TLDR: My shed AC unit (maximum draw 8A 120V AC) keeps tripping my 1100W inverter. It seems to have troubles occasionally when the fan turns on. It's pretty much guaranteed to have troubles when the compressor turns on. Looking at the power draw though, it never seems to draw more than 14A on the 12V DC line.
I've built a solar power system for my shed and so far it works well. In theory, I've got plenty of capacity for everything I need.
- Solar panels producing 150W
- Batteries capable of producing 50A at 12V for 5 hours
- Inverter rated to produce 1100W at 120V AC
The system is more than capable of powering lights, chargers, and other small loads for as long as I've tried running it for. Thus, I doubt it's really a lack of capacity in the general sense.
I'm fairly sure the problem is the inductive load of the motors during startup. I've been reading a bit and I think one way to solve the problem is to get an inverter capable of handling roughly 8 times the load of the AC. My calculations would indicate that I need an inverter capable of handling (120V*8A*8) = 7680 Watts. Such a beast is quite expensive...especially if I can't be sure of it solving my problem.
Is my problem really just inverter size, or is there something I should look for when handling inductive loads.