joe from ny
Cadet
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2013
- Messages
- 18
I was going to post a reply on this thread about running an air conditioner on a portable generator, but since it was inactive for a few months, i followed the advisement to start a new one.
I had a situation where my 29 foot Larson Cabrio was docked at a waterfront lot with no electricity. I had run 300 feet of Home Depot 14 AWG extension cords from the house across the street to the boat, then through the Marinco shore power adapter plug that adapts a regular extension cord connection to the shore power connector on the boat. This kept the battery chargers going and let me watch TV.
I didnt expect it to work, but when i tried to turn on the 12,000 BTU A/C unit, it would run until the compressor tried to kick in. My volt meter on my power panel would drop to 50 volts, and the a/c would reset itself and try again. after two cycles of this on a hot day, i looked around for a cheap inverter generator to make this work. I saw the Ryobi 2,200 surge watts Generator RYI2200 for less than $600 at Home depot. I grabbed the lastone inthe store. I gassed it up, pulled it 6 times, and fired it up. The moment of truth came when I had everything on the panel turned off and put the a/c unit on. I watched the volt meter gauge drop momentarily when the compressor kicked on, and the generator sounded like it was almost going to give up for a split second, but then the idle surged up and the panel meter went back to about 115 VAC. The a/c compressor was running fine, and the generator wasn't sounding strained anymore. I then, one at a time (pausing between each), switched on both battery chargers, and then the small Avanti fridge. There was only a very slight movement of the voltage gauge needle while the Ryobi out on the dock adjusted to the increased load.
My onboad a/c is an ECU-Maxx by Marine Air Systems. It is 12,000 BTU and the label says cooling amps is 11.3, heat is 13, and he LRA rating of 50 amps. This Ryobi does do a good job on my particular model and may work for others which are similar.
I had a situation where my 29 foot Larson Cabrio was docked at a waterfront lot with no electricity. I had run 300 feet of Home Depot 14 AWG extension cords from the house across the street to the boat, then through the Marinco shore power adapter plug that adapts a regular extension cord connection to the shore power connector on the boat. This kept the battery chargers going and let me watch TV.
I didnt expect it to work, but when i tried to turn on the 12,000 BTU A/C unit, it would run until the compressor tried to kick in. My volt meter on my power panel would drop to 50 volts, and the a/c would reset itself and try again. after two cycles of this on a hot day, i looked around for a cheap inverter generator to make this work. I saw the Ryobi 2,200 surge watts Generator RYI2200 for less than $600 at Home depot. I grabbed the lastone inthe store. I gassed it up, pulled it 6 times, and fired it up. The moment of truth came when I had everything on the panel turned off and put the a/c unit on. I watched the volt meter gauge drop momentarily when the compressor kicked on, and the generator sounded like it was almost going to give up for a split second, but then the idle surged up and the panel meter went back to about 115 VAC. The a/c compressor was running fine, and the generator wasn't sounding strained anymore. I then, one at a time (pausing between each), switched on both battery chargers, and then the small Avanti fridge. There was only a very slight movement of the voltage gauge needle while the Ryobi out on the dock adjusted to the increased load.
My onboad a/c is an ECU-Maxx by Marine Air Systems. It is 12,000 BTU and the label says cooling amps is 11.3, heat is 13, and he LRA rating of 50 amps. This Ryobi does do a good job on my particular model and may work for others which are similar.