Air Conditioner can be run off batteries and inverter

Everyone will apply THEIR situation to it just as they did my post about solar A/C. That doesn't mean it isn't working for the people doing it.

I had a swamp cooler at the house here in Denver for 12 years. They do a great job as long as the conditions are right, in the wrong conditions you will wish you hadn't turned it on. The limitation for boondocking is the amount of water they use. We can carry only 60 gallons for up to two weeks and it is a very long trip for more. The sun will recharge the batteries tomorrow and the day after without any effort on my part.

wa8yxm wrote:

A/C is more important at NIGHT when you are sleeping, NO solar then.

Why would AC be more important at night? And they are in the desert where the temps drop a lot at night. Fantastic fans would suffice then... and yes i have lived in the desert.

Even then they had full sun, and still drew 30 amps, this means with their 700 AH of battery (3 times what my rig shipped with 1.5 what I have now) they only had less than 10 hours of run time.

A/C is more important at NIGHT when you are sleeping, NO solar then.

So yes, it can be done, No it is not practical AT THIS TIME, also that was a small A/C unit, Mine are bigger plus I have two of them.

It can be done, I know folks who do it. But in some conditions there is a better option. When last I was in the dessert I used a portable "Swamp Cooler" took a good 10 degrees off the bedroom. Added gallons of water to the air (I suffer from dry nose in the dessert) and only drew a few watts for the blower and water pump motors.. Alas, after several years the unit failed. But this puppy can run off the inverter no problem, even a 1500 watt is more than enough.

Outside of the fact that system isn't balanced for the load, it's just not that big of a deal. There are members here that can crank up their roof airs and our system is balanced to run the smaller A/C with no loss to the batteries. I do not however have enough solar and battery to run it day and night. Luckily it's cold at night for us.

It is nice hearing the hum of the AC vs the noise of the generator.

dapperdan wrote:
Looks intriguing but who has that kind of money for lithium batteries? I'd love to give them (lithium) a try but too rich for my blood right now. Not to mention I live in the wrong part of the country for "serious" solar.

Dan

You live in a wonderful part of the country for solar panels in the summer!

As I recall, the sun comes up around 4 am and sets around 9 pm? That is a really long day in the summer time.

The solar panels will shade about 50% of your roof square footage not already covered by the A/C, roof vents, and other stuff. So you start out with more shade on your roof than the average guy parking near a tree. This will reflect away a lot of heat.

You really should be giving solar panels a try. Between May and October, they would work ideally in your area. And most of that time is camping season!

Check out prices here. SunElec.com They had a 140 watt panel on sale a few weeks ago for only $229. I paid $429 for my 120 watt solar panel in 1999, so the prices have fallen a LOT.

I figure that the $3000 that I spent on my inverter, batteries, controller, wiring, and such are well paid for by saving $10 a night for well over 300 nights during the first 5 years, and more than 600 nights while I was full timing from 2005 - 2013.

Good luck,

Fred.

Looks intriguing but who has that kind of money for lithium batteries? I'd love to give them (lithium) a try but too rich for my blood right now. Not to mention I live in the wrong part of the country for "serious" solar.

Dan

He needs to double the solar and battery to make it marginal.

Solar has its uses. Cooling & heating are two best done with a genny if shore power is not available.

If it cools or heats it wants power. Lots of it.

my experience. by the time I need to use AC, I better be able to run it for at least 8 hours. Trailers are NOT an easy thing to keep cool.

DSDP Don wrote:
The extra money spent on batteries and solar panels would power a diesel generator for about 1000 hours. I don't think it's a good trade off, especially since it requires perfect conditions to run for a few hours.

If I recall, this is one of the couples that bought their RV on a TV show where they were shown three RV's and then bought one.

That was years ago...they are now sponsored by Fleetwood and given the Rv to drive that they are currently in and have been a couple years. They are pursuing a sailboat for future travels.

Also, their batteries are lithium....