Alright so I've been lurking on this forum for awhile now getting ideas for my own build out and I was hoping some of you knowledgable, kind folks could help me out. I have a new long wheel base, medium roof transit van that I am going to outfit for travel with my wife and dog to central and south america at the beginning of next year. My questions are in regard to the electrical requirements and loads. I am trying to find an Air conditioner that I can run off the battery bank (600ah) for a couple hours. There will be places I will go where one cannot simply take ones dog or wife, and they will need to be in comfort while I/we are away. I have looked a several roof top units, for example:
Coleman Mach 3 P.S
13,500 BTU
Full load cooling is approximately 12amps
Lock rotor amps approx. 58 (I do not know how to figure this in)
Now if I am gone for 4 hours and the a/c has been running the entire time 12amps x 4 hours=48amps. Correct? I have come to understand that there will be a loss
of energy from converting the d/c battery power to a/c for the air conditioner. I am not sure what that is and it probably varies but lets say its an additional 4 amps. Thats 52 amps plus whatever else is running like a fridge 3amps per hour (4)=12 amps so now we are at 64 amps for the 4 hour period. Now the solar gains
lets say 2 panels (Renogy 100W Poly panel) provides 5.5 amps per panel =11 amps per hour x 4hours= 44amps.
A/C load 52 amps
additional loads 12 amps
Total Amps load for 4 hours= 64 amps
Solar panels provide 44 amps (hopefully)
Total amps used for 4 hours 20 amps
With a 600ah AGM battery bank that can be dropped to 50% this does not seem like a huge load on the batteries. Charging would be handled by generator and or
inverter to battery charger provided by the van later that evening. I feel obviously I am missing something because it would seem to work ok. Could someone
please politely plumb me up and steer me in the correct direction? Thank you!
Coleman Mach 3 P.S
13,500 BTU
Full load cooling is approximately 12amps
Lock rotor amps approx. 58 (I do not know how to figure this in)
Now if I am gone for 4 hours and the a/c has been running the entire time 12amps x 4 hours=48amps. Correct? I have come to understand that there will be a loss
of energy from converting the d/c battery power to a/c for the air conditioner. I am not sure what that is and it probably varies but lets say its an additional 4 amps. Thats 52 amps plus whatever else is running like a fridge 3amps per hour (4)=12 amps so now we are at 64 amps for the 4 hour period. Now the solar gains
lets say 2 panels (Renogy 100W Poly panel) provides 5.5 amps per panel =11 amps per hour x 4hours= 44amps.
A/C load 52 amps
additional loads 12 amps
Total Amps load for 4 hours= 64 amps
Solar panels provide 44 amps (hopefully)
Total amps used for 4 hours 20 amps
With a 600ah AGM battery bank that can be dropped to 50% this does not seem like a huge load on the batteries. Charging would be handled by generator and or
inverter to battery charger provided by the van later that evening. I feel obviously I am missing something because it would seem to work ok. Could someone
please politely plumb me up and steer me in the correct direction? Thank you!