“I have a 5000 BTU window AC unit rated at 425 Watts. I'm not sure if that's continuous or peak watts. Can this be used to power the AC with my battery?”
1-2 of 2 Answers
While the AC unit input power rating is below the Cobra power inverter 500 Watt AC output specification, the real question is what's the AC unit's startup surge current specification? The power inverter is designed to tolerate an AC load surge that's quite high but only for a limited amount of time. If the AC load surge goes beyond that time limit then the inverter will protect itself producing a "fault" condition that results in disabling the AC output until the fault is cleared. Without getting too complicated, just try it if you already have the inverter / battery / AC unit. The AC unit and inverter combination will either operate correctly or the inverter will fault. Bear in mind the following: Keep the battery DC cables short and use the correct wire size or go over size to reduce the Voltage drop in the DC cables. Make sure the inverter and battery terminal connections are correct for the current demand and for best performance consider a crimp and solder type of terminal connection. A high Voltage drop in the DC cables translates to waste heat and will reduce your load run time. Consider how long you need the AC unit to operate from the inverter/battery system. AC units are high energy demand devices. If you need several hours of run time you'll need a battery system with suitable charge capacity.
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