We strive to visit new places and see as much of this beautiful country we can. Limited by a working schedule we utilize our vacation the best way we can. This usually means we set out late in the afternoon after work when our children are sleeping. Our intent is to make it as far as possible until we are too tired to continue. We enjoy using Harvest Hosts and rest stops when traveling long distances. Living in the south means air conditioning is a must have during the summer. With a budget in mind I set out to bring reliable air conditioning to our travel trailer with the intent of making boon docking easy and enjoyable.
There is a lot on the internet related to running AC on solar and I’m actively pursuing that as an option in our travel trailer. Solar is incredibly expensive by comparison to a generator so if you are wanting to get out there and explore this may be a good solution for you.
AC Systems and Requirements
RV air conditioners are very in efficient for their output. There are two basic sizes used depending on the space requirements of the RV.
- 13,500 BTU Systems are used in smaller campers and as supplemental systems.
- 15,000 BTU Systems are used as the primary unit or in larger RV’s
BTU stands for British thermal unit and is a standard means to measure the cooling or heating capacity of a system. Basically a BTU is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree.
Our first travel trailer came with 13,500 BTU system. This system pulled around 1200 watts. Our current system is a Coleman Mach 15, which is a 15,000 BTU system. I’ve seen power draws as much as 1400 watts but most of the time it runs around 1300.
Generators are sized in watts, choosing the correct generator for your application is important as undersizing your generator to the load will cause damage. I chose the 2000i from Harbor Freight due to the price at around $500. Honda makes a fantastic alternative if you are willing to pay a little more, you just can’t beat a Honda. Visit our products page for other options.
The 2000 watt generator was enough to start the compressor on the 13,500 BTU system but I could only run the air conditioning if I turned off the AC to DC converter/charger because any charge being applied to the batteries was too much for the generator to handle. The 15,000 BTU system on our new camper was too large for the small generator. This is because the start up current draw for the AC compressor is around 3 to 4 times the running current. This is momentary but will trip the overload on the generator.
To counter this effect you will need the Microair Easy Start. This is a microprocessor soft start system that limits the start up current to a manageable level for the small inverter generator. There are added benefits as well to this as it lessens the load on shore power as well and will allow you to run your air conditioner on a 15a shore power service.
These two items will work in most cases to provide you with reliable air conditioning while boon docking. There are 3000w generator options available that will provide you with additional power for using other appliances in which case the Easy Start is no longer needed. But these are often require two people to move, are louder, and consume more gas.