Air Conditioner 5-6K on 1000 Watt Inverter..

**icarus** · April 13th, 2012, 22:54 PDT

Coming late to the dance, but here is my two cents,,,

I have a lttiile frigidaire 5k BTU unit I run very rarely. I run it on my eu1000 Honda genny. I sue the slow start method, run the engine on full throttle, no load, turn the fn on and let it spool if full for a few minutes, then turn the compressor on low. The Eu100 will barely start it,, but runs it fine. It draws ~550 wats running.

My guess is that you are going to be REALLY hard pressed to get any meaningful run time off nearly any 12 v battery set up. Even if it would run it, my guess is that any inverter will drop out due to low voltge shut down first. You could start it on the genny, and the a quick switch to the battery while the compressor is still running, then leave it running full bore so the compressor never shuts off.

Tony

**ywhic** · April 14th, 2012, 4:56 PDT

Photowhit..

Thanks.. for clarifying..
I found some locally available Grape Solar 190 Watt Monocrystalline panels rated at 5.25AMP and 36.2V DC.. @ $290/each..

That also clears up the battery issue.. (I confuse easy).. so realistically I should have 2 banks of 4 (total 8*6v) and then I would be 400ah rated in total.. hypathetcially I could run my AC for like 3 hours and be about +75% left in the bank..

**silvertop** · April 14th, 2012, 8:51 PDT

I would go with the swamp cooler in a heartbeat, we used one in
colorado and could drop the temp from 80 to 69 degrees in about two hours in a 2000 SQ Ft. home. I wish I could run one in the NW. I would plan at least 2000 watt inverter 24 volt MIN.(with a good surge rateing) and plan on running off PV ,not batteries.....I am going to try this also but havent upgraded my inverter yet.

**silvertop** · April 14th, 2012, 9:12 PDT

The newer swamp coolers dont use that much water, in our town in Gunnison Colorado water was like Gold. You learned not to waste a drop, and we did OK......Our well was 285ft down and another 100 ft. to our three story house
coming from the mid-west this was a culture shock.....

**Photowhit** · April 14th, 2012, 12:14 PDT

Originally Posted by ywhic

That also clears up the battery issue.. (I confuse easy).. so realistically I should have 2 banks of 4 (total 8*6v) and then I would be 400ah rated in total.. hypathetcially I could run my AC for like 3 hours and be about +75% left in the bank..

Right battery bank, but you'll need a minimum of 1000 watt array (panels) to support it.

**2manytoyz** · April 16th, 2012, 11:35 PDT

I'm in hot/humid FL. Swamp coolers don't work here. So when the grid goes down, I drag out a 5000 BTU A/C unit. To make sure it works with my hardware, I did some testing.

First wanted to make sure it worked with a Yamaha EF2400iS generator.

With the fan on high, and the compressor engaged, draws almost 5A. It's rated at 600W, so the numbers are close.

After a few minutes I shut it off, then immediately tried restarting it. This is the worst case scenario, and not what you should do. Restarting too fast can stall the compressor as the pressure in the system is still maxed. Ideally, you should wait several minutes, allowing the pressure to drop. This isn't an issue when allowed to cycle normally. I wanted to challenge the generator.

This tiny A/C pulled over 18 AMPS starting current! My generator momentarily picked up RPMs, then dropped back to an idle.

The Xantrex Prosine 1800W inverter performed equally, if not better.

My intent is to use my 900AH battery bank at night for the A/C unit, and critical loads (fridge, some lights, small TV, computer, etc), and a combination of a 1000W solar array, and the generator with a 75A Iota charger, to replenish the energy used at night.

I had no problem cooling the master bedroom, bathroom, and short hallway with this A/C unit during the middle of Summer when the central A/C failed. After ~20 minutes, the room cooled down and the compressor cycled off. The blower only draws 0.2A.

I also agree a 1000W inverter wouldn't likely start it, or at least not restart it when there's a head pressure.

If swamp coolers work in your area, great! If not, it's still possible to use a window shaker.

**dhsola** · April 22nd, 2012, 21:40 PDT

I've found that these window A/C's burn a little more juice after they've been running a while, than when they first start.

If you have water, definitely go with an evaporative cooler!

Example: It turned unusually hot here (103 F). And with my setup (see sig) I could barely run one 5k and one 6k BTU A/C's between 10:30 am and 2:30 pm with no other loads. And even then, I was pulling 1 to 2 amps from the batteries in addition to what the panels were putting out. Granted, compressors were running constantly, non stop...