In hot and humid climates, electricity is often unavailable due to power outages. So this is the right time for choosing solar modules for air conditioning.
If you want to run your AC through solar panels instead of electric grid power, you are pursuing a more sustainable future. If so, how many solar panels do you need to run an AC. Another thing you need to consider is whether your AC can only work on solar modules or if you need a battery backup for that.
How many solar panels do I need to run an AC?
It depends on what ton of AC you are using and what kWh of solar panels you are using.
We will examine this in detail below for different tons of AC. We assume you use AC for an average of 4 hours a day.
Per 1 ton of AC
If you want to know how many solar panels you need to run 1 ton of AC, then you need to know how much electricity your AC uses and how many solar panels you need to produce that much electricity accordingly.
Typically, a ton of AC uses 1200 to 1500 watts of power, so you need 6 solar panels of 250 watts to generate that much electricity.
This is to run the AC alone, but if you want to run any other devices with your AC powered by solar energy, you will need more solar panels, depending on the number of appliances and the total electricity wattage of those appliances.
.1.5 tons of AC
1.5 tons of AC uses an average of 2500 watts of electricity, so you need ten solar panels of 250 watts each to generate that much electricity.
Also, if you are thinking of taking an inverter, you will need a 2.5 kVA grid inverter.
If you already have ten solar panels installed to run other electrical applications, ten solar panels of 250 watts each will be enough to run 1.5 tons of AC, then you will need an additional ten modules.
3 tons per AC
The average power consumption of 3 tons of AC is about 3000 to 3500 watts. Compared to that much electric generation, fourteen solar panels of 250 watts are needed to run the AC alone.
Although it is not advisable to run 3 tons of AC on solar panels alone, because it won't be able to generate and supply continues to keep the AC running for a long time.
So if do not have enough sunlight to run the AC, consider your grid-wired power as a backup.
Battery requirements for running AC at night
There are solar panels that help you run the AC all day, but if you do not have enough sunlight on sunset or cloudy days, you may run into problems if you do not have a battery for power storage.
You need batteries to store solar energy and generate electricity to run the air conditioner at night. But the thing is, different wattage AC requires different capacity of the battery. It does not make sense to use a high capacity battery to run a 1 ton AC that does not use enough power. If you are using an inverter with a battery, you do not need a high capacity battery because the inverter can share the load.
So in conclusion, depending on the length of your AC usage, a 1.5 ton air conditioner requires four batteries of 150 AH to run three to four hours of AC without a problem. If the AC is to run for a long time, the number of batteries will have to be increased.
