January 1, 20251 yr I have 5.5 kw ecco inverter 10kw lithium 4400kw solar . main load through the day is the swimming pool I'm looking at an 12000btu Aircon there's 2 option the invert AC and the one speed AC . From what I have been told the invert AC is more inverter friendly as it does not spike the inverter on startup and does not surge the inverter every time the pump starts up . (1) the invert AC supposed to use less electricy on the long run if it is the right size for the room but does take longer to cool the room . (2) The invert AC is more expensive . so the question is . is the invert AC worth the extra cost when it comes to running from 5kw inverters? my brother in law that also lives on the property has an old one speed 9000btu AC and it does spike on start up to 4.5kw and does draw around 1.2kw almost constantly .
January 1, 20251 yr Looking at doing the same quite soon. The inverter AC is the better choice. Inverter AC's have a gradual start up, ramping up slowly and once the room has been cooled to the desired temp, ramps down and consumes little power to maintain the temperature. A single speed AC is exactly that, single speed. Big spike in draw to get the pump going, then it hums away at 1.2 - 1.5kw, then shuts off, then back on, and off, repeating this cycle. The extra money on the inverter AC in the long run is worth it as you'll use less power (more to go to charging up batteries). I found a chap in Cape Town that has a special on Alaska 12000 BTU inverter AC's, installation back to back included for R7999.99, Aircon Deals (airconsdeals.co.za). My parents had a 24000BTU inverter unit installed. They have 2 x Sacolar 5kw inverters. Has never peaked more than 1.5kw and cools their open plan lounge and kitchen down nicely.
January 2, 20251 yr 10 hours ago, GMAC said: I have 5.5 kw ecco inverter 10kw lithium 4400kw solar . main load through the day is the swimming pool I'm looking at an 12000btu Aircon there's 2 option the invert AC and the one speed AC . From what I have been told the invert AC is more inverter friendly as it does not spike the inverter on startup and does not surge the inverter every time the pump starts up . (1) the invert AC supposed to use less electricy on the long run if it is the right size for the room but does take longer to cool the room . (2) The invert AC is more expensive . so the question is . is the invert AC worth the extra cost when it comes to running from 5kw inverters? my brother in law that also lives on the property has an old one speed 9000btu AC and it does spike on start up to 4.5kw and does draw around 1.2kw almost constantly . The inverter AC is definitely worth it. I have three installed at my house and I run all three at the same time on my 5kw Deye inverter off batteries/solar. Check out ACDirect their prices are decent.
January 2, 20251 yr 11 hours ago, GMAC said: From what I have been told the invert AC is more inverter friendly as it does not spike the inverter on startup and does not surge the inverter every time the pump starts up . This is true. I saw this when I replaced my old deep freeze with a new one with inverter. The new one uses less power overall, but also significantly less peak power. The old one only had two speeds: On and off. With the inverter drive (if it's late and night, all is quiet, and you have nothing better to do) you can hear the motors on the inverter driven devices shifting speed all the time. You also hear them spinning up to full speed at start time.
January 2, 20251 yr 12 hours ago, GMAC said: I have 5.5 kw ecco inverter 10kw lithium 4400kw solar . main load through the day is the swimming pool I'm looking at an 12000btu Aircon there's 2 option the invert AC and the one speed AC . From what I have been told the invert AC is more inverter friendly as it does not spike the inverter on startup and does not surge the inverter every time the pump starts up . (1) the invert AC supposed to use less electricy on the long run if it is the right size for the room but does take longer to cool the room . (2) The invert AC is more expensive . so the question is . is the invert AC worth the extra cost when it comes to running from 5kw inverters? my brother in law that also lives on the property has an old one speed 9000btu AC and it does spike on start up to 4.5kw and does draw around 1.2kw almost constantly . Like everyone confirmed, get the Inverter AC, my 12k BTU starts up at something like 90w (as tested with the kill-a-watt) and slowly ramps up, and then down as the room is cooled down. In kids room is an old 9k btu - starts up at around 900w and basically stay there with the intermittent ramp-up to 1.1Kw Besides the massive power saving the inverted one runs at about 50% the noise.
January 2, 20251 yr Author Thanks so far . I now decided and ordered an 12000btu invert DIY pre charged AC. . What now will be interesting is to see how my brother in law's that also stays on the property 9000btu one speed AC compares to my 12000btu invert AC . Update soon.
