Will my solar run the aircon at night?
At night the panels do nothing; the battery runs the aircon through the hybrid inverter. A 1 HP inverter aircon takes 25–45 A out of a 24 V battery, so a 100 Ah battery gives two to four hours, and eight hours of aircon needs 300 Ah or more. A non-inverter aircon starts with a surge that a small hybrid cannot pass.
Kaya ba ng solar ang aircon sa gabi?
Sa gabi, battery lang ang gumagana. Ang 1 HP inverter aircon ay kumukuha ng 25 hanggang 45 A mula sa 24 V na battery, kaya ang 100 Ah ay tatagal ng dalawa hanggang apat na oras lang. Para sa walong oras, kailangan ng 300 Ah pataas. Ang non-inverter na aircon ay may malaking start-up surge na hindi kaya ng maliit na hybrid.
See it run
1 HP inverter aircon on a 3.6 kW hybrid at night: what the battery seesA build with a test sheet: every number on this page is a test you can run.
The numbers
| 1 HP inverter aircon, room still warm | about 900 W → 45 A at 24 V |
| 1 HP inverter aircon, room cool | about 500 W → 28 A at 24 V |
| 100 Ah 24 V LiFePO4 (use 90 %) | 2.3 kWh → 2–4 h of aircon |
| 8 h of aircon with the fridge and lights | about 6 kWh → 300 Ah at 24 V, or 150 Ah at 48 V |
| Panels to put that back the next day | 1.5–2 kW of panels in Cebu sun (4 peak-sun hours) |
Questions
Does a bigger inverter help at night?
No. The inverter only converts; the hours come from the battery’s Ah. A bigger inverter lets you start bigger loads, nothing more.
Inverter aircon or non-inverter for solar?
Inverter aircon. It soft-starts (no surge), throttles down once the room is cool, and uses about half the energy over a night. A non-inverter unit starts with a 5–7 × surge that trips small inverters and small battery BMSs.
Can I run it on 12 V?
A 1 HP aircon at 12 V is 70–90 A of battery current; the cables, the fuse and the battery BMS all have to be sized for that. 24 V or 48 V is the practical choice for an aircon.
What about a grid-tie system with net metering?
It runs the aircon only while the grid is up. In a brownout it gives nothing: see the grid-tie page.
More questions
- Why does my aircon trip the inverter when it starts?
- Does grid-tie solar work in a brownout?
- What keeps the Wi-Fi router up in a brownout?
- What breaker and wire size for an aircon?
- What breaker and wire size for a water heater?
- How big a solar panel and battery for a piso Wi-Fi?
Brownout backup · Piso Wi-Fi on solar · Solar PV simulator · House wiring simulator