It depends on the air conditioner and how much power it needs.
How many solar panels to run window ac unit.
Stress testing my portable ac unit and solar panel power system.
This number will be the number of solar panels necessary to cover your air conditioning needs.
So smaller portable air conditioners or window units would be able to run on the yeti power station we looked at above.
I decided to stress test my solar panel system by turning the portable ac unit on high and setting the thermostat to 60 degrees.
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.
A few factors determine how many solar panels you will require to run an air conditioner.
How many solar panels to run the air conditioner.
So we ll assume these to give you an idea.
You will need at least 1 800 watts of solar panels to run your rv air conditioner.
The first 500 watts produced go to the air conditioner directly.
We suggest a battery bank of 800 amp hours.
Ballpark 800 to 1000 amp hours of battery and 1500 watts of solar would be a starting point.
Solar panels to recharge what you use at this rate are large.
How many watts an air conditioner uses depends not only on the btu but what kind of ac it is.
The short answer is the number of solar panels depends on which solar panels and air conditioner you have.
A single solar panel is going to charge your batteries much too slowly you ll use up the stored electricity faster than the solar panel can charge them again.
Most on the market today are between 250 365 w.
In seattle you d need a 4 75 kw installation about 18 panels.
For example a portable ac like the honeywell 10000 btu only requires 880 watts.
I wanted to see how long it would take for my solar panel system batteries to bottom out 50 discharge.
This is also assuming of course you have a lot of battery power too.
Solar panels come in a range of sizes.
Where you are and what tempetature and humidity you want can require double or half that.
This is assuming you are considering using 12 volt rv grade panels.