YES--Air Conditioner off Solar!! IT CAN BE DONE!

if only we could run an air conditioner off our solar we could we could be so much more comfortable but of course it's impossible isn't it Jeff you you would think it's impossible well everyone says it is they said it to me years ago right and you believe them know what hi everyone welcome back to my next video we've been talking about heat and how to stay comfortable in the heat and I'm here with Jim who is a world-renowned expert on solar power and we've been talking about your best thing to do is to be a Snowbird simply move to where it's a better temperature but Jim you're a snowboard just like I am and sometimes you're still stuck in the heat aren't you oh yeah I've seen up to 105 degrees this spring yeah so you you know your your weight the desert starts to get hot and the mountains are still too cold and if you go there you're gonna be cold and if you stay here you're gonna be on I'd rather run an air conditioner during the day than the furnace at night right so that's why I'm doing this series because even as snowbirds sometimes we have to run into some heat I'm in Oregon and I'll have I'll run into 90 95 degree days yeah boy you got to know how to beat the heat even at that temperature when you live in a car or van or an RV so I've given you lots of ideas about passive cooling in other videos in other words shades and fans and putting moisture around you and and different things you can stay cool passively but active cooling meaning and air conditioning just like this it's too bad that it's totally impossible to run an air conditioner offs or I mean but of course it's impossible isn't it Jeff no I don't believe anybody oh okay you're one of those I you you have to prove it to me and I'm gonna prove me wrong alright I'm in favor that this air conditioner basically takes I think this one would actually run out for 600 watts and a decent battery bank to handle the surge I have 750 watts on top of my trailer it easily runs this one the full system of eleven hundred and eighty-five watts runs two of them right so we're actually and of course I'm just being a smartass we're actually here to say to you that you can run an air conditioner off of solar you got to have a lot of solar and you just mentioned that 600 would be the absolute bare minimum I believe you six hundred during the peak of the day and but that would still only start it and run it but you wouldn't be charging anything else know you that that would be the air conditioner alone you're not recharging your batteries you're not running refrigerators and and things like that right and if you're running it during the peak of the day then you're not you know you lad the night before you had run your battery down so you need to recharge it other things you're using so really 600 will run the air conditioner but not really it's not practical that's right if I had to run the air conditioner at night and my batteries I would let the solar recharge the batteries and use the generator during the day right now but what if we say I've decided I only need 200 watts to run my my car or my van my RV whatever I'm in and this takes 600 watts so if I have 800 watts I can run this and everything else is that true that's true you know and I do with the 750 watts on my trailer right I run this I run my hot spots my computers my Ingo freezer other list goes on and on you know I mean yeah the list goes on and when I when I have my whole system hooked up even when the air conditioners running I'm charging my batteries right so that's the key thing is minimum is 600 Watts just to turn this thing on and run it nothing else right and 750 to 800 watts to run and to do your regular things that you do every day and then to charge your batteries on top of all that then your up to a thousand Watson table that's right youyou got to compensate for everything you have going and charging your batteries is a major part of what you have going you must recharge the batteries every way that's right and even lithium they say you don't have to charge them to a hundred percent but if you don't charge them what are you gonna use the next night right right that's always a thing see it's never in isolation it was what you use the night before that's what you're going to use tonight right you you have to be prepared for everything and well that's why I'm out here yeah we all got to be Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and be prepared but the bottom line is and this is the critical thing we want you to see and understand is it is possible to run an air conditioner off of your AC Jim does it I've watched him do it many many times and so off your solar I'm sorry and and six hundreds of the minimum not practical because you'll never be able to run anything else it's right really 800 750 to 800 to run the battery I mean the air conditioner other things and then a thousand up to run the AC all the other things you want to run and charge your batteries that's right and and really that's not charging your batteries from running the air conditioner overnight right that that's just charging your batteries from running in my instance the freezer the hot spots computers TV little microwave things like that you have eleven hundred eighty five watts total that's right and with that you easily can run your AC and everything else all you want anytime you want i I do it all the time right i I do carry a generator for the oh my god moments but I have to remember once a month to at least start it right so is the the choice of an air conditioner