Thor Forums - View Single Post

Chance · 07-03-2022, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judge

.....cut.....

Not sure how restful sleeping would be with the A/C and generator cycling all night long.

I'm happy to report my bedroom A/C did work throughout the night on my Inverter without any issue. I had it set to 71 and it cycled about a half dozen times best I can recall.

My batteries weren't at 100% before we went to bed last night but I was happy to see they were only down to 68% when I got up this morning.

Installing the SoftStart should allow me to run the A/C off the Inverter if I am so inclined.... but for quick boondocking overnight the SoftStart isn't needed with my Xantrex Freedom XC Pro 3000.

Judge, even the intermittent noise from my portable inverter generator as it loaded up with the compressor on each cycle kept me from sleeping well, so I now set the thermostat as cold as my A/C will go so that compressor stays on all night. It gets colder in van than needed but we rest much better overall.

With shore power I can hear A/C compressor cycling but it doesn’t disturb my sleep as much. Starting and stopping a generator would be a real problem I bet.

A better solution in my opinion is to have an air conditioner with inverter power for the compressor so it can run slower and hence at lower cooling capacity. Mini split and more recently window air conditioners have this optional feature. This makes it possible to run steady at reduced power and be more efficient at same time.

So far the only RV air conditioners I have seen that can reduce compressor speed and cooling capacity are the DC powered. In theory those work best with batteries as your system has, but are still too expensive for most buyers.

I expect RV A/C manufacturers will start offering dual inverter drive at some point for 120 VAC. If it can be offered on $500 window A/C, why not rooftop RV units?

P.S. — For overnight A/C, batteries over generator makes most sense to me. I saw first example in a custom-designed van in Houston 20 years ago and was sold immediately. I just could not justify cost because we stayed in campgrounds with full hookups. Boondocking is more recent for us.