What is a “solar-ready” air conditioner?

Question

I've been looking into having solar panels installed. My understanding is that the solar panels connect to a breaker in the breaker panel, and so you have both the main breaker (from the power company) and the solar breaker feeding power into the buses of the panel, and from there the power flows to all the circuits in the house, just like normal. This all makes sense to me.

However, I noticed that my air conditioner has a sticker which says "SunSource Solar Ready," and "This equipment is suitable for powering with a secondary (solar) source circuit."

What does this mean, exactly? I looked up "SunSource Solar Ready", but the page for it is really quite content-free.

Is there some benefit to using this "solar ready" feature when I get solar installed? Or should I just get it installed the "normal" way, as if I did not have a "solar ready" air conditioner?

Answer 1

You paid a higher cost to have an AC with the built-in breaker circuit to handle the output from a small solar system. The built-in breaker limits the size of the solar system that you can install for your house. I would look at it as a Marketing pitch.

Is there some benefit to using this "solar ready" feature when I get solar installed? Or should I just get it installed the "normal" way, as if I did not have a "solar ready" air conditioner?

When going solar, if the size of the system doesn't exceed the 16-panels limitation, You have one breaker panel you don't have to install. That's the bottom line.
Why the limitation? The solar size is restricted by the size of the circuit your AC is on. If solar is connected at the main breaker, the size is limited by your service input and other minor considerations.

Another consideration is how convenient is it to route the solar power to the AC verses the location of the Main Breaker box.