Inverter AC vs Non Inverter AC on Solar

[narkeddiver]

We are getting a new air con fitted in a room that is attached to our solar system.

 

Is it better to get an inverter air con or a non inverter air con?

[Crossy]

IMHO Inverter definitely: -

• Reduced energy consumption.
• Importantly for solar, no (or very much reduced) start-up surge.

Inverter units did get a bad rep due to being rather less-than-robust when it came to power surges and creature ingress.

These issues are largely now solved.

[Bandersnatch]

Another factor to consider is that inverter aircons have a circuit board outside in the compressor box. If a lizard of something similar walks across it then it will fry the board.

 

I was quoted ฿6,000 for a replacement board, I did look online to see if I could buy and fit the board myself for ฿2,000 but the model numbers didn’t match up exactly 

 

I decided to buy a Mitsubishi Heavy Duty non inverter instead of another Daikin. My inverters are all 9,000 BTU so the energy use shouldn’t be too much more. I’m completely off-grid so it won’t cost anything.

 

I plan to install power monitoring on the breakers for one Daikin and the new Mitsu and will report my findings.

 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by Bandersnatch

[narkeddiver]

Thanks for the info guys

 

Our architect was saying we don’t need an inverter ac as the solar system has an inverter but I had a feeling that was him not knowing what the inverter did for the ac 😉

[CallumWK]

1 minute ago, narkeddiver said:

Thanks for the info guys

 

Our architect was saying we don’t need an inverter ac as the solar system has an inverter but I had a feeling that was him not knowing what the inverter did for the ac 😉

 

Sounds more like a somtam seller turned architect

[JBChiangRai]

4 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

Another factor to consider is that inverter aircons have a circuit board outside in the compressor box. If a lizard of something similar walks across it then it will fry the board.

 

I was quoted ฿6,000 for a replacement board, I did look online to see if I could buy and fit the board myself for ฿2,000 but the model numbers didn’t match up exactly 

 

I decided to buy a Mitsubishi Heavy Duty non inverter instead of another Daikin. My inverters are all 9,000 BTU so the energy use shouldn’t be too much more. I’m completely off-grid so it won’t cost anything.

 

I plan to install power monitoring on the breakers for one Daikin and the new Mitsu and will report my findings.

 

 

Maybe a solution is to lacquer the circuit boards? I have had Daikon indoor units repaired 5 times and scrapped 2 when the outdoor boards were damaged by geckos.

[CallumWK]

4 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

Another factor to consider is that inverter aircons have a circuit board outside in the compressor box. If a lizard of something similar walks across it then it will fry the board.

 

I had an LG pcb destroyed by little bees/flies, one big sticky mess they made of it. From memory it cost me about 3K to replace.

A few months ago I noticed a new swarm of those bees/flies around the same aircon, but lucky I noticed before they could do too much damage, and could clean the PCB.

Now I inspect every few weeks if there are any of them around