Overview
Luminous is a staple brand in the Nigerian inverter market. It is one of Nigeria’s foremost and most reputable inverter brands. The makers of Luminous inverters, Luminous Power Technologies is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the $25 billion Schneider Electric Group with headquarters in India and a presence in over 36 countries, including Nigeria.
Popularity
The brand enjoys a relatively high reputation among users, technicians and dealers. In a SolarKobo survey involving hundreds of respondents across Nigeria, Luminous inverters were found to be the most popular brand among Nigerian users. Of all SolarKobo’s installations over the last 3 years, Luminous is our second-most installed inverter brand, next only to Su-Kam.
General Description
Like all inverters, Luminous inverters convert alternating current (AC) into direct current (DC) from grid and standby generators and store them in batteries for use in appliances. Conversely, when the power sources are unavailable, the inverter converts DC back into AC for use in appliances.
Luminous inverters are pure sine wave inverters hence they produce little or no humming sound in appliances and less heat. They also have displays that show the state of the inverters, whether it is charging, in use or overloaded.
Home and Office Integration
Luminous inverters are built for home and office spaces. They are elegant, sleek and are meant to complement interior designs.
Battery and Appliance Protection
Luminous inverters are built with sophisticated technology to protect highly sensitive appliances. They have appliance protection features that protect the batteries from over-charge, deep-discharge and short-circuiting when the terminals are not properly placed during installation. Inverters with higher output capacities come with cooling fans to ensure that the inverters do not exceed maximum temperature safety limits.
Warranty
Distributors offer a full twelve-months warranty.
Product Range, Features and Pricing
Luminous inverters come in two main ranges (low-capacity and high capacity) according to their output capacities.
Low Capacity Inverters
1. LUMINOUS ZELIO
DESCRIPTION
Luminous Zelio UPS is a sine wave home UPS. It comes in two models, Zelio 1,100 and Zelio 1,700. It is powered by a 32-bit DSP processor. It features a friendly LCD display and audible alarms with power back-up time display in hours and minutes. The alarms go off to signal no-load shutdown, overload, battery over voltage, UPS-on, battery low trip, short circuit trip and battery low pre-alarm. These audio indicators inform about situations that need immediate attention. An Intelligent Thermal Management System helps cool down the system and shuts it off in case of overheating. It also has an Intelligent Battery Water Level Sensor, which signals the need of a water top-up. It also has an intelligent battery management system to display remaining time to charge & discharge as per load. It supports a wide range of battery types. As at July 2019, pricing starts at N65,000.
2. LUMINOUS ECOVOLT
DESCRIPTION:
Ecovolt is a Pure Sine Wave Home UPS. It features displays and indicators that help track performance and battery life. It supports a wide range of batteries. It has an adaptive battery charging control technology that ensures faster battery charging and enhanced battery life. It comes in two models ECO VOLT 1050 and ECO VOLT 1650.
As at July 2019, pricing starts at N48,000 for the ECO VOLT 1050 and N60,000 for the ECO VOLT 1650
3. SOLAR HYBRID UPS
DESCRIPTION:
The Luminous Solar Hybrid UPS is a microcontroller-based Pure Sine Wave hybrid UPS. It accepts charge from both solar and mains with priority to solar. Luminous Solar Home UPS have all the required protection against high temperatures, short circuit and overloading. It ensures lower battery charging time and maximum solar utilization. They come in ranges of 850VA & 1500VA with inbuilt Charge Controllers that support a wide choice of PV modules from 400Wp to 1000Wp.
Once the batteries get fully charged, it cuts off-grid power and supplies electricity through solar panels thus maximizing solar energy usage. It also has an ‘i-charge’ mode which can be turned on with a switch, for faster charging from grid power.
As at July 2019, pricing starts at N53,000 for the 900VA Model and N72,000 for the 1,500VA Model.
High Capacity Inverters
1. CRUZE SERIES
DESCRIPTION
The Luminous Cruze UPS is the standard inverter series from Luminous. It is a pure sine wave inverter which makes for noiseless operation of appliances. It is meant for heavier loads. It has a beautiful and readable display and indicators which show the status of grid power, battery charging, battery level, etc. It has a bypass switch that can be used to bypass the UPS and allow grid power to be available without any wiring changes.
Luminous Cruze Inverter is available in 2.5KVA / 36V, 3.5KVA / 48V, 5.5KVA / 96V, 7.5KVA / 120V, and 10KVA / 180V capacities. They can be constructed in multiple phases up to 150KVA.
As at July 2019, pricing starts at N200,000 for 3.5KVA/48V, N450,000 for the 5KVA/96V and N530,000 for the 7.5KVA/120V
2. PRO SERIES 3HP INVERTERS
DESCRIPTION
The Luminous Pro Series 3Ph Inverters are pure sine wave inverters with three input windows which allows the inverter to cut the mains when the voltage drops or varies beyond a present voltage and switch to battery mode. It has a much wider input voltage and frequency range than the other series. It is very stable with a tolerance of less than 2% within the full operating battery voltage range. It has LED indicators for phase sequence. It can be monitored remotely. It is constructed to meet the needs of hotels, offices, malls, hospitals, manufacturing units, elevators, residences, etc. Though available in the Nigerian market, Luminous has discontinued production of the Pro series.
As at July 2019, prices range from N700,000 to N1,000,000
User Complaints
Users have complained about the weight of Luminous inverters (source). Relatively, Luminous are heavier than most home-use inverters. Also, Luminous inverters are unable to sense voltages lower than 100V. There have been complaints about overheating and faulty cooling fans (source).
Acclaim
Luminous inverters are highly acclaimed. Upsinverterinfo.com listed Luminous in their ‘Top Five Pure Sine Wave Inverters in India’. The Institute of Brand Management, the International Brand Management Association and the African Institute of Brand Management recognized it as ‘Best Inverter Brand’. They have a wide sales and service network in Nigeria making their maintenance services, spare parts and products widely available.
We will review other inverter brands. Stay tuned and like SolarKobo on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram to be notified when a new review from our product review series is posted on our site. You can also leave a comment below if you would like a review of a particular inverter brand or model or if you have any questions about Luminous inverters.