Air conditioners typically use between 1 2kw 2 5kw of power and a typical solar panel system has an energy output of 2kw 4kw.
Run an ac with solar panels.
We suggest a battery bank of 800 amp hours.
You generally have two options for this an ac pump with inverter or a dc powered well pump designed for use in an off grid systems.
300 times 4 is 1200 watts.
When it s hottest and the sun is shining the brightest i can make lots of power.
1200 watts divided by 1 000 equals 1 2 kwh produced per day.
How much you use the air conditioner.
Even with the air conditioner on high my solar panel system still makes enough power to add 2 000 watts into the batteries.
Since a well pump could easily be the biggest electrical load in your off grid system it is worth taking the time to consider your options.
This allows me to run the ac full blast to keep my house nice and cool.
The advantage of solar powered air conditioning.
Using solar panels to run air conditioner units ac units use a lot of electricity but they re really no match for a well sized solar installation.
You will need at least 1 800 watts of solar panels to run your rv air conditioner.
This number will be the number of solar panels necessary to cover your air conditioning needs.
You multiply the combined wattage of the solar panels by the number of hours sunlight they will receive per day.
Number of panels additional watts needed watts per panel.
This is also assuming of course you have a lot of battery power too.
Example rv ac daily amperage draw 150 amps hr x 5 hrs day 750 ah day.
With a properly sized solar system you can run a well from solar power.
If you re connected to the grid and you ve got the roof space installing enough solar panels to cover your entire electricity usage including ac is a very doable task and one that many homeowners have done before.
The size of the air conditioner and solar panels.
As an example let s consider the amperage draw of our rv ac and how many hours per day we plan to run the unit.
To run an ac off solar power for an extended amount of time the ac will essentially need its own solar setup.
The short answer is the number of solar panels depends on which solar panels and air conditioner you have.
This is assuming you are considering using 12 volt rv grade panels.
So we ll assume these to give you an idea.
A good rule of thumb is 4 hours.
To follow the example above let s say you re looking to generate an additional 3 333 w to run your air conditioner in massachusetts.