36 AUGUST 2025 WorldWide Drilling Resource® How Long Does it Run? by Britt Storkson Owner, P2FlowLLC There have been many YouTube videos illustrating how long different batteries will operate under varying loads. One of them uses a 100 amp-hour (AH) battery to run a 5000 Btu air conditioner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdObeFWltjU To start, it’s always useful to define the terms. Btu means British Thermal Unit. It’s one way to measure heat energy; 1 Btu is the amount of heat energy required to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water 1 degree Fahrenheit. The Btu metric equivalent is the Joule; 1 Joule is 1 watt-second or 1 watt of power delivered over 1 second. For conversion factors, 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity (1000 watts continuously over 1 hour) = 3414 Btu. 1 Btu = 1055 Joules. The Btu figure is used mostly for heaters and air conditioners - devices which move heat. In the case of heaters, the heater creates heat and moves it into the room. In the case of air conditioners, the device moves heat from the inside of the room to the outside. We always need to think in terms of heat because cold is the absence of heat. It’s like taking light out of a room because the natural state of the room is dark until light is added. The above-referenced video’s actual testing found using a 100 AH battery and DC (direct current) to AC (alternating current) inverter to run a 5000 Btu air conditioner resulted in a run time of about two hours. The time required to fully recharge the battery is about ten hours. So the issue here is not so much that it can or cannot be done. The issue is whether you can tolerate the limitations of the battery/inverter combination. Say it’s a hot night in your recreational vehicle and you start this battery/inverter combination to get some sleep. If your DC-AC inverter is like mine, it will wake you up with an audible alarm in about two hours when the battery voltage goes below 10.5 volts. So to get uninterrupted sleep you will need to set up a timer to shut off the system before the battery is fully exhausted. Or get a bigger AH battery. Or use more batteries. In this case, if you want eight hours of uninterrupted sleep, then your battery/inverter system will need about five times the 100 AH capacity - and cost about five times as much. And it assumes the batteries are fully charged and are in new or good condition. Everything has inherent limitations, meaning there are hard and fast boundaries defining what it can or cannot do. Sure, one is limited to a certain run time when using off-grid power sources. The way to get around that is to plug the air conditioner into the grid, and you can run it as long as you want. There’s limitations to grid power as well, but these limitations won’t shut you down because you’re drawing from a much larger power source. Oftentimes, people are led to believe that solar/wind power is limitless and free, but it is limited in the sense that the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow at the right speed 24 hours a day. The power produced by these off-grid appliances must be converted to something that can be used by whatever appliance (usually 120 volts AC). This can be costly both in having to buy extra equipment and the fact this extra equipment requires energy to work - energy you can’t use. While alternative energy may be enticing because it is “free,” the parts and pieces needed to deliver this energy to the user in a usable form most certainly isn’t. Britt Britt Storkson may be contacted via e-mail to michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com LANSAS Products’ RP™ Rupture Protected Pipe Plugs have a built-in RP™ relief valve to help prevent the plug from being overinflated due to faulty gauges or operator error. Once a valve’s cracking pressure is reached, the LANSAS® RP™ relief valve will open, relieving the excess air pressure from overinflation and the valve will reset (reseal) at or just below the required inflation pressure of the plug. When the relief valve engages, it relieves the excess pressure in the plug, but does not completely deflate, allowing the plug to stay in use throughout the application. RP™ relief valves, in sizes from 15 inches to 48 inches, are not single use devices - they can be used over and over and are recess mounted to prevent physical damage during transportation and jobsite use. Also, the LANSAS® RP™ Rubber Dirt Cover protects the RP™ air relief valve against the harsh work environment so dirt and debris is kept away from the valve. LANSAS Products is a Valued WWDR Advertiser.
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