You will need at least 1 800 watts of solar panels to run your rv air conditioner.
How many solar panels needed to run ac.
Air conditioning doesn t have to be your motive for going solar.
These numbers only take into account the energy needed for air conditioning.
For this example if you are using 404 kwh per year that is 1 11 kwh per day.
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.
This is assuming you are considering using 12 volt rv grade panels.
Installing air conditioning after a solar installation.
Clearly this kind of setup can get pricey pretty quickly.
Most boondockers have between 200 to 400 amp hour battery banks.
This is also assuming of course you have a lot of battery power too.
How did i come up with 300.
More is needed with more clouds.
To get these numbers we used high and low panel production ratios to calculate how many solar panels are needed on average.
We ll need about twelve 200 amp hour solar panels and one 100 amp hour panel to run the ac.
In order to meet this need the solar panels would be required to generate 107 amps 7 hours every day this is if it is a clear sunny day.
By this estimate we ll need about 2 500 watts of solar panels just to break even on the ac unit s consumption.
I have to run a 1 ton air conditioner how many panels will i need.
Lastly you will need the solar panels to keep the battery charged.
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.
I m not saying it s impossible but it pushes the limits of practicality for a mobile installation.
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.
This doesn t include the solar power needed to run anything else in the rv.
It works the other way as well.
Even with the air conditioner on high my solar panel system still makes enough power to add 2 000 watts into the batteries.
When it s hottest and the sun is shining the brightest i can make lots of power.
So you are going to need a total wattage of 300 combined solar panels.
How many solar panels do i need to power my house.
To generate the stored electricity needed to run our rv air conditioner all day you d need over 340 square feet of solar panels ish plus 3600 amp hours of battery capacity and guaranteed perfect sunshine.
The typical homeowner will need 28 34 solar panels to cover 100 of their energy usage dependent on location and roof size.
This allows me to run the ac full blast to keep my house nice and cool.
Eer amount of heat removed in watt power consumed in watt.
If you prefer higher efficiency 350 w panels the number would be reduced to 9 to 10 panels.