How much you use the air conditioner.
Run an ac with solar panels.
The advantage of solar powered air conditioning.
Air conditioners typically use between 1 2kw 2 5kw of power and a typical solar panel system has an energy output of 2kw 4kw.
We suggest a battery bank of 800 amp hours.
Example rv ac daily amperage draw 150 amps hr x 5 hrs day 750 ah day.
300 times 4 is 1200 watts.
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.
So if you have a powerful air conditioner you ll need to make sure your solar panel system can handle it.
To run an ac off solar power for an extended amount of time the ac will essentially need its own solar setup.
You multiply the combined wattage of the solar panels by the number of hours sunlight they will receive per day.
A few factors determine how many solar panels you will require to run an air conditioner.
You will need at least 1 800 watts of solar panels to run your rv air conditioner.
When it s hottest and the sun is shining the brightest i can make lots of power.
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.
This allows me to run the ac full blast to keep my house nice and cool.
1200 watts divided by 1 000 equals 1 2 kwh produced per day.
The short answer is the number of solar panels depends on which solar panels and air conditioner you have.
A solar panel can run an air conditioner but it ll use a large portion of your panel s capacity.
This is assuming you are considering using 12 volt rv grade panels.
Number of panels additional watts needed watts per panel.
The size of the air conditioner and solar panels.
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.
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.
So we ll assume these to give you an idea.
This number will be the number of solar panels necessary to cover your air conditioning needs.
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.
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.