Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: Running roof A/C on inverter (Read 2652 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Running roof A/C on inverter

Yahoo Message Number: 85089
I saw another post about this but didn't see any relevant replies, so I'll start a new thread. We have three roof A/C's on our coach. Being 43' obviously the dash air/heat is inadequate to cool or heat the entire cpoach when travelling down the highway. Obviously I can run the heat on the Aqua Hot diesel burner, and I know I can run the Onan generator and run as many of the roof units on A/C or Heat pump as I care to.
But the question is, can I run say one roof air (or heatpump) on the inverter? I have a Magnum ME2000 inverter. This is modified sine wave. I may one day upgrade to the 2800 pure sine wave, especially if I ever feel the need to go to a residential fridge, but for now, everything is adequate as is. But I do not know whether I can run an A/C or heatpump on the inverter and keep the coach batteries charged with the alternator. If someone is going to ask me how many amps my alternator puts out, I would need to ask how to determine that.

Thanks for any input

Joseph Burkle

2008 Country Coach Inspire 360 Founders Edition 43' quad slide tag axle 425 HP C9 pusher http://www. Wind-seeker.com/

Re: Running roof A/C on inverter

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 85092
No man, don't waste your time trying. Lots of discussions on other BB's and there hasn't been anyone able to effectively run an air conditioner from an inverter. Your best bet is to use your generator if you are on the road. Probably your AC units aren't wired to run from the inverter anyway.

Don

'02 Intrigue #11427
'02 Intrigue #11427

Re: Running roof A/C on inverter

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 85093
Running front airs with Inverters started with either 04 or 05 Magna or Affinities. It was added to Intrigues when the Intrigues production was moved from the Allure plant to the Magna -Affinity plant in 08 . They all used pure sign wave inverters. Modified sine wave units will burn up the motors among other issues. I think you can confirm my thoughts at Damon Rapozo's web site.
TWI 2004 Intrigue 11731

Re: Running roof A/C on inverter

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 85096
Yea of little faith. Of course you can run roof a/c's on inverters IF YOU WANT TO PUT IN MORE batteries and bigger inverters. We did it on our 1998 CC Prevost. It came with 8-8D and 3500 watt pure sine wave inverters. Some years later we learned that a few other Prevost convertor companies used 4000 watt inverters to run one r/air on each inverter. So when we had the money we replaced the 2-3500 with 2-4000 watt inverters and had too drop to 6-8D batteries because of space needed for the larger inverters. Now we can run any 2 of our 3 r/airs on inverters. We used to do some fair amount of dry camping and with quiet time we'd run the generator until quiet time with all airs running to cool down the coach then when we went to be we'd run the middle a/c with the fan on low speed and then when the temp called for cooling the compressor would start and since it was the middle a/c it never woke us up especially since the fan was already running as sort of "quiet noise."
So yes it can be done. All one needs is money. And whenever we had the a/c's on inverter the generator never came on with the auto-start. As i said, we'd only set one a/c to run while sleeping. BUT we have used the inverters to run 2 of the a/c's while driving of course. You've got a 300 amp alternator recharging the battery bank while driving and using 2 a/c's was never a problem.

bill 'n barb, poconos of pa, 1998 CC Prevost 40'XL #30365

Re: Running roof A/C on inverter

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 85097
Joseph Even if you rewired your coach, the 2000 watt inverter is to small. The load of a roof air is about 1500 watts at load. You would be able to very little else off the inverter. The inverter runs on a 30 amp circuit, so this would hurt your use of it all the time. The microwave uses a lot of power , as well, so you would be limiting power consumption through the inverter circuit any time the roof air was on. Also , when CC went to the front A/C being on an inverter on Magna's as an option and standard on Affinity, they added a separate inverter and battery bank.

Ron Baran 09 Magna 7025

Re: Running roof A/C on inverter

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 85099
When on the road, the heat from the engine heats the fluid for the aqua hot so you don't need to have the diesel burner on. Just turn the thermostat to "gas" heat and go down the road. Keeps the coach nice and warm.

S. Brandt, '06 Intrigue, #11964

Re: Running roof A/C on inverter

Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 85103
I did a bit of research and the prevaling wisdom seems to agree... the answer is no. Apparently the inverter is probably not large enough to handle the locked rotor amps that the AC requires for start-up. I didn't find anything much about it on Damon Rapozo's website but irv2 forum had a lot of posts on the topic, all basically negative, so I guess that prettty much answers my question.
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f84/can-inverter-run-a-c-101196.html
weill stick to running roof airs on the diesel gennie (Onan 2kW) when trucking down the road when needed. We are headed for Arizona on wednesday... the weather is cooperating so it will be an easy cruise down I-5... no need for A/C much this time of year anyhow, I was just curious and thinking ahead to summer travels. thanks for the input

Joseph Burkle

2008 Country Coach Inspire 360 Founders Edition 43' quad slide tag axle 425 HP C9 pusher http://www. Wind-seeker.com/

Re: Running roof A/C on inverter

Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 85106
Maybe i should not weigh in on this but fifteen years ago there two of us that MCI busses we installed two Trace 4000w signwave inverter and traveled a lot then when diesel was less expensive you can do the math aprox figures a roof air draws 15 amp running (not counting instant start) on busses running 24volt that works out to 150 amps at 24 volt so with 300 amp altinators on buses two inverters two airs running as long as you are running everything is balanced.
We did that for five years then i changed to a Prevost bus and with dash air i only needed to run one roof so i installed one Trace 4000 my buddy traded for a Newel. Now i have changed again to a C C Prevost as yet i have not made any changes but the answer will be dash air and run one roof air on the road. Total it works good on the road if you are in traffic and red lights kill one of the air's we had 6 8d batteries and never run a ac more than 30 minutes and start the Gen. Wilmer Goss

On Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:10:28 -0000 "jbrosecity" jb@...> writes: