The short answer is the number of solar panels depends on which solar panels and air conditioner you have.
How many solar panels to run window ac unit.
The higher number of watts per panel the less of them you ll need to generate your full electricity needs.
It depends on the air conditioner and how much power it needs.
So will any solar generator be able to run your air conditioner.
Solar panels come in a range of sizes.
How many watts an air conditioner uses depends not only on the btu but what kind of ac it is.
This number will be the number of solar panels necessary to cover your air conditioning needs.
This is also assuming of course you have a lot of battery power too.
For example a portable ac like the honeywell 10000 btu only requires 880 watts.
The first 500 watts produced go to the air conditioner directly.
To provide about 14 5 kwh of electricity each day in arizona you d need a 3kw solar installation or a system with about 12 solar panels.
We suggest a battery bank of 800 amp hours.
So we ll assume these to give you an idea.
How many solar panels to run the air conditioner.
I wanted to see how long it would take for my solar panel system batteries to bottom out 50 discharge.
Stress testing my portable ac unit and solar panel power system.
This is assuming you are considering using 12 volt rv grade panels.
A single solar panel is going to charge your batteries much too slowly you ll use up the stored electricity faster than the solar panel can charge them again.
In seattle you d need a 4 75 kw installation about 18 panels.
So smaller portable air conditioners or window units would be able to run on the yeti power station we looked at above.
Assuming that the air conditioning unit requires 1500 waats of power a collection of 6 solar panels at 250 waats capacity could in theory power the air conditioning unit but a lot of individual factors can throw this number in either direction.
Solar panels to recharge what you use at this rate are large.
Where you are and what tempetature and humidity you want can require double or half that.
I decided to stress test my solar panel system by turning the portable ac unit on high and setting the thermostat to 60 degrees.
A few factors determine how many solar panels you will require to run an air conditioner.