important can you just go to the store buy any one that you see tell us about this one and why you chose it I chose this one because it's an Energy Star efficient air conditioner it uses the least amount of watts and the least starting power of any of the 5000 BTU air conditioners it cost a little more but for what the extra that I spent I have to have less solar so in the long run it's cheaper right right so what model is this do you remember off the top your head it's a Frigidaire 5000 BTU Energy Star I don't know the numbers off the top of my head we'll put the link we'll put a link to this on AC in the description right and it's a hundred and seventy eight dollars right and one that uses a hundred lots more here's a hundred dollars but a hundred watts is hard to cover when you're you're taking it off your solar panels and so how much does this one use four hundred and ten miles four hundred and ten watts and the starting surge is so low that we can start it with an 800 watt inverter generator and that's a key too because a lot of people it's cheaper to buy a generator than it is to buy all that solar that's right but most people have problems running 5000 BTU air conditioner off of a 1,000 BTU or 1,000 watt generator and this window run off of an 800 watt generator with no problems because of low surge it's specifically designed for a low circuit for the low surge and then it can drop down into eco mode and be even quieter right and so you've been using this one one like this for a long time about a year and a half year and a half actually I started the project three years ago and the original one of these used 450 watts I've gone to even lower wattage I'm just a to be able to run two of them right and in fact you are now running two of these I'm running one in the bedroom window and went in the cabinet in my kitchen because you have a I'm sorry what is it 25 pounds I have a 20 five foot ultralight which means it's extremely poorly insulated and it takes more cooling than a well insulated boxwood and you've been just using one and how does that work for you one when it gets up near 101 we'll keep it down to 85 in there either position in the trailer two of them I end up shutting down one of them because it starts getting below 70 degrees and I'm old I have arthritis 70 degrees is a little cold for me so with two of them you go down to 70 and you get colder than you want that's right you have to turn one of them off at least cuz you're gonna get too cold that's right now folks we're not gonna we're going to show you a real quick video of installing this but all the details about everything we're discussing are on Jim's YouTube channel so he'll talk about his 11 hundred and 85 watts of solar on his trailer and on his tow vehicle he'll talk about this he'll talk about wind Jenner what all you talk about you talk about everything I talk about solar wind generator solar cooking internet devices how to to get internet out here in the boonies how do you use a booster system directional antennas I I try to teach the the essence of what it takes to be out here and make it easier for you to understand I'm not a highly technical person I tend to speak in simple terms and teach that way so that's what I talk about on my channel and that's the solar boondock ER and you can find more information on Jim and Denver comm where I designed solar for people and and make it so they can have these things so solar boon docker is your YouTube channel because everyone got that write that down solar boon docker and Jim will give you the details see we're just doing a real quick overview and we'll do a quick overview of the installation but all the details will be on his channel yep so you say you can run this for those who aren't going to have enough solar you can run this off a small generator yep do you have example here we can see I do this is a sportsman 800-1000 inverter generator it excuse me it ran a hundred and fifty two dollars on sale from Home Depot it's as quiet as a Honda 2000 it easily runs this air conditioner on its own we're going to show you here in a moment it will run I've seen it run from 11 o'clock in the morning to 7 o'clock at night I'm a half a gallon of gas charging batteries so it's super efficient super inexpensive and I've been using it almost two years and I'm tickled with it now if you're going to use this a generator 8 hours a day every day in paternity or forever by the Honda right it has a better sleeve in it it will last longer if you're going to use it like I do on the occasion this thing will last so long that I'll never have to replace it and if I do it's another one hundred and fifty-two dollars right so buy for your purpose this is a great low use generator I recommend it to people all the time and and I've seen it run day in and day out for weeks at a time charging up people's batteries for them I have no complaints now I will say the vents on this generator on the bottom so I use this cookie sheet to set it on and protect it let me set it down here nice thing about this generator is it weighs 19 pounds Wow give the ball back wicks Pease put it in choke let it get running yeah it actually produces very cold air right you can hear the the generators in economy mode it's not being pushed which and 410 watts or less that's that's the maximum it really shouldn't push but it's a low start that makes this so much easier to use yeah that's great it's nice cold air off of an 800 watt generator or he couldn't plug it in and feed it running it off his solar we're gonna do that now okay let's do that now