Air conditioner with adjustable wattage limit?

[Jason Lane]

Does anybody produce an air conditioner whose maximum power can be adjusted on the fly? eg. If it's an overcast day, and I want the aircon running, but I don't want to let the consumption exceed or approach the current solar production, it would be nice if I could set a wattage limit. Or if I have other large loads running and I don't want the aircon to bump the total draw up over the inverter's max. I realize this could be approximated by setting a higher temperature, but I assume a high set point won't necessarily stop the aircon from occasionally drawing full power if it feels the need to. Or am I wrong? Will a high enough set point effectively limit the max draw of the aircon? Any insights would be appreciated

 

[wpns]

There was a new RV aircon that would do that manually, video around here somewhere in the last week(?)

 

[Jason Lane]

There was a new RV aircon that would do that manually, video around here somewhere in the last week(?)

Thanks for this. I don't don't suppose you have any other clues about this one? I tried doing a search of the forum, but didn't come up with anything.

 

[Q-Dog]

Most Air conditioners have a single speed compressor -- it is either on or off. And the compressor is what draws the most power.

I think a unit with a variable speed compressor would be what you want. I have a Midea U air conditioner with variable speed compressor and it will slow down the compressor when it isn't heavily loaded. At full bore it can draw over 1000 watts, but maintaining temp at low speed I have seen it pulling between 150-250 watts.

 

[chrisski]

Thanks for this. I don't don't suppose you have any other clues about this one? I tried doing a search of the forum, but didn't come up with anything.

I think the video last week was about the Furion Chill Variable speed air conditioner.

I don’t think this does what you’re asking about setting limits for cloudy days or low batteries or never exceed a total wattage. It is simply the first variable speed AC roof mounted air conditioner for sale. Also at 18k BTU the only roof top 120 VAC AC above 15k BTU.

I may get that for my RV, but I did not yet see it for sale.

 

[SoakedUp]

I use a danby 10k inverter A/C that is pretty adjustable. On low it uses about 250-450 watts. Medium 450-800. High 800-1200. But as said above, it really depends on what the A/C thinks it needs to do. If I turn on the unit to 70F low and it’s 95F in the room it’s going to ramp up to its full capacity (~1000-1200w) until the room gets to its set temperature. Then it will maintain the temp at the lower power draw in a cycle (on and off) fashion.