337 Solar Project completed

[howson]

Thanks. also wondering about running the a/c. Was that answered in his response to you? If his setup won't run the a/c, what would it take?

@DMB--can you answer BigSwick's question regarding a/c? I'm curious, too.

[howson]

Thanks. also wondering about running the a/c. Was that answered in his response to you? If his setup won't run the a/c, what would it take?

See post #9 in this thread for measurements Dopperud performed: https://www.mygrandrv.com/fo...l=1#post215397

[Ditchdigger]

I am installin g a very similar solar set up, very shortly.

[BigSwick]

@DMB--can you answer BigSwick's question regarding a/c? I'm curious, too.

So I am guessing that the lack of reply means that no, you cannot run your a/c for any length of time. Hopefully the panel and battery technology
will advance in the near future so the a/c can be run for extended times.

[JColeman]

The best I've seen so far in 5th wheels is a hybrid solar/battery/generator system. It seems that with the hybrid type inverters, you can specify a load to take from a generator and make the deficit up with the batteries. You should get a fair amount of help from the solar during a good day as well but no where enough to run an a/c.

[Nomado]

My understanding is that a general rule of thumb is 200Ah of Lithium batteries to run a standard A/C for 1 hour. Hence, you need a lot of Lithium batteries to run the A/C for any amount of time. You likely would also want to install a soft start on the A/C and just run the smaller 2nd A/C if you have it. I have also heard of others using window units which draw much less power.

[SouthTX]

My understanding is that a general rule of thumb is 200Ah of Lithium batteries to run a standard A/C for 1 hour. Hence, you need a lot of Lithium batteries to run the A/C for any amount of time. You likely would also want to install a soft start on the A/C and just run the smaller 2nd A/C if you have it. I have also heard of others using window units which draw much less power.

Sounds about right. I ran my 15k btu AC (with softstart) and it showed an increased DC amp load of about 105 amps. Running the same AC unit on shore power increases the load shown on the EMS by 11 AC amps.

OTOH, my little 15 amp generator will run this same AC unit, but especially if it is hot, the generator will sometimes have trouble starting the AC. Once the AC is running, the generator has no problem keeping it running. The hybrid inverter might give it enough extra oomph to get the AC running and the little generator shouldn't have any problem keeping it running. The alternative would be two little generators in parallel or one larger gennie.

[DaveMatthewsBand]

I can run the roof air for several hours on a sunny day since I’m bringing in about 75a with the solar.
But I’ve met plenty of people with much larger lithium battery banks than mine that can run their air constantly, day and night.
It’s not any more complicated, just more expensive.
Our setup is sized as it is because we have a small trailer. We could only fit 1155 watts of solar on our roof, because our Reflection is not even 27’ long. If we had a 40’ Momentum we would easily have fit 2,000 watts up there and would have more batteries.

I’ve seen ample data that proves I could run a 5,000 btu window unit all day long.
I’ve also thought about constructing a window insert to allow use of such a unit when we’re boon docking in the Summer.
It would be simple enough to install and remove and they run on a standard wall socket. Normally, we follow the weather and rarely ever need air conditioning, so it hasn’t been necessary. I’ll probably tackle it in the coming months though as I have run out of mods to do on the trailer.
Plus it’ll give me an excuse to throw a few more Battle Borns in the front compartment! If I build a rack, I should be able to fit 800ah in there. I’ve also been thinking of replacing all 7 of our 165w panels with 200w panels that are the same footprint to bump our total to 1,400 watts which should yield about 90a in full sun.
These simple additions would allow us to run the roof air all day long, but I’d rather have a window unit to be honest as they are far more efficient and way way quieter!
The half dozen times we’ve actually used the roof air it was so noisy you can’t even hear the TV. Another reason we decided to just spend the Summer on the West coast or in Canada.

[emoji3]




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[BigSwick]

Dave, thanks for the reply. A portable A/C would probably work if you didn't mind losing the floor space. But how would you install a window unit without
looking like the Beverly Hillbilly's? A mini split system would work, maybe one like http://minihvac.com/ Plus, it's a heat pump! Inquiring minds want to know!

[BB&LAB]

Nice work, best of luck with it, I am sure it will serve you well.