so you've just seen it run off an 800 watt generator it slows its low surge meaning it won't it's not hard to start it starts easily now we're gonna run it off of he's running an extension cord to the trailer which is running off of solar solar batteries of course and batteries and we'll start it off of solar [Music] and just as easy to start off on my shoulders right now you have 750 watts on the trailer right and 435 on the truck on the truck is the truck hooked up to it the truck is hooked up to all 1185 are working right but I ran this for two years just off of the the 750 and never had a problem with it this this uses somewhere around 30 to 35 amps and the trade that 750 watts on the trailer is good for 50 years with with both of them together I have no problem that's 80 amps and I have no problem running two of them plus luring the bad reason bump right I'm very pleased with how it all worked out and that's why I want to teach you guys how to do the same thing all right yeah well well that's we should mention that while the generator is super is cheap it's there disadvantages to running a generator oh yeah you gotta buy gas you've got to listen to it you have to change the oil I just don't like I don't drive hundreds of miles to find the perfect pristine spot only to listen to a generator or make others listen to my generator right and they get stolen you know that's one of the big things is about generators you got to have it outside and people steal them all the time well until I start telling everybody about this most people look at it and think it's not red and think it wouldn't be worth stealing and in all honesty is it's just as effective as the Honda 1000 so maybe I'll have to start changing it up now right and they're carrying the gasses a month is a pretty big deal you got to carry gas for these things it stinks it stinks yeah is it possible to run this overnight on your batteries my batteries will run this for 10 hours if I wanted to run it overnight and then run it again the next day I would have to use the generator to run the air conditioner and use the solar to replace the power from it overnight but at least I wouldn't be listening to the generator at night right and hopefully you you have enough insulation that you don't have to run it all the time well it sounds like you do have to kind of run it all the time well during the day when it's a hundred right at night it cools down quite a bit which means the air conditioner is going to be cycling the compressor and this one has an energy smart feature that actually shuts the whole thing down like a household air conditioner in between runs so it's not pulling any power it'll turn back on when the temperature climbs but most window air conditioners leave the fan running in between times and this one will shut down good so it is possible to to run it on it on batteries but the next day you have to have enough solar to recharge what you took out and run this and that takes a big big Bank right at eleven hundred eighty five watts you can do that I can do it but know this I have three giant 8d batteries for six hundred and seventy five amp hours running it overnight is not a is not a little deal right even for you you even for me plus I've got a freezer to keep going and everything else that I forget to turn off but you know so while you could run these overnight it really isn't for most people practical unless you're running a generator as a supplement that's right use the generator replace the bulk of the energy in the morning and then use it to keep the air conditioner going while your solar takes care of the batteries right there there's always a workaround you have to take what you have and make it function properly okay so why don't you run through a list it just off the top your head I know you haven't really thought about this of what they need to sabai for their solar system to make this happen you're gonna need at least six hundred watts of solar III would go 750 to 800 just to be comfortable you're going to need an MPPT controller so that you get the most out of your panels you will of course need switches and fuse an inverter that can handle the start-up surge of a air conditioner which I use a trip light industrial inverter first the the air conditioner itself and a backup generator to to make sure you always have the power you need what do you think all that's going to cost us John the top of the head I know I couldn't say so we probably can't ask that question well if you find the panel's at a good deal let's say say 500 for the panel's 500 for the panel's a nice MPPT control another 500 let's say at least four six volts a minimum and now and if you're using lead acid that would be maybe $600 yeah 600 dare the trip light inverter is under $300 budget if you want to go real nice and go pure sine-wave it'd be more but you're we know yours works because it runs this oh yeah and has been for four years right but I'll listen to that so that you can know which which one works so I think we're 1900 there five no good my assistant says yes I think we're 1900 there right and and did you include the 178 for this no no including buying this then we're at about twelve hundred three hundred bucks for fused wires switch actually two switches two fuses because you have to have both for the inverter and the cabling stay blame blame twin we're about twenty two hundred and another two hundred bucks for the generator now two hundred for the generator so you got to think twenty two hundred dollars for all the solar or two hundred for the generator but