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trx680's avatar
trx680
Explorer
Sep 03, 2018

GENERATOR to run your A/C

I posted this here because I'd imagine the pop-up campers would have the smallest A/Cs.

What size generator is required to run your small A/C ?

14 Replies

  • https://www.steadypower.com/pages.php?pageid=133
    Ok. Starting wattage is about 3000.
    Running watts usually half. When calculating, you usually wants about 500 more watts on starting ac. So, 3500 running and 4000 peak power generator would work. If ac is older then, you should have an hard start capacitor added to AC capacitor as an piggyback to help it on starting wattage. It usually helps in surging generator too. The compressors normally have 2 windings in them. The starting winding helps the running winding till it reaches right spped. Then, start winding disengage and then running winding only uses half wattage. (Just to give you an idea on how and why the wattages difference on ac).
  • I was able to run a 12k AC with a 3100 Honda, but it wouldn't run a 15k. If your AC is smaller, perhaps around 9k, I'd recommend a 2000 Honda or similar to start with. A 2000 is easy to store and carry around. If it's not enough, you could add a second one.