What solar power to run air conditioning units?

Question

What solar power to run air conditioning units?

Answer 1

What do you mean by that ? Conventional air conditioners can be powered by PV electricity, you will need lots of panels though.

there are special solar powered air conditioners that consume less power than conventional air conditioners.

Answer 2

Many of my friends have totally Solar homes with Large Battery Banks and Generator Back-ups.

It is very expensive and difficult to build a large enough solar system to support conventional Air Conditioning or Heating systems. It is just to much power usage.

Some here use a Gas / Ammonia air conditioning system. The propane is the primary energy source for the air conditioning. The only electric is a very small pump in the air conditioning sys., and the fan that circulates the air.

Be careful. Don't believe all these "Environmentalists" that say Solar and wind will just replace electric. We have an entire community of hundreds of homes on Solar systems and wind generators. No Electric power. These are wonderful systems, but in no way take the place of having electric power. The majority of the people in the community will change to normal electric power as soon as it comes here.

The sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow. If you go Solar, be prepared to be hot in the summer and cold in the winter, unless you have another source of energy. Also be prepared to spend a lot of money, and still suffer a lot of inconvenience.

Answer 3

I suggest using Sol's ->sol<-ar power.

Answer 4

To run a standard A/C unit you would require power comparable to your electrical  utility power. That in turn suggests a grid connected unit.

With a grid connected unit, however, it might be more economical to run the chiller function at night to use cooler night air to chill water. You may also find electric power costs less at night. (not everywhere yet.).

Where there is a day-night price differential you will want to sell your solar power into the higher daytime price and buy lower priced night time power.

It will be very important to properly insulate the building, and provide shading as appropriate, that does not shade the solar collectors.