[ShrimpBurrito]

Hi Bill,

Yea, I'm not sure what the advantage is of running a 12VDC A/C unit directly through the battery vs a 120VAC A/C unit through an inverter. Clearly, you'd avoid the 10-20% inverter loss, which is important if you're running it alot, but other than that I'm not sure what the cost premium gets you.

Interesting too about your power calculations....I'm not sure where the 2kw number comes from.

But, broadly speaking, I think this is a sign of the way things boondocker units are headed. I saw a van conversion recently that was 100% electric / battery. Zero propane. Induction cooktop, electric water heater, electric furnace (of some sort), DC fridge, etc. I think they had something like an 800Ah battery bank, and 600W of solar, and found that to provide essentially unlimited power for their needs. Dropping two 20-lb tanks of propane frees up about 100 lb, which is enough for over 300Ah in batteries alone, so the additional weight really isn't even that much.

Dave