Solar newbie question

[dvorocks]

I'm putting together a solar system for my expo rig. I picked up 2 330w panels and I have inverter 1500w. ( runs the a.c. perfectly)
The main. Purpose of this setup is to run a 5000btu air conditioner for approx 4 hrs in case of an emergency to keep my bulldogs cool. The a.c. is a Frigidaire with low start feature.
My question is how much of a bank do I need to do this? I'm leaning towards Odessy batteries? Also any recomendation on a solar charger?

 

[SoCal Tom]

The Frigidaire I have pulls about 550 watts when running. Since you can't really estimate how often it would cycle without knowing the temperature etc lets assume they run constantly. 550watts at 4 hours is 2200 watt-hours of power. At 12.5 volts you would need about 176Ah, using the 50% rule means you need over 352AH of battery capacity. To replenish the 176Ah ( assuming 5 sun hours), would mean you need about 35 Amps of charging from your panels. My guess is that your current panels can probably do that if they are aimed properly. 4 of the 31-800s would do it, they would weigh in at 280lbs. Unless you have some special circumstances, you will save a lot of weight and money by getting a small generator. Then you could run it all day long. FWIW, I run mine on a Honda EU1000i, but something like the 2K predator would probably be better.
Tom

 

[dvorocks]

Thank you.. That is exactly the info I was hoping for. I have a 5500 onan quiet diesel that runs the rooftop a.c. but I want a backup just in case of an emergency.

 

[SoCal Tom]

A small generator would be cheaper, weigh less and take up less space. For batteries, the best bang for the buck are the GC2 golf cart batteries. Four 6v batteries will get you 430 Ah. For about 85$ each. And they are true deep cycle batteries. I didn’t see any deep cycles on the Odessy website.


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