We have a 12 000 BTU split unit in the bedroom, and that thing runs from 8pm until around 7am every day at lowest setting (16'c). Another 9000 BTU unit is coming for our study (two gaming pc's heat the small room up quite a bit).

I've been told not to run aircons off our inverter, mostly due to the start-up current. What are the rules there though? Would it be worth it investing in a 'soft start', although I see the proper units are rather expensive.

Thoughts / comments?

These days you can get Inverter aircons for not too much more than the regular ones. They basically have a soft-start built in in the form of an inverter that drives the compressor and ramps it up nicely so there is no big load spike. In my previous house I had a small 9000BTU inverter aircon running from my 4kVA Inverter without any problems.

7 minutes ago, Stanley said:

These days you can get Inverter aircons for not too much more than the regular ones. They basically have a soft-start built in in the form of an inverter that drives the compressor and ramps it up nicely so there is no big load spike. In my previous house I had a small 9000BTU inverter aircon running from my 4kVA Inverter without any problems.

In addition to start-up current I think many installers don't want to add aircons to the "always on/backup (depending on inverter)" section because a user might not realize that he is killing his available battery capacity at night with a aircon running.

Pylon's are not that cheap yet

Edited November 15, 20196 yr by PJJ

18 minutes ago, pblaauw said:

Would it be worth it investing in a 'soft start',

With solar and inverters, it is worth investing in Inverter Aircons. Try to go one size bigger than needed for the room. That way you will ensure that it does go into "idle" mode. The Idle mode brings along some savings and the low starup current is pretty kind to your inverters.  

 

5 minutes ago, PJJ said:

In addition to start-up current I think many installers don't want to add aircons to the "always on/backup (depending on inverter)"

In most of my installations I replace the aircon in the main bedroom with an inverter aircon and then size the battery bank to allow for that aircon to run through the night, but you are correct, allowing for 1 x 12000 btu to run through the night in the really hot Northern parts of SA will cost you close to 100k per aircon. (when using Pylons)