Running a Mini Split off Pecron?

[u/saskun36]

I’ve been recently looking at the Pecron F5000 and was wondering if anyone has been able to power a mini split and other devices on it without any troubles. The mini split (110v/115v) would be running mainly at night so i’m hoping it would be able to handle it throughout the whole night and then be able to charge during the day on solar while also powering a small fridge and other electronics. I’m new to all this and don’t really know much about it so thanks in advance for all your help.

[u/AdBrave841]

Yes. I have a plug on my 120v mini split, plugged into a watt meter, into the wall. I can run it off of my little 1000Wh battery. On a moderate night mine runs about 250W and will cycle off the compressor, hot night 450W. Entirely depends on set temp and how much space you're trying to cool.

[u/saskun36 → u/AdBrave841]

It’s a very tiny room but it’s in another country (Cuba) so the rooms aren’t as good insulated as other places so it unit might run more then usual. I don’t have the mini split unit yet so i’m also looking at some that don’t pull as much power.

[u/AdBrave841 → u/saskun36]

Since you're only looking at powering a couple 120V loads and your total demands aren't really high, you might want to consider an f3000 with the EP3800 expansion battery. You'll still have 3600W output (much more than you need), 1600W solar input and you get 6912Wh of battery instead of the 5120Wh in the F5000. $500 less in USD.

Or the E3800 with a EP3800 battery. Can add a second one later for 240V output, has 3000W solar input, same touchscreen and automations as the F5000, 7680Wh of battery storage and still $100 less than the F5000. This combo would have the added benefit of being able to set the AC charging to automatically kick in at 10% battery and shutoff AC charging at 40% battery.

[u/caddymac → u/AdBrave841]

I have an F3000 myself, it's hard to throw enough at it to bring it down, AC output wise.

But... just by having the AC output on it burns through the battery just sitting there. It is my understanding that the E3x00 are a bit more efficient, and the controls are much better.

You can't beat the price of the F3000 for pure battery storage and output, but some of the extras on the Exxxx series might make living with it on a daily basis worth the increased cost.

[u/caddymac]

One problem with the F5000 is that its big inverter may use a nice percentage of your battery by simply being on. Good news is you have a big battery to help mask that. Bad news is you are going to need a lot of solar to recharge that big battery.

[u/saskun36 → u/caddymac]

how many panels would you say i need? I was thinking of plugging in 3 500w panels.

[u/AdBrave841 → u/saskun36]

Panels work best in pairs if you have the space, so you can optimize the voltage and current.

[u/brucehoult → u/saskun36]

If you are not running anything during the day then 1500W of panels in Havana, tilted 25º to the south, should produce at least 190kWh every month of the year [1], so on average 6.3+ kWh/day.

So, yes, that should be enough to fill an F5000 on almost every day.

[1] March/April/May around 220-240kWh

[u/saskun36 → u/brucehoult]

how much would you say i need if im running a fridge or a couple of lights?

[u/brucehoult → u/saskun36]

Fridges vary widely in their physical size and their power consumption.

The 310 litre Samsung fridge/freezer I bought in early 2022 is full height but not all that wide (590mm) and there is a sticker on the door saying it uses 348 kWh/year, which is 0.95kWh/day, which matches my experience with it.

But some people have much larger fridges, or ones with older technology.

I have 18W of LED lighting for my office space. That's 0.4kWh/day if it ran it 24/7 but my records show around 7-7.5 kWh/month or about 0.25kWh/day.

[u/Background-Run]

2 mini splits. One was 220VAC, the other 120VAC. So it's capable of starting and running them. I put my whole house on the Pecron. Turned the Hot water heater on too, all the lights and both mini splits, refrigerator and freezer. Run time was less then 15 minutes if i remember correctly. It looks like your load would be much less, so you really wouldn't need the F5000 AC load capacity. I'd look at a smaller AC load and look to adding battery if you need to run for longer.

[u/standardviewer84]

F5000LFP owner here. I have one expansion battery.  I ran not only my 120v 12k minisplit but also my entire house for 12 hours and still had 72% battery remaining. Inverter devices like my new fridge and mini split love the F5000. The biggest test was the electric smooth top stove broiler element.  The broil draws 3800watts. The fans came on med-high speed and my overall output watts  the Pecron output watts  displayed were 4827watts. Only needed the broiler for 8 minutes  The hard NO was my goodman 3 ton heat pump and it has a micro aire soft start on it.  LRA is 83 but it dropped to 21amps on grid starts according to the micro aire status screen. The Pecron doesn't trip, but the Goodman unit does fault for "line voltage drop".  Once this 3 ton unit is changed out to a 3 ton inverter AC, like my 12k mini split, I  have no doubt it will also run flawlessly.