.

Yeah, if someone could chime in I was curious about this too.  I was looking at the goal zero ones and was also wondering what others thought of these.

I built one getting panels off of amazon and batteries from Battery Bills. It's not that hard to do.

Here's a very simple one but you can expand and adjust to meet your needs.

http://solarburrito.com/build-your-own-solar-power-generator/

I highly suggest building your own as you will save a lot of money.

.

Check out this thread from a couple of years ago  https://2ahawaii.com/index.php?topic=3361.0.  System still going strong.

I have a Goal Zero yeti which comes in handy (helped run a surf contest with it once when the generator died) but next time I'm definitely going to build my own. If you can handle a soldering iron and do some basic math then it's way better in my opinion.

Question... What kind of setup (sufficient power - battery and inverter) would one need to run a 12,000btu 110V AC during summer?

Question... What kind of setup (sufficient power - battery and inverter) would one need to run a 12,000btu 110V AC during summer?

That would depend on several factors:

1) What is the current draw of the unit?
2) Is the unit properly sized for your room?  The compressor will run much more if the unit is undersized = more wear & tear on the unit and need more power.
3) How hot does the room get & how much cooler do you want to make it:  Affects how long the compressor will be running vs just the fan.
4) Will you be running the A/C 24/7?

Answers to these questions will allow you to calculate what you need.

Also compressors really hate voltage drop so you need a battery bank and a good quality inverter that can switch on the fly. Because clouds.

Here's a good article on building a solar generator.

http://www.survivalkit.com/blog/build-basic-portable-solar-power-system-campingboatingoff-grid-living/

So I don't have the napkin math anymore, but after a recent power outage I wondered if solar-powered AC was practical. I had food, water, lights, entertainment, guns.. but no AC (sad face).

Anyway I decided it is not practical - only makes sense if you are doing a large system at which point you may as well go whole-house or partial whole-house because you'll have so much invested.

Main reason is compressors use a ton of power and you need a big battery bank/inverter system to accept their start-up load. How much is yours? Probably way more than the running load. Somewhere on the condenser there should be a plate that lists the LRA and RA. Typically the LRA (locked rotor-amps) is something like 5 times the running amperage. So it starts to be obvious that if you're going to build something with that much capacity you may as well run your refrigerator (which actually don't use very much power).. and then you may as well have lights (since if you have LEDs the power is negligible).. and well.. why not an appliance or two?

I'm not saying you have to keep 'creeping' your requirements like that and you could do solar-powered AC system; I just don't think it makes much sense to expend 60-80% of the resources/effort in doing so and not just go more off-grid in the process.

Let me try check the rating on my AC. I was thinking about this to try and lower my electric bill during summer time. It usually doubles since the AC is running most of the time.  I'm thinking that the reduction in cost could easily pay for a small DIY solar system.

.

.

you will need a battery bank to store the energy. An analogy is a rain catchment system. You can drink from the rain drops by opening you rmouth or you can put a large tub/container to catch the rain and drink it from a glass that way. Unfortunately, appliances need a steady voltage.

When getting my PV system 5 years ago, I researched how much a battery back up for 3 days and it would have cost me back then $40K in batteries alone. I hope that the costs goes down as time goes on.

Not to mention the space required for the batteries

Hi. Licensed Electrician here.  Great resource is Home Power Magazine.  They have example systems including basic pricing for every sized system.  Personally the secret with off grid living is removing everything you don't really need (sorry, no AC). Also, combining a battery based system with a standby generator will reduce costs by about half.  Let me know if you have any specific questions.