Can Solar Panels Run Rv Ac

Caucasian technician installing cooling unit inside modern camper van.

Can solar panels run rv ac.

Most boondockers have between 200 to 400 amp hour battery banks. To give you an idea what s involved in creating a solar power setup that can run your rv air conditioner we re going to break down the necessary components and their costs below. But let s say you don t. The size of your solar array battery bank and inverter determine whether or not you can regularly run an rv air conditioner with solar.

For a 15 000 btu rv air conditioner 3 500 watts is required for startup and 1 500 once running. Rv recreational vehicle air conditioner installation. We suggest a battery bank of 800 amp hours. However it will require a lot of energy.

Running an ac off of solar power for any extended period of time is going to be costly much more costly than most of us are able or willing to indulge. We wrote a post explaining all the tradeoffs and what it would take to fully run an rv ac off of solar. When you run your air conditioner for example that will run directly off of the grid power. For a basic example let us assume you only have one 13 500 btu roof mounted ac that you want to run using solar power batteries and an inverter.

You will need at least 1 800 watts of solar panels to run your rv air conditioner. Simple and fairly efficient in good direct sunlight. And it is possible sort of. 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.

Can you run your air conditioner off solar panels. 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. The only electricity you can replace with a typical rv solar power system without significant rewiring and expense is on the 12 volt side. The right size system can save you a ton of cash whether you have them installed on the roof of your home or the roof of your rv.

And of course we have also gotten the questions hundreds of times over the years about the potential for running the ac off of solar power exclusively. You can power your air conditioner with solar panels. Solar panel systems have become increasingly popular over the past few years. To size these solar components for regular air conditioning i determined how many amps my 13 500 btu rv air conditioner drew during operation.

So your solar panel system would need to have at least 3kw to power. Directly provide electricity to run your 120v appliances such as air conditioning microwave electrical outlets etc. Solar panels do one thing they charge your rv s batteries. Some air conditioners need 2 5kw.

This is assuming you are considering using 12 volt rv grade panels.