Hi

As per the title can a 3kw inverter handle a 12 BTU inverter aircon?

Thanks.

 

7 minutes ago, AlexanderR said:

Hi

As per the title can a 3kw inverter handle a 12 BTU inverter aircon?

Thanks.

 

It can and it can't. You haven't asked a good question. 

How many watts of electricity does the aircon drawer? Does it draw that continuously? What else is your inverter backing up? 

As far as I can tell, my inverter could run a 12000 BTU aircon (I think you mean 12000, not 12) if that's all it had to do. But

1) if I have other stuff operating at the same time then the inverter has to handle the cumulative load. If that exceeds the rated power of the inverter then it will trip to protect itself. 

2) I like to (and usually can) get through the night on my batteries, so I'd need to see how much extra juice is drawn from them. 

3) my POV might change if the grid is down at night, then I have to think a little more about the batteries and what I want them backing up. 

If you have the inverter in place already then you can try it and see what happens. 

If you don't yet have it, then try to get an idea of how much power your property consumes average per day, if you can, a peak figure (this isn't consumed all day, but is the most likely to be consumed at any time), and then decide what you have to have backed up. Then you have a basis for sizing the components of the system. 

If you have budgetary constraints then you need to do the last part: decide what you must have backed up and establish what that load is. If it exceeds 3kW then you have to discard something, or play the game of managing what can be turned on simultaneously. 

When I got my system some years ago now, I watched it a lot at first. Then when I understood what the impact of various appliances was, I could move some of them over to the backed up side of the DB. 

4 hours ago, Bobster. said:

It can and it can't. You haven't asked a good question. 

How many watts of electricity does the aircon drawer? Does it draw that continuously? What else is your inverter backing up? 

As far as I can tell, my inverter could run a 12000 BTU aircon (I think you mean 12000, not 12) if that's all it had to do. But

1) if I have other stuff operating at the same time then the inverter has to handle the cumulative load. If that exceeds the rated power of the inverter then it will trip to protect itself. 

2) I like to (and usually can) get through the night on my batteries, so I'd need to see how much extra juice is drawn from them. 

3) my POV might change if the grid is down at night, then I have to think a little more about the batteries and what I want them backing up. 

If you have the inverter in place already then you can try it and see what happens. 

If you don't yet have it, then try to get an idea of how much power your property consumes average per day, if you can, a peak figure (this isn't consumed all day, but is the most likely to be consumed at any time), and then decide what you have to have backed up. Then you have a basis for sizing the components of the system. 

If you have budgetary constraints then you need to do the last part: decide what you must have backed up and establish what that load is. If it exceeds 3kW then you have to discard something, or play the game of managing what can be turned on simultaneously. 

When I got my system some years ago now, I watched it a lot at first. Then when I understood what the impact of various appliances was, I could move some of them over to the backed up side of the DB. 

Thanks. That makes a lot of sense. 

So in the attached image you'd need at least a 3kw hour inverter to run this aircon?