How Many Solar Panels Needed To Run An Air Conditioner

This is assuming you are considering using 12 volt rv grade panels.
How many solar panels needed to run an air conditioner. 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. If you re wondering whether solar can power air conditioning as part of an off grid home the calculation is a little more complicated than what we did above. Number of panels additional watts needed watts per panel to follow the example above let s say you re looking to generate an additional 3 333 w to run your air conditioner in massachusetts. The short answer is the number of solar panels depends on which solar panels and air conditioner you have.
That s not too bad to cover 100 of the average home s electricity use including ac. Some air conditioners will even use as much as 2 5kw meaning that the minimum power of your solar panel system would need to be 3kw just to power the air conditioning. So we ll assume these to give you an idea. The trade off is generator run time versus solar and battery size.
However much solar and battery you have there will be times when it is not enough. A few factors determine how many solar panels you will require to run an air conditioner. Most boondockers have between 200 to 400 amp hour battery banks. The math is not that complicated just expensive.
Assuming that the air conditioning unit requires 1500 waats of power a collection of 6 solar panels at 250 waats capacity could in theory power the air conditioning unit but a lot of individual factors can throw this number in either direction. There are many variables. This allows me to run the ac full blast to keep my house nice and cool. Ac for off grid homes.
To produce 12 336 kwh with solar in arizona you d need a 7kw installation. How much you use the air conditioner. A haier from walmart takes about 500 watts. More is needed with more clouds.
So to power a 13 500 btu air conditioner 1 500 watts of solar panels is the minimum required. Even with the air conditioner on high my solar panel system still makes enough power to add 2 000 watts into the batteries. These numbers only take into account the energy needed for air conditioning. So if you decide to power an air conditioner or try and break even on a ashp it is going to use up the vast majority of your solar energy.
This is also assuming of course you have a lot of battery power too. When it s hottest and the sun is shining the brightest i can make lots of power. If you re installing 300 w panels you should plan to install an additional 11 to 12 panels 3 333 w 300 11 11 panels. Then a 1000 watt inverter generator will run the air conditioner.
The advantage of solar powered air conditioning.