Home › Calculators › Solar for aircon calculator

Solar for aircon calculator

Panels, battery and inverter to run an air conditioner on solar.

Try the circuit in the labBuild it on the simulator's bench and measure it.

How it is worked out

An aircon does not draw its sticker power all the time: an inverter type slows its compressor once the room is cool and averages roughly half; an old non-inverter type cycles on and off at full power and averages more. Energy = sticker watts × duty × hours.

Panels = daily Wh ÷ peak sun hours ÷ 0.8 (0.8 covers heat, dust and wiring losses). Example: a 900 W inverter aircon for 6 hours in the day uses about 900 × 0.55 × 6 = 2,970 Wh, needing about 825 W of panels: two 550 W panels.

Running it at night is what makes solar aircon expensive: every night hour needs battery. Most people run it on solar by day and on the grid at night. Test your own numbers in the lab's My house planner.

Other calculators