---- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Townsend" <townsend@RTP.ERICSSON.SE>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 9:23 AM
Subject: Re: insane a/c project

> Lesse,  the current draw of the air conditioner, the efficiency loss of
the
> inverter . . . You are going to need 8 guage jumper cables from your
> deep-cycle battery to the inverter.  Don't worry about getting the wires
> too hot, your battery will only last about 5 minutes anyway!  :-)
>
> Michael

I dunno about that -- peak 6 amps/690watts? on a 1300-watt surge/800-watt
continuous, 15-amp inverter?  You could be right of course; I'm just
spouting numbers from the design docs and don't know what they mean. My job
is to supply the Westy, beer, and band-aids. And fire extinguishers.

And though I come off as a moron on purpose (because I am!), we've actually
set this up outside the van on a borrowed inverter and it works well (so
far, anyway). The a/c compressor won't need to engage very often (I'm not
planning on crossing a desert), so the charging cycle so far has kept the
battery in good shape over several hours so far. We'll run longer tests this
weekend.

~ JR