Too high surge on appliances Need Help!

[Jake123]

So I have a 2000w inverter that peaks at 4000w surge, and a 24v 100ah Redodo battery, I’m having trouble getting the compressor to kick on my window air conditioner unit that’s 12,000 BTU I looked in the manual and it’s peak amp rating is 49amps at 110/120v! That is almost 2000w surge more than my inverter is rated for and I can’t run it.. I looked into soft starters and hard starters to add on but a soft start kit is more $ ($300-$400) than I can afford because I’m living homeless off-grid, I will be trying to install a $12 hard start kit to the window AC unit hoping it might do the trick, and another thing is I have a 1hp water well pump and I can’t get enough surge wattage to get it going and I’m not sure how or if I could add a hard start kit to it also?.. if anyone knows what I can add or do to my system under $200 for both to work or add hard starts to everything let me know!
I’m willing to spend under $200 more into my system to get it to serge higher appliances, is there a way to add a cheaper soft starter kit and wire it into the AC line?
Just has to be under $200, $250 at most!
Or if there is another way to increase surge capacity after the inverter?

 

[littleharbor2]

I run a 6,000 btu AC unit off a 2000 watt max generator. Why don't you look into a smaller AC unit. The other problem you have though is your battery wont last long running AC unless you have a really large PV array.

 

[SamDeleted]

I’m having trouble getting the compressor to kick on my window air conditioner unit that’s 12,000 BTU

Looks like you need a bigger inverter or smaller Aircon I'm afraid

 

[Jake123]

Its for 270sqft tiny home lol, 12000 btu is over kill but the reason I have it is because I already have it, no need to buy one. Well if the hard start doesn’t work I’ll downsize the AC I guess.
But The other question is how do I get my water pump to run? It’s 1hp and rated max of 10 running amps. That I can’t change easily like the AC, is there a way to add a hard start kit to that atleast? Or something to help boost the startup?

 

[Hedges]

I have a 1hp water well pump and I can’t get enough surge wattage to get it going and I’m not sure how or if I could add a hard start kit to it also?

Submersible in the well pump, or above ground?

Induction motors are difficult to start. Brush type easier.

I have a 2500W Statpower MSW inverter. It started a 12A 120V air compressor but not log splitter same ratings, both from Harbor Freight.

If submersible, there are expensive Grundfos pumps with inverter drive, no surge. There are cheap (e.g. $200) submersible pumps.

If above ground, is that ejector jet pump? Or suction pump? If shallow well suction pump, any size should work. Surflo brush type vane pump.

For deep well submersible, consider a generator and fill a large above-ground tank.

 

[Jake123]

Above ground shallow pump suction type.

Yeah at the moment I use a generator but it’s such an inconvenience to start a generator for some water, I have a 55 gallon water tank I use and treat it to take showers and wash my hands and currently working on a 275 gallon water tower, I dislike having to start the generator but in the future if my pump breaks I’ll be looking for a replacement that will work with my solar system I guess

 

[Mattb4]

So I have a 2000w inverter that peaks at 4000w surge, and a 24v 100ah Redodo battery, ...

The battery likely has a max 100a discharge rating. This gives you 2400w to work with. Your inverter may be rated for 2000w (forget the surge rating it is more hype than real) but your loads can easily exceed that during startup. The A/C at 12000 btu is way too large to power even with a soft start by your present equipment. Your 1hp water pump is likely too large also unless you run it under zero water pressure for water transfer.

You need more battery with heavy duty cables and possibly a better class of inverter. You should try to find a 5000 btu A/C unit, it might just start on what you have though drawing around 500w operating it will quickly drain your battery (3-4 hours at most runtime), unless you have good solar coming in.

 

[Q-Dog]

The Midea U air conditioners have variable speed compressors, so they are very efficient with almost no startup surge. My 12000 btu unit will use somewhere around 200-250 watts when it is maintaining temps. Maybe you can sell your old unit to someone who doesn't care about efficiency.

And a bonus for someone living in such a small space, the U shaped units are very quiet compared to a standard window shaker.

 

[740GLE]

Have you considered a 12v diaphragm pump? RV style? They sip watts (80-120w) and have minimal surge, run it straight off the battery.

 

[Hedges]

Above ground shallow pump suction type.

Have you considered a 12v diaphragm pump? RV style? They sip watts (80-120w) and have minimal surge, run it straight off the battery.

Surflo, can select 115V or 12V DC, among others.

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[littleharbor2]

Have you considered a 12v diaphragm pump? RV style? They sip watts (80-120w) and have minimal surge, run it straight off the battery.

I use them in my off grid home in Mexico. Super reliable. Recommend using a pre-filter.

 

[Jake123]

So what i ended up doing is getting a smaller air conditioner, but it’s borderline maxing out the surge limit on my inverter, so since I couldn’t run my water pump and my air conditioner has trouble starting (but still ends up starting when messing around in the settings) I think a new 3000w inverter should do the job, it’s above the limit of my batteries but I plan to upgrade to more batteries later in the future so it should work out, hopefully my water pump can run on the new inverter ?
The surge limit on it is 6000W, I was wondering does the surge power come directly from the batteries or is there capacitors in the inverter that handle the surge loads?

 

[rearden]

Check out the soft start products by microair. I had a similar problem and installed a unit on my HAVC; it dropped the LRA from 75 to 25A and now it will run on my inverter. They evidently are popular with the RV crowd for starting AC on generators.

rearden