Air Cond. and alternators &batteries

[larrythompson]

Like to hear from someone who has been there and done that. Have airconditioning but no genset. If I put on a large inverter can I run rhe Air off of the alternaor while running the engine and or off the house batteries? I understand that I can eat up a lot of amps in a hurry but even a couple of hours of Air in the Bahamas at dusk in the summer would be a big help. Air draws about 6 amps. 500 amp hours of Trojans for house batteries and a wind generator with 42 inch diameter blades.

[obiec]

Probably yes. Keep in mind that a 6 amp I am assuming is at 115 volts so it would be around 75 amps at your boats voltage. The problem with an inverter is not running the appliance but starting it. It will only be using around 900 watts, but to start such a load will take a much larger inverter. I don not believe a 1500 would do it I think you would need at least a 3000 watt inverter and that might not be enough. I would ask that your dealer let you take it and see if it will start the load before you purchase it. Now if you are drawing around 75 amps you also have the inefficacy''s of the chargers the inverter and the storage of the batts to contend with. So your actual consumption will be more likely to be 90 amps. This means without running the engine you would deplete your battery bank to the 50% mark in 2.5 hours. If you have an alternator that will produce 100 amps or more it might keep up or at least come real close. if it is 50 amps that you could go approximately 5 hours before you would have to shut down your AC for at least 6 hour to recharge.