Running AC on battery

lbyeary · 06-10-2018, 12:10 PM

Has anyone had any issues running their AC on battery while boondocking? If so could you get an all night useage?

Robbbyr · 06-10-2018, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lbyeary

Has anyone had any issues running their AC on battery while boondocking? If so could you get an all night useage?

If AC is air conditioning you would need a huge battery bank and a very robust inverter. No one I know of has that capabilty.

lbyeary · 06-10-2018, 12:21 PM

Yes, I meant air conditioning when I said AC. Thanks for your response.

WinnieView · 06-10-2018, 12:29 PM

You would need to be connected to shore power for AC operation or have the generator running the entire time.

Robbbyr · 06-10-2018, 12:34 PM

When you invert 12-volts DC to 120-volts AC the amperage draw to run an AC unit the current requirements are staggering. A 15,000 btu roof air may draw up to 3,500 watts while starting, then when running draw 1,500. That converts to 291 amps at 12-volts at startup and 125 amps running. That does not include the loss from the inverter itself since they don't operate at 100% efficiency.

It would be nice to have the ability, it just isn't practical till they perfect a mobile nuclear reactor!

RoyBraddy · 06-10-2018, 12:58 PM

One different kind of air conditioning you might want to experiment with is one of those swamp coolers evaporator for trailers... I played with one in Airzona where there wasn't much humidity at night... Worked pretty good...

I forget the brand name for these swamp coolers but they are out there mostly for folks living in West I guess...

They are nothing more than cool water running down a filter with a fan behind it... I used to run creek water through at night and route it back into the creek again. That was a great for keeping cool at night without much power needed. Just a pump and a fan and a cool water source...

Turbo Cool comes to mind and is mounted on the roof. Mine was a home made setup using a car radiator...

Roy Ken

memphis02 · 06-10-2018, 01:19 PM

Unless you have a spare tesla wall to bring around, I would say this isn't practical.

redsnapper · 06-10-2018, 03:19 PM

In a word......don't even think about it.

Your batteries and your wallet will thank you again and again.

**Mustang65** · 06-10-2018, 05:36 PM

If you have enough money $$$$$, the answer would be yes and you may still have issues.

We use (2) 12", 12VDC fans to circulate the air and they do a fine job.

Don

My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

redsnapper · 06-10-2018, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoyBraddy

They are nothing more than cool water running down a filter with a fan behind it... I used to run creek water through at night and route it back into the creek again.
Roy Ken

Hey Roy........

I thought the water evaporated by the fan blowing on the filter....hence an "evaporative cooler"
If the water does indeed evap.......what water is needed to "run back in the creek"?

che57vy · 06-10-2018, 06:54 PM

All the water does not evaporate their is a saturation point air can only hold so much moisture excess is passed to creek

redsnapper · 06-10-2018, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by che57vy

All the water does not evaporate their is a saturation point air can only hold so much moisture excess is passed to creek

Thanks and makes sense.

Wondering if that same air saturation would hold true in the desert SW where the humidity levels are more often than not, in the single digits?

ALJO · 06-10-2018, 07:20 PM

Swamp coolers with air movement by fans is the best cooling system special in areas with low humidity. Easy to built yourself or to buy. With a self-contained Swamp cooler before traveling you've to drain the water, which is a hassle.

I can run my A/C on my 3000 watt inverter, butt only have approx. 1/2 hour batt. capacity. So I don't and use the generator/inverter instead.

Nothing is really for free, everything has a long term investment. Also a solar power system. Where you can save with camping is boon-docking........that's free.

RoyBraddy · 06-10-2018, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redsnapper

Hey Roy........

I thought the water evaporated by the fan blowing on the filter....hence an "evaporative cooler"
If the water does indeed evap.......what water is needed to "run back in the creek"?

I always had more water to deal with so just routed it back the the creek. This also let me keep using a bunch of new very cool water coming in form the creek...

I had a hose going to the creek with 12VDC pump pulling in cold creek water to one port of a car radiator and the other port of the car radiator water hose went back to the creek. The 12V Fan would be blowing through the car radiator fins... Really did work for giving cool air into our tent doing this... Sure did look strange however have a car radiator sitting inside a tent hehe... I first tried using a car heater instead of the car radiator but not enough cores inside I guess to give off cool air...

I was always going to make up the reverse of this of having a bon-fire going heating up metal tubes criss crossing the bon-fire then routing the pumped heated creek water thru the radiator and would give off hot air. If the water was going to fast to be heated good then I thought I would have a small tank in the line to slow the process down... Never did try to heat up the creek water doing this... I think it would work just fine...

Now they sell hydronic water heaters using your trailer hot water heater running on propane in a closed loop. Someone made money off of my thinking back in the 60s hehe...

Roy's image

Roy Ken

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