Portable air con

[Gwyngwin]

Planning to visit the south west of France this summer. Unfortunately our 2003 Autotrail has no air con.

I was wondering if I could use a portable mains powered unit run off an Inverter whilst travelling.

I have two Leisure batteries of 100ah and a 100 watt solar panel.

Looking at purchasing a 2000watt inverter and a air con unit of 900watts maximum power input.

 

Has anybody tried this? Or is a non starter?

 

:-D (?) (?) (?) (?)

[colin]

When you say "whilst travelling", do you mean while on the road driving, or while parked up?

A 900w aircon will be drawing around 75amps, your batteries would last barely 1 1/2 hours at that rate if parked up, whilst driving you would need to wire direct to the alternator, and even then I doubt it is designed to output at that level for extended periods.

[mtravel]

To avoid problems I recommend buying a pure sine wave inverter and not a modified wave one, the latter may not be able to drive inductive loads such as those of electric motors.

 

The 100W panel helps but it is totally insufficient, it's like you don't have it.

Also, how many Amps can your alternator supply ?

Not to mention the absorption peak at start-up (about 20A for about thirty milliseconds), with an inverter with a 90% efficiency, 900W becomes 1000 which at 12V is equivalent to 83A.

Since it is not recommended to draw major currents from batteries, you are at the limit.

[spirou]

As has been said before, your batteries won't last long enough to even start cooling the van. The 100W panel also won't make any meaningful contribution. Actually, for any panel size to make a difference you need to park in full sun which directly negates that you're trying to keep the vehicle cool. Just park in the shade and grab a cold bottle of whatever.

 

Coincidentally came across this 12V AC recently at max 550W. Wouldn't make much of a difference to the fundamental problem but...

 

https://greenakku.de/mobilPV/Montage-und-Zubehoer/mobilPV-Zubehoer/OFF-by-indelB-Plein-Aircon-Dachklimaanlage-12V::3467.html

[mtravel]

spirou - 2022-03-01 12:51 PM

 

Coincidentally came across this 12V AC recently at max 550W. Wouldn't make much of a difference to the fundamental problem but...

 

https://greenakku.de/mobilPV/Montage-und-Zubehoer/mobilPV-Zubehoer/OFF-by-indelB-Plein-Aircon-Dachklimaanlage-12V::3467.html

 

Also in English https://off.indelb.com/en/products/plein-aircon-aria-condizionata-12v

 

But as Lavoisier said:

Nothing is created, nothing is destroyed, everything is transformed

It t doesn't change much.

Only eliminate the inverter efficiency, always less than one.

[Gwyngwin]

Thank you very much for the replies.

I was beginning to reach the same conclusions.

At least the Portable air con will work when parked on site.

Windows down it is then. :-(

[Mickt]

I have travelled many places in Europe in my 2003 MH. Never had aircon ,never needed it and avoid camping next to anybody on site that has aircon,too much noise

[mtravel]

Mickt - 2022-03-01 3:17 PM

 

I have travelled many places in Europe in my 2003 MH. Never had aircon ,never needed it and avoid camping next to anybody on site that has aircon,too much noise

 

I don't know where you have traveled but I guarantee you that the air conditioner is sometimes needed.

Maybe not on the French Mediterranean coast.

However, it is enough to move a little inland, to say Avignon.

 

A few examples:

Granada, 48°C at 6pm.

Delphi, 38° at midnight, stifling mugginess, not a breath of wind, not even the leaves on the trees moved.

Southern Italy 2021, twenty days with daytime temperatures of 42-44 °.

And in the evening they didn't drop much.

But even in Vilnius (LT) I guarantee it was hot, for three days we had drops of condensation slipping from the roof.

 

Max

 

p.s. My Dometic 1600 could not even be heard from the outside.

My new Truma Compact too.

Of course they are certainly not cheap ...

[Mickt]

France ,Spain,Portugal and as far east as Croatia