I don't know what inverters you are using, but most inverters today work at efficiencies higher than 90% making them efficient. What you should rather say is that using batteries to heat up water is inefficient.
The best water heater is an
in line gas water heater, as they only consume energy when you require hot water. The larger types, will heat up 20 liters of water a minute to 40degrees centigrade. Slowing the flow rate will increase the temperature of the water.
Solar panels are only about 18% efficient, but they are about the next best thing for the supply of limited energy. Using a solar panel, with a
MPPT controller, you can extract the maximum amount of energy out your panel, but like any piece of equipment, there are losses, and with solar panels, heat cause losses in the junctions of the panel, and on a hot midday sun, can lose up to 10% capacity due to the heating of the cells from the sunlight, and the generation of electricity through the cells. Another important aspect of solar panels, is to maintain them clean, some bird excrement could cost you 20 to 30% of the panel capacity. There are also large variations in solar luminance from summer to winter, and you can expect to lose approximately 40% of your panel capacity in winter.
However they can still be useful to charge batteries and power efficient LED lighting. I have done many experiments, and will soon be launching some new lighting products, that will blow your socks off. With a single 1W LED, I can light up a room 3 by 3 meters very comfortably. The LEDs I use are 120Lumens per watt, so 2W leds will light up a lounge quite comfortably. So if you feel that 2W or 240 Lumens is too little you can use 3Watts. By the way you can not compare my 3Watt LED to the ones you buy in the shop, mine would produce 360Lumens as opposed to the ones you buy in store which range from 180 to 260Lumens for the more expensive ones.
Lets just say that you have a 5 room house, and each room uses 3Watts of lights, this equates to 15Watts of electrical power. If you wish to run for 6 hours, equates to 90 watts of electrical energy. A 35Watt panel with an MPPT controller would suffice to charge up and maintain a 25Amp battery even in winter and with overcast days. Not a bad and very cost effective solution, which would require a battery replacement every 4 to 5 years. The LEDs would last some 30 or more years.
We are just accustomed to wasting energy, and in reality just do not realize how much we waste.
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