# Air Conditioning powered by Leisure Battery



## EddieG (Mar 16, 2010)

I recently had a B2200 Dometic Air Conditioner fitted to my Autotrail Cheyenne along with a ACDC inverter kit for in-motion use and 2 brand new leisure batteries.

When driving and on mains hook-up the unit perfroms without a problem. However when powered purely from the leisure battery the device powers for around 30 minutes and then the inverter starts to beep before switching the air conditioner on and off continually.

The downside being when parked I basically cannot use air conditioning for more than a few minutes.

Am I simply expecting too much for the B2200 Dometic Air Conditioner to retain power for any length of time from the leisure battery or does this imply a problem?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you can share.


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## bognormike (May 10, 2005)

Eddie

I would have thought that the unit would use too much power to be able to be run from the batteries - that's probably why your inverter is objecting!

somebody more knowledgable will probably come along with the amps / watts calculation........


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## NeilandDebs (Aug 28, 2008)

*aircon*

Hello EddieG

I think that you are asking way too much of your batteries.

When the inverter turns off are your batteries flat?
Can you run anything in your m/h after the aircon shuts off?

Neil


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## olley (May 1, 2005)

Hi according to the spec's its 910watts at at 230v or around 80amps at 12v, unless you have an enormous set of batteries, you can't run it of the batteries for any length of time, running it at all from the batteries isn't doing them any good as I presume you have around 2x100ah batteries.

Olley


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

*batteries*

If you search the forum you will find this has been covered numerous times in the past.

Unless you have a huge bank of batteries and solar panels, you will not be able to use the Habicon on 12v.

Hope this helps?

TM


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## EddieG (Mar 16, 2010)

Thanks to all for replying.

I suspected this may be the case, the dealer that fitted for me hadn't really explained that it wouldn't work for long without some form of additional power from either a hook-up or the engine being switched on.

There are 2 brand new 100 batteries and my understanding is that 1 of these is fitted to the inverter purely for the air conditioning and the other is wired directly to my TV and in-motion Camos Dome. For this reason the TV works fine even when the inverter is beeping.

I guess I'll just need to accept that the air conditioning is only good for in-motion or hook-up facility and not when parked up - unless of course I get my petrol generator switched on.

Thanks once again for setting my mind at ease that it's not faulty.


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## peribro (Sep 6, 2009)

What size inverter do you have and how far is the cable run from the batteries to it? Have the correct size cables been used? So saying, you are probably asking too much of the inverter as well as of the batteries. The inverter is cutting out either because of overheating, overloading or low battery voltage. Theoretically you could run the unit for an hour and would then have run the batteries down to nearly 50% capacity. I imagine you can tell from the control panel whether your batteries have been run down after 30 minutes to the point where the inverter would cut out due to low voltage. Therefore if its not that and if the inverter is man enough for the job, then overheating is a possibility.
edit - I've just read your further post. Your problem is low voltage since you are only using the one leisure battery and 30 minutes would be about all that you would get before the one battery was down to 50% charge remaining.


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

*Bats*

We have 200w solar and 440ah of batteries. But I never use the A/C (same unit as yours) on 12v.

Mores sun means more power for the solar units but also more work for the a/c.

Works fine on the move as we have a 220Amp alternator and the said panels.

Could you suffer with just the fan going? or maybe some desk fans?

Trev


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## EddieG (Mar 16, 2010)

We are doing a big Euro trip this Summer so my thinking was to keep the van cool enough for the dog when parked up if we go away from a few hours.

I'm sure we'll find away given the air con cannot be the solution when parked up.

Thanks once more to all for the feedback, very useful indeed.


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