January 2, 20251 yr 9 hours ago, GMAC said: Thanks so far . I now decided and ordered an 12000btu invert DIY pre charged AC. . What now will be interesting is to see how my brother in law's that also stays on the property 9000btu one speed AC compares to my 12000btu invert AC . Update soon. Please keep us posted. Beginning of Dec I did some load tests on a 18000 BTU inverter Aircon. Starting is only when fan is running. Then ramps up a few minutes later when compressor kicks in.
January 3, 20251 yr I run an 18000 BTU inverter aircon on a 5 kW Sunsynk, with no issues at all. with 15 kWh's of battery charged by solar panels, run it practically all night.
January 4, 20251 yr On 2025/01/03 at 3:39 AM, Tariq said: I run an 18000 BTU inverter aircon on a 5 kW Sunsynk, with no issues at all. with 15 kWh's of battery charged by solar panels, run it practically all night. Just in short my test revealed that apart from the ramp uo which takes up to 8min when working hard as it was during the high heat during the 1st 3 weeks of December and the current never went higher than 7.8A and once the room was cool the current could be at any level below 7.8A but lots of times around the 4-6A region. It is a Jet Air make and in use for over 7yrs.
January 8, 20251 yr On 2025/01/02 at 1:50 PM, GMAC said: Thanks so far . I now decided and ordered an 12000btu invert DIY pre charged AC. . What now will be interesting is to see how my brother in law's that also stays on the property 9000btu one speed AC compares to my 12000btu invert AC . Update soon. What unit did you go for if you dont mind we asking? I see many dont sell DIY units and insist on a professional install. Finances got hit a bit on my side over the last couple weeks, so I bought a 12000BTU portable unit yesterday for R1600, used of course. So far today, its been amazing, mainly because its running 100% off solar. Cant use it at night though
January 8, 20251 yr 26 minutes ago, Bl4d3 said: Cant use it at night though Yeah, they are not very energy efficient. That unit will probably use more watts than an 18k btu split unit. But they are nice and fast to use in different rooms, and they can travel with you
January 8, 20251 yr Author 7 hours ago, Bl4d3 said: What unit did you go for if you dont mind we asking? I see many dont sell DIY units and insist on a professional install. Finances got hit a bit on my side over the last couple weeks, so I bought a 12000BTU portable unit yesterday for R1600, used of course. So far today, its been amazing, mainly because its running 100% off solar. Cant use it at night though I went for the E- COOL 12000btu invert unit and bought it through take a lot . It's an DIY kit so comes with everything need apart from tools to install it + the outside compressor unit is pre gased so no need to get someone out to vacuum and gas it .
January 8, 20251 yr Author The E-COOL 12000btu easy to install but did get a friend that works on fridges and aircons to help as 4 hands are better than 2 when it comes to install the the units on the wall . The plan was only to use it as long as the solar it generating enough solar to power the Aircon but found running it till we go to bed was not on issue from 10kw batterys . There are 2 rooms joining that the AC is cooling the room with the AC is 15sqares m and the othere room 10 square m . The AC is running this evening at 26c witch is surprisingly very confidential to be in with a load of 380w 1.7amps but the first few minutes till the room cool it started at 1.2kw 5.45amps. Mid day was 32c with high humidity as in Limpopo tzaneen very humid now with the rain and with testing the AC for hour an a half with different temps the bucket filed with 1.9L of water so . Start up at 16c was about 1.3kw so that seem max Wats it will ever draw. Then changed to 26c and it settled at about 400w reaching 26c on the temp gauge. Changed then to 24c and it settled at about 700wats but guess if I left it longer as everything in the room cooled what could have dropped more but time was an issue for me . Bump it down to 20c loads were settled at 1.2kw after about 30minuts and temp in the room reached the 20c on the temp gauge but guess again if I left it longer Wats could have dropped more . Time was an issue so I change temps as the room reached the temp but the Wats did seem to settle at the wats I stated . Must say at 20c room temp it's not very comfortable and as they say ac is for comfort and not to freeze so with us 26c room temp is just nice as it takes the humidity out and makes the 2 rooms comfortable to be in . Living in high humidity and 32+ out temps and it cools down later at night 26 c room tempat 380wats running from battery till 22:00 works for us edits this at 22:15 and the load was 250 Wats at 26 room temp so looks like 250wats is as low as it gets . Edited January 8, 20251 yr by GMAC
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.