More is needed with more clouds.
How many solar panels needed to run ac.
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.
By this estimate we ll need about 2 500 watts of solar panels just to break even on the ac unit s consumption.
The advantage of solar powered air conditioning.
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.
Air conditioning doesn t have to be your motive for going solar.
Lastly you will need the solar panels to keep the battery charged.
You will need at least 1 800 watts of solar panels to run your rv air conditioner.
I m not saying it s impossible but it pushes the limits of practicality for a mobile installation.
If you prefer higher efficiency 350 w panels the number would be reduced to 9 to 10 panels.
So you are going to need a total wattage of 300 combined solar panels.
To get these numbers we used high and low panel production ratios to calculate how many solar panels are needed on average.
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.
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.
Clearly this kind of setup can get pricey pretty quickly.
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.
When it s hottest and the sun is shining the brightest i can make lots of power.
We ll need about twelve 200 amp hour solar panels and one 100 amp hour panel to run the ac.
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.
How did i come up with 300.
Eer amount of heat removed in watt power consumed in watt.
I have to run a 1 ton air conditioner how many panels will i need.
How many solar panels do i need to power my house.
Most boondockers have between 200 to 400 amp hour battery banks.
This allows me to run the ac full blast to keep my house nice and cool.
For this example if you are using 404 kwh per year that is 1 11 kwh per day.
These numbers only take into account the energy needed for air conditioning.
Installing air conditioning after a solar installation.
The typical homeowner will need 28 34 solar panels to cover 100 of their energy usage dependent on location and roof size.