which result in “deep discharge” of the batteries, he says.
Though a few private retailers were said to have jacked up the price of batteries, distributors and genuine dealers say that there has been no increase in the price. “In fact batteries are now cheaper than before and the price is fixed. No dealer can increase the price by themselves,” affirms Mr.Sudarsan Kumar.