Micro-Air EasyStart… RV Air conditioners are hard to start. The Micro-Air EasyStart fixes that. I need EasyStart to run my AC from solar. For us, it is all part of our solar electrical remodel and is the way we are going to get our air conditioners to run from our batteries. Without this EasyStart, running our air conditioners from our inverter would be impossible.
Air conditioners have a compressor and the issue with a compressor is that it requires lots of energy, all at once to get the compressor to start moving. The way you know if you need a Micro-Air EasyStart is if you here a thump after the fan turns on when the air conditioner is just starting. This thump is the compressor (which always starts after the fan) starting to move. Most probably if you didn’t install a Micro-Air EasyStart then you don’t have one.
Notice how the amperage spike only lasts for about 200 milliseconds, but this is enough to trip your circuit breaker. EasyStart tames the amperage spike down to a more manageable level.
The benefit of the EasyStart is that it uses much less electricity to get the compressor to move. Thus you can run your air conditioners from lower amperage sources. For me, it means that I can run my air conditioners from my inverter.
Another advantage is that you can run two air conditioners from a 30 amp electrical circuit at the same time. But wait there is more, (info-commercial talk). An EasyStart is most likely to make your air conditioner compressor have a longer life.
You might have the question of if these are so great then why doesn’t the air conditioner already have one? The answer is they cost way more than a dumb capacitor that the air conditioners come with. As I understand it, from my personal conversation with manufacturers of RV air conditioners, soon the most expensive models of air conditioners will have one already built-in, probably next year.
Here is a link to our post on running our air conditioners from solar and our batteries. Air Conditioning on Batteries and Solar
If you want more information about how to install an EasyStart the best place to look is on Micro Air’s website. Now that I said that, four months after I installed our EasyStart my air conditioner started blowing hot air, and while explaining my troubleshooting, I have included more EasyStart information in this link: Troubleshooting our Air Conditioner.
This is what we used. We do not get commissions on the links and are provided only to help our friends.
Here is the link to the Micro Air EasyStart 364
I am really interested in this, having read several reports from diverse sources. Is this and idiot-proof installation?
It isn’t hard but expect to encounter a wad of wires inside your air conditioner. They have a new one that will mount to a power pedestal but I don’t know anything more about it.