dmccarty
Super Star Member
You cannot run the AC off the solar panels since any reasonable number of panels will not have enough watts. One would have to use solar panels to charge batteries which could then run the air conditioning.
The other problem is that solar panels produce DC power, and the air conditioning will need AC power, so an inverter will be needed. Then there is the startup power that is needed but there are ways to handle that requirement.
Even a small window air conditioning unit is going to use quite a bit of power, so a battery bank to run the unit will have to be quite large to run for a few hours. Regular lead acid batteries will require quite a few in the battery bank and they are large and heavy. If one used LiFePo batteries for the battery bank, the space needed, along with weight, is reduced, but decent LiFePo batteries are expensive. I would guess one would need at least a couple of batteries to run a very small AC unit for a couple of hours and these batteries are around $3,000 a piece.
Running air conditioning from solar panels is possible, but it is not cheap, and requires an inverter, solar panel battery chargers, a battery bank, etc., and one won't run the AC for long.
Then there is the issue of how many hours are there a day to charge the battery. In my area of NC, one gets about 5 hours a day winter and summer. If one goes farther north, they can get more hours during the summer but very little time in the winter.
The other problem is that solar panels produce DC power, and the air conditioning will need AC power, so an inverter will be needed. Then there is the startup power that is needed but there are ways to handle that requirement.
Even a small window air conditioning unit is going to use quite a bit of power, so a battery bank to run the unit will have to be quite large to run for a few hours. Regular lead acid batteries will require quite a few in the battery bank and they are large and heavy. If one used LiFePo batteries for the battery bank, the space needed, along with weight, is reduced, but decent LiFePo batteries are expensive. I would guess one would need at least a couple of batteries to run a very small AC unit for a couple of hours and these batteries are around $3,000 a piece.
Running air conditioning from solar panels is possible, but it is not cheap, and requires an inverter, solar panel battery chargers, a battery bank, etc., and one won't run the AC for long.
Then there is the issue of how many hours are there a day to charge the battery. In my area of NC, one gets about 5 hours a day winter and summer. If one goes farther north, they can get more hours during the summer but very little time in the winter.