to me that's more than worth it free power for the rest of my life well I do a lot more than run an air conditioner off of my solar you get a freezer i I have wiser electric stovetop my water heater is electric I actually do have a 400 watt oil-filled heaters that I can run if it were cold today I can run that just like I run this I I I didn't set up solar just to run an air conditioner I set up my solar around being able to run an air conditioner right so we're figuring a couple grand for your solar system 150 $200 for this $200 for the for the generator and for about twenty four hundred bucks your you're cruising oh yeah you've got power coming out you know yeah you got plenty of power and you're ready to go so there you go folks you can you really can do this either with the two hundred all our generator or your whole solar setup and so Jim is the expert to go and get all the details on this I've not done this yet I'm no solar pretty well but not as well as Jim so Jim tell us again how they can get in touch with you okay so you can see me at Jim in Denver calm where I do consultation and design for solar you can see me at my youtube channel this solar boon docker and I actually have a video up right now of both my five thousand BTUs running directly off in the solar system and I'll be happy to answer questions and assist people as much as I can very very good any final words Jim if you can do a lot on solar if you have a lot of solar to do it with those are wise words those are wise words I'll say I have 400 watts of solar and I am super happy I can do everything I want to do now you know about active air conditioning you can actively cool your rig down we've talked about it so what do you think is practical to put on the top of a regular van can how much solar can I get on a regular van can I get 600 watts on a flat top van there are panels that are up to 200 Watts 28 by 56 inches and you can fit multiples up there too to achieve 600 Watts easily possibly up to 700 800 watts you got to watch where you're gonna put that max air fan right you might want to put that in the back door and I have a video on putting one in the back door yes because if you want to fill your roof with solar you really need to put it in the back door right and and if you can get a hold of them Sun power makes a 327 watt panel that's just a tad bit bigger than the 250 s that are on top of my roof so you're going to be coming up to 650 watts with just two panels and those would easily fit on a regular van now let me say I've hung my point of my panels some of you I'm sure you've seen it in videos one of my panels actually hangs kind of off of the roof so you could use a Iraq put a rack on I have a fiberglass so you're not gonna lot harder to put a rack on a fiberglass right if you put a rack on your roof you can actually hang over a little bit I think it would be 750 would not be a problem if you went that route we're hanging a little bit off the back run them across which is not the best but you can do it and then run a little bit over seven or 50 watts now on an extended van I know a guy who got 900 watts and a he had three 300 so I think he had Kyocera 315 s whatever those are running across three in a row and he also had because it was extended I think was 15 feet or something he also had the fan fantastic fan out there yep so if you really want a lot of solar you really want to an extend it down right and and you gotta watch the contours high-tops yeah the high tops are the worst they're just really hard to work with even without the contouring the the top isn't as wide as your van is right they really curve in right so you have to work with what you get and if you start thinking about it beforehand you can buy everything in a way that makes it possible but you have to you you can't limit yourself by buying something and then working around it right right right if you're thinking air conditioning off the solar you want to be really be doing that before you buy your van unless you already have an extended flat top then right and then you're set with an extended flat top van yeah of course you can always put it out on the ground yeah we'll do it or you could augment what you have on your roof with a portable right five six hundred watts on the roof is not hard at all and then two three four hundred on the ground would more than do it right and and that would be tilted and tracking worth at least twice as much right it's easy to tilt on the ground that's right on track yes old people like me do not like climbing on the roof and tilting panels no no even young pups like me don't like [Laughter] so there you have a folks you really can realistically run air-conditioning off of solar and if not for a 200-dollar generator you can run air conditioning and we'll have a video later on with Jim of installing it in a window and I'll show you where he also put it in a cabinet but go to his channel for the details of all that stuff so I hope you got something out of this if you did like us on YouTube subscribe to the channel and we'll talk to you later [Music]

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 596,086

Rating: 4.8446274 out of 5

Keywords: live, living, car, van, RV, Full-time, nomad, gypsy, camper, camp, boondock, travel, snowbird, caravan, tiny, house, tribe, RTR, adventure, air conditioner, solar, watts

Id: EaVCNQ_59lM

Length: 26min 29sec (1589 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 15 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/secessus]

Several people in this sub are running solar-powered A/C.