Solar Powered Window A/C Units? Is this possible? Am I dreaming?

[JanMichael]

What if you had a small one room 5,000 BTU window AC unit - can it be powered by solar panels, battery, and a DC to AC inverter?

Is this possible now? If possible is it also affordable?

Just curious as to what the technology is out there now. Google searches are pretty useless.

Are there any DU'ers that have done this successfully or failed to do it right?

[hollysmom]

1. I heard they had one for cars, so you could leave your pets in the car and they would be cool

http://www.amazon.com/Kulcar-Solar-Powered-Ventilator-Version/dp/B00J97X2YG

[HappyPlace]

2. a swamp cooler would be pretty easy to run.

a true ac unit, tho, would need a lot more power for the compressor and the fan combined, where a swamp cooler is just the fan and a little water pump.

Such a thing would need a battery or capacitor for backup or it would be pretty unreliable and prone to outtages when a cloud comes by, and the solar modules would have to be the size of a couple doors or more to provide the 1200 watts or so.

[hunter]

3. Ideally you'd have an air conditioner matched to the solar panels...

... the motor and motor controller of the air conditioner's compressor would accept direct current power directly from the solar panels, nominally 100 volts. It would be very similar in setup to a solar powered water well pump, and the cost comparable -- so "not cheap." I'm guessing at a bare minimum about $1000 retail for a "Made in China" mass produced air conditioner, and it would be the sort that sits on the floor and is connected to the window by flexible "dryer hose" style vents.

You'd also need a place to put the solar panels, at least fifty square feet of them, and another $1000, installation not included.

Batteries would be an expensive nuisance. Solar water wells don't use batteries, they use a simple water tank; in a similar way a solar air conditioner would better use the mass of the room or possibly even ice to store the "cold."

Of course wherever there is existing utility line power, the easiest setup is a standard air conditioner and a standard solar setup with an inverter synchronized to utility power, the sort that makes the meter "run backwards" when the solar panels are generating more electricity than the home is using.

But those don't work when the utility power goes out.