Travato Air Conditioner seems to run ok off 2000w converter

[kmessinger]

What I know about electricity. I know off/on and I know those magic guys that carry the electricity get real upset if they touch the ground.

I don't want to damage anything but my AC seems to run fine with my Xantrax 2000w inverter. The AC specs are
RUNNING WATTS (COOLING) A.R.I. STANDARD CONDITION
(80 F. DB 67 F. WB INDOOR, 95 F. DB OUTDOOR) 1350

RUNNING WATTS (COOLING) DESERT CONDITION (100 F.
DB 72 F. WB INDOOR, 120F. DB OUTDOOR) 1625

The only other draw is a NovaKool 4500 Refrigerator that is always on and has a very low draw.

I have 180 amps of solar. I have 2 Lifetime AGM Batteries 100 Ah. It looks like my batteries go down until I start the Travato. Then it seems to stabilize at a very small charge. If I am heading down the road will I eventually run out of juice on my house batteries? Will the inverter over-heat?

Keith

[booster]

Originally Posted by kmessinger

What I know about electricity. I know off/on and I know those magic guys that carry the electricity get real upset if they touch the ground.

I don't want to damage anything but my AC seems to run fine with my Xantrax 2000w inverter. The AC specs are
RUNNING WATTS (COOLING) A.R.I. STANDARD CONDITION
(80 F. DB 67 F. WB INDOOR, 95 F. DB OUTDOOR) 1350

RUNNING WATTS (COOLING) DESERT CONDITION (100 F.
DB 72 F. WB INDOOR, 120F. DB OUTDOOR) 1625

The only other draw is a NovaKool 4500 Refrigerator that is always on and has a very low draw.

I have 180 amps of solar. I have 2 Lifetime AGM Batteries 100 Ah. It looks like my batteries go down until I start the Travato. Then it seems to stabilize at a very small charge. If I am heading down the road will I eventually run out of juice on my house batteries? Will the inverter over-heat?

Keith

When the engine is running, if the batteries are still discharging it means the alternator is not able to keep up with loads and some power is coming from the batteries.


It also means that the alternator is maxed out and will likely overheat and/or turn down it's output. Less out of the alternator so more has to come from the batteries.



IMO, yes, you would run down the batteries and shorten the life of the alternator.

[Rlum]

You can run ac from a small inverter. Only problem is it will/could be a huge load on the inverter. This will reduce the life of the inverter. Installing an Easy Start will reduce load on inverter. Also if you run low on amps. AC will continue to run sometimes. This can/will be a problem for you ac compressor. These motors do not like to be starved for electricity.

You should get an expensive battery monitoring system. Connect to negative terminal. You can read how many amps, air conditioner is using.

Just cause you can run it this way, does not mean you should.

[rowiebowie]

Consult your installer, AM Solar. They will likely tell you "Bad idea."

[Rlum]

Originally Posted by kmessinger

What I know about electricity. I know off/on and I know those magic guys that carry the electricity get real upset if they touch the ground.

I don't want to damage anything but my AC seems to run fine with my Xantrax 2000w inverter. The AC specs are
RUNNING WATTS (COOLING) A.R.I. STANDARD CONDITION
(80 F. DB 67 F. WB INDOOR, 95 F. DB OUTDOOR) 1350

RUNNING WATTS (COOLING) DESERT CONDITION (100 F.
DB 72 F. WB INDOOR, 120F. DB OUTDOOR) 1625

The only other draw is a NovaKool 4500 Refrigerator that is always on and has a very low draw.

I have 180 amps of solar. I have 2 Lifetime AGM Batteries 100 Ah. It looks like my batteries go down until I start the Travato. Then it seems to stabilize at a very small charge. If I am heading down the road will I eventually run out of juice on my house batteries? Will the inverter over-heat?

Keith

I have a friend on FB PF forum. He has a 2017 lexor TS It comes with a 2000 watt inverter. This guy is very knowledgeable about vans and their electrical. He has done many upgrades. He runs his air conditioner(Dometic 11K) off of his inverter for several years now. He said it has saved his inverter by installing Easy Start. He was the one who influenced me to do my East Start install. He also increased his battery bank to 600ah lithium.

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by kmessinger

I have 180 amps of solar.

More likely 180 watts of solar delivering around 10 amps in optimum conditions.

[Rlum]

Originally Posted by cruising7388

More likely 180 watts of solar delivering around 10 amps in optimum conditions.

