Is running 1600BTU MarinAire on battery/solar possible?

[rramsden]

You'll need more solar. And more battery if you want to run at night.
Have you looked into 24V DC AC? Saves the power loss of an inverter.

[KingGuppy]

Originally Posted by rramsden

You'll need more solar. And more battery if you want to run at night.
Have you looked into 24V DC AC? Saves the power loss of an inverter.

I have not. Do you mean getting a 24v battery that just runs the AC?

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by KingGuppy

Appreciate this skipmac. The batteries are lead acid. The plan is to upgrade, but we're doing research on the most cost-effective way on that.

How often are you running your AC often with that setup?

Since I only have 660 amp hours of battery and 450 watts of solar I have not been running the air con on battery. Tested it and it works but with fridge and everything else it would suck down the batteries pretty quickly.

For those rare times that I need to use the air con at anchor I have a Honda EU2000. Not something for all day, every day but does the job when needed. I stress need, like those nights when the wind dies, it's hot and the bugs come out leaving one with go below, close up and sweat to death or leave the hatches open and get eaten alive.

[rramsden]

Originally Posted by KingGuppy

I have not. Do you mean getting a 24v battery that just runs the AC?

There are converters that up voltage, 12 to 24 or 48. Significantly less power loss than an inverter.
If you decide to go with a bank of 24V batteries, there are converters to go from 24 to 12.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by rramsden

There are converters that up voltage, 12 to 24 or 48. Significantly less power loss than an inverter.
If you decide to go with a bank of 24V batteries, there are converters to go from 24 to 12.

Not sure I understand or see the advantage. At the end of the day it's how many amp hours you have in batteries. Upping the voltage of a bank will not increase the total amp hours available unless you add more batteries.

[rramsden]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Not sure I understand or see the advantage. At the end of the day it's how many amp hours you have in batteries. Upping the voltage of a bank will not increase the total amp hours available unless you add more batteries.

Any conversion/invention costs power. That's amps. Reducing your effective total available amp hours. Inverters use far more amps than voltage converters.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by rramsden

Any conversion/invention costs power. That's amps. Reducing your effective total available amp hours. Inverters use far more amps than voltage converters.

But to run the air conditioner you still need the inverter so you're adding another step and additional losses.

Air conditioning that the OP has needs 120V AC to run. 24V DC won't give him anything.

[stgermain45]

We run our 16000 BTU and 10000 BTU CruiseAir/Dometic air conditioning units through our inverters. But we have LiFePO4 (800Ah). Both aircon units have a Hyper Engineering SureStart soft start on them to reduce the inrush current (similar to Easystart). We now have two 110V Victron Multiplus 3000W inverters wired in parallel, but before that change a single 3000W Multiplus really groaned when starting the air conditioning unit. It could run the 10000 BTU unit but would not turn over the compressor on the 16000 BTU aircon and the soft start went into alarm.

We have just shy of 1000W of solar. In practice, we don't run the air conditioning very often from batteries. In the Sea of Cortez, MX in summer it was nice to cool the boat down at night before going to sleep. However, when it gets crazy hot a good portion of the daytime solar is being used for refrigeration in particular and all sorts of other things on our overly power-hungry boat. As has been said, the big challenge is replenishing that massive amount of battery depletion. I think with solar only it would be a losing battle for anything other than very short run times - just keep in mind what your needs are in regards to other loads on the boat. In our case, we also have an AC genset and with 2 inverter/chargers in parallel and LiFePO4 we can charge very fast when needed. Also, my opinion is you'd eventually murder a lead bank trying to do this. LiFePO4 all the way for this type of application.

[rramsden]

Originally Posted by skipmac

But to run the air conditioner you still need the inverter so you're adding another step and additional losses.

Air conditioning that the OP has needs 120V AC to run. 24V DC won't give him anything.

I'm suggesting to use a different AC. There are 24 and 48 V DC ACs

[jmschmidt]

The title to your post says "1600BTU" aircon but your post says "16KBTU" which is 16,000BTU. WTF is the deal with posters who won't proof-read their stuff.

[jmschmidt]

The title to this post says "1600BTU" aircon but text of the post says "16KBTU" which is, of course, 16,000BTU. So much crap is posted similarly on this forum...I don't get it. Ever heard of proof reading?

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by rramsden

I'm suggesting to use a different AC. There are 24 and 48 V DC ACs

OK, now I understand.

Yes there are DC powered air conditioners. Don't have one but from specs and reading some of the DC powered units can be very efficient but they are also quite expensive. For as little as I use mine it would not make sense to got for a really expensive unit.

I think the OP already has a traditional AC powered unit installed so assume his focus will be the use of what he already has.

[KingGuppy]

Originally Posted by jmschmidt

The title to your post says "1600BTU" aircon but your post says "16KBTU" which is 16,000BTU. WTF is the deal with posters who won't proof-read their stuff.

Originally Posted by jmschmidt

The title to this post says "1600BTU" aircon but text of the post says "16KBTU" which is, of course, 16,000BTU. So much crap is posted similarly on this forum...I don't get it. Ever heard of proof reading?

It's proofread. Just one word.

[DirtRdEarl]

You’re dreaming.

[Phyrcooler]

One of the YouTube sailors installed an interesting 12v A/C system here: https://youtu.be/nFA3FNAHv_I

Here’s the website for that AC: https://mabrustore.com/

I have no affiliation, nor a ton of knowledge on these systems. I leave it to the gurus and those who profess to be to provide insight.

I think that if you isolate (and insulate) a small cabin, you may be successful in using it for sleep on those occasional hot, humid, wind-less nights… without resorting to running a generator.