Newbie wants to run 24,000 BTU AC

[Jommy747]

Thank you. I don’t understand Pb. The truck battery is here local. No shipping. I know lithium is the way to go but $$$$$$

[Ampster]

I presume the truck battery is Pb? Those are more fragile in the sense that they need to be fully charged every day. Lithium batteries, while more expensive, will be more tolerant of partial charges and allow you to use more capacity or buy less capacity for the same useful capacity... Pb useful capacity is only 50 percent. The price is good for the truck battery but the weight may increase the shipping cost.

[bcroe]

If you have already been using that 24,000 BTU, you must have
AC power. Check out its SEER, you want at least 20s. The
economical plan is a Net Metering arrangement with your Power
Company, let them be your infinite capacity, 100% efficient, zero
cost or maintenance, battery.

If you must use a battery, someone here doing so may advise you.
At the least you will need a big charge controller, a big battery, an
inverter (probably 24VDC powered), and a low voltage shutdown
to protect the battery from damage. Panels almost never deliver their
rated peak, so you might need more to compensate for that, and
for the inefficiency of all the above components. In the end a late
high efficiency, direct solar powered unit might still be cheapest.
good luck, Bruce Roe

[Jommy747]

Thank you Bruce but when you live on an island in the Caribbean everything you buy ship and import is very expensive. So I have a 2 years old split unit so I plan to use that. Buying an AC solar powered is not in my budget. When you say i probably need more that that, how many? How do you calculate that? Thank you

[bcroe]

Run my 24,000 BTU York split unit from noon to 6 pm.
The split unit runs on 230 volts. It consumes 700 to 1.200 from when it starts to when the room is cold and run on eco mode. So let’s say 6 hours = 6,000 watts.

1200 watts times 5 hours = 6000W Hours. I think your best shot would be to
use a mini split or other unit designed to run directly from solar panels. But
you probably will need more panels than that. Bruce Roe

[Jommy747]

Hello everybody. I have a very specific goal. Run my 24,000 BTU York split unit from noon to 6 pm. So I studied and came up with the following calculations. Please let me know if I made mistakes or this would work. Ok here we go:

The split unit runs on 230 volts. It consumes 700 to 1.200 from when it starts to when the room is cold and run on eco mode. So let’s say 6 hours = 6,000 watts.

i live on an island with limited supply but I could get a huge truck battery 12 v new 1,800 Ah for $300.
i get get a Growatt 3Kv here. I am thinking 3 panels of 400 watts. In the Caribbean we have A LOT of sun hours. On a cloudy day, if I cannot charge full my battery, it’s ok. It’s cloudy and cooler. No need AC.
please let me know what you think. Thank you for the help.