Getting solar energy means parking in sun light. When we are in van. Parking in shade usually is much more comfortable. I think solar is ok but overblown as a great source or alternative energy for vans. Better to have big battery, run air conditioning in shade and use a generator when bank gets run down. It is also less expensive than solar. Solar is ok but expensive for the amount of energy it produces. Just my opinion. And yes, I have solar because the van came with it. If now, I doubt if I would order it that way today.

[markopolo]

Good catch by Cruising re: amps vs watts Unit errors come up so often that I think I just read the correct units into the text. The problem with that is that the OP might not understand what the correct units are.

[SteveJ]

Originally Posted by Rlum

Getting solar energy means parking in sun light. When we are in van. Parking in shade usually is much more comfortable. I think solar is ok but overblown as a great source or alternative energy for vans. Better to have big battery, run air conditioning in shade and use a generator when bank gets run down. It is also less expensive than solar. Solar is ok but expensive for the amount of energy it produces. Just my opinion. And yes, I have solar because the van came with it. If now, I doubt if I would order it that way today.

The above is exactly why I continue to use portable solar. (Well, there is the install on the roof that I have talked myself out of).

Our electrical system is quite low tech and modest but I was into solar for less that $400 until one of the portable panels broke from bouncing in my trailer. I now stow them on board the RT. Our van's 12 volt system is not set up for the heavy drawing appliances as we only have one L/A battery. This means firing the genny or being plugged in to run the AC, MW, toaster oven, etc. We are fine with that. We can perpetually camp using our 150 watts of solar unless we get several heavy cloud days in a row. We generally don't do extended camping in those locations that tend to be like that. The cheap group 29 "deep cycle" (not marine start) Walmart Maxx battery("maintenance free") is 2.5 years old and still performs well, though I've not done a capacity test on it.

Our setup is obviously not for everyone but it serves our needs/wants splendidly and at a very low cost.

[jakegw2]

I have a Trend that has the Xantrex 2000 installed, so my AC and inverter are identical to yours. You can run it this way, but there are a few threads I would recommend reading for background information:

1. Take some time and read about soft start devices and starting capacitors:
https://www.classbforum.com/forums/f...nit-10707.html

2. You can read about some measurements I did on my 2017 Promaster alternator following the current output vs. alternator temperature while running the AC through the inverter here: http://ttps://www.classbforum.com/fo...t-11074-2.html

3. Finally, be aware that you capacity ratings for batteries are only accurate for a relatively low current draw. If you are powering an AC your batteries will become depleted much faster. Before I installed the lithium batteries I have now my dual 100Ah AGM batteries could only provide about 20m of AC usage before dropping below 50% charge.


The bottom line is that there may be a tradeoff between longevity of the system and it's complexity. Having researched this a fair amount and done my own measurements on my system I am still not sure how serious the longevity problem is for this configuration.

[kmessinger]

Originally Posted by markopolo

Good catch by Cruising re: amps vs watts Unit errors come up so often that I think I just read the correct units into the text. The problem with that is that the OP might not understand what the correct units are.

Ha! Exactly!

Keith

[Macodiva]

Originally Posted by SteveJ

The above is exactly why I continue to use portable solar. (Well, there is the install on the roof that I have talked myself out of).

Our electrical system is quite low tech and modest but I was into solar for less that $400 until one of the portable panels broke from bouncing in my trailer. I now stow them on board the RT. Our van's 12 volt system is not set up for the heavy drawing appliances as we only have one L/A battery. This means firing the genny or being plugged in to run the AC, MW, toaster oven, etc. We are fine with that. We can perpetually camp using our 150 watts of solar unless we get several heavy cloud days in a row. We generally don't do extended camping in those locations that tend to be like that. The cheap group 29 "deep cycle" (not marine start) Walmart Maxx battery("maintenance free") is 2.5 years old and still performs well, though I've not done a capacity test on it.

Our setup is obviously not for everyone but it serves our needs/wants splendidly and at a very low cost.

This is what i'm looking to do.
My battery is under the van towards the back, I want to run a cable from it to the edge of the van, say where the hitch is & have a permanent plug there. Then i can plug in the suitcase easily when i want to.
Is this how you do it?
How have you got your's set up?
Thanks

[ShadoJz]

Off/on - that's all I know about electricity, nothing more, lol. It seems that your conditioner is not working so well and you should make some changes to its components. There may be videos on YouTube to answer your question, but I don't recommend them. Because of such videos, I ruined my conditioner. I recommend you from the beginning to turn to master in this field. They solved all my problems with the air conditioner. It is pretty challenging to find a good company, but you will find the right company if you search very carefully. I wish you luck!






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the link: https://www.spartamech.co.uk/air-conditioning/