While it is technically possible to power an rv air conditioner with solar panels to generate enough power a large amount of solar panels and upgrades to the electrical system would be required.
How many solar panels to run inverter ac.
The advantage of solar powered air conditioning.
Every 1 ton of cooling power commonly known as heat removed by a 1 ton ac in one hour is also expressed as 3516 watts.
1 ton ac corresponds to a cooling capacity of 3517 watts.
How many solar panels do i need to run my rv ac.
I have to run a 1 ton air conditioner how many panels will i need.
Although you don t necessarily need an inverter to make your solar setup function you do need an inverter to run any 120v ac appliances in your rv off of solar.
For example if your array is 6 kw with a 6000 w inverter the array to inverter ratio is 1.
When it s hottest and the sun is shining the brightest i can make lots of power.
The array to inverter ratio of a solar panel system is the dc rating of your solar array divided by the maximum ac output of your inverter.
This allows me to run the ac full blast to keep my house nice and cool.
Solar panels provide 12v dc power to your batteries which will take care of most of the basics like your water pump lights and fans.
If you install the same sized array with a 5000 inverter the ratio is 1 2.
Check the inverter rating on the solar generator then how many watts the air conditioner requires.
For rvers with 13 500 15 000 btu acs the answer is most likely no.
Let s take a look at ac energy requirements and typical solar production to see if solar panels can really run air conditioners in each setup.
Eer amount of heat removed in watt power consumed in watt.
The solar power charging your batteries won t touch it unless you had a really large inverter installed and even then most inverters will pass power through when you re on shore power.
If you re here for the quick answer.
Ac for grid connected homes the fact that we are all able to access almost unlimited amounts of electricity 24 7 is a beautiful part of our modern electricity grid.
Since ac is to be run by solar power ac is taken as five star rated energy efficiency ratio eer for 5 star ac 3 1 so the power input of the ac is given by 3517 3 1 1134.
Even with the air conditioner on high my solar panel system still makes enough power to add 2 000 watts into the batteries.
Thus as a practical matter the vast majority of rv owners will never be able to set up their rv in a way that solar could power an ac unit.
If you want to run your rv air conditioner on solar and battery remember that a typical rv air conditioning unit outputs 15 000 btus of cooling power.