# off grid air conditioning



## Sparticle (Nov 1, 2004)

Hi folks. Wondering if our system is performing as it should. Our array is 1148 watts. We have 12 Trojan L16RE 2 volt batteries, 1235 AH at 100 HR. We're using a small AC that is using 610 watts according to the inverter. I was told this AC would work with our system but I'm not sure if it is. We only run the AC in full sun and even then the batteries don't seem to keep up. Any advice and what to look for to make sure we won't kill the batteries? I'm keeping track of the batteries with a Trimetric. Thanks.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

The Trimetric should give you all those answers.
Leave the AC off for a full sun day or two and make sure the bats are topped off.
Are the bats old and weak . .?


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## cmcon=7 (Mar 7, 2010)

It should work fine, check to make sure your panels are working, I had some kyocera 120's go bad,(high impeadence internal connection) disconnect and check for full voltage and short circuit current, they replaced them free of charge


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## Sparticle (Nov 1, 2004)

We have 4 Kyocera 120's. I'll check them out. Thanks.


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## trkarl (Dec 15, 2009)

One problem is your array is pretty small for that size of a battery bank. While the ac may be pulling 610 watts the array most likely is not putting out 1148 watts and then figure in the losses for running it through the inverter and you won't have much juice trying to charge the bank.

When I first got into solar I had an 840 amp/hr 12v bank of trojan L-16 batteries and 530 watts of solar. I would just run a chest freezer that pulled around 70 watts and there was no way for the bank to even reach absorption voltage through out the day even if it was only about 15% discharged from the night before.

Your array for that size of a bank should be around 2500+ watts minimum. jmho/ymmv

ETA: It was suggested to me on a solar forum that you should have minimum of 1 watt per amp/hr for 12v, 2 watts per amp/hr for 24v, and 4 watts per amp/hr for 48v battery banks.


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## Sparticle (Nov 1, 2004)

Yeah, been thinking about getting more panels. We can maybe afford 400 watts more at this time. Any recommendations for panels?


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Craigslist,any popular NAME BRAND mono or multi crystalline panel.Try to match voltages pretty close.


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## greg273 (Aug 5, 2003)

Sparticle said:


> Yeah, been thinking about getting more panels. We can maybe afford 400 watts more at this time. Any recommendations for panels?


 We've got all Evergreen panels here... once upon a time they were all made in the USA, but I believe that has changed.... Good panels though. Got a deal by getting the 'B' grade panels with 'surface imperfections that do not affect output'. Saved about 30% off list price.


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