Name:   VTJoe - Subject:   lake level Date:   5/10/2022 7:19:40 AM

I'm going to make a couple of guesses from what you tell me. 

- You may be a bit weak on the solar production. If the "couple panels on your roof" are 50 or 100 watts, they're not even close to what an AC needs. Most traditional AC units I've seen come closer to requiring 1000 watts or more. Having said that, I've heard of 400 wattt units as well as "mini-split" heat punp/AC's that can get as low as around 700 watts. The two camper-vans that I helped with last year each squeezed two lrger panels onto their roofs to put their solar power at about 700 watts. In both cases we also went with a 24-volt batery bank and inverter (much more efficient than 12 volt). To me, it's a pain-in-the-arse that so many appliances for RV's, campers, etc., are still 12 volt dc. 

- Is part of the reason that your AC "doesn't run on batteries" due to it being standard Alternating Current 110 volt? That can be corrected by getting an inverter, if you don't already have one. But of course, the size of the solar array is still very important. One "Glam Camper" that I saw on You Tube said she was able to run her (small-400 watt) AC unit off her solar system, which had 900 watts worth of solar systems. Panels can come in as high as 480 watts or more apiece nowadays. So if you could find room for a couple of those Big Boys, you might be in shooting range for resonable power that can last through the night (with some discretion).

Here's a company that has resonable prices and a user-friendly website. They're known for catering to DIY folks too: altestore.com

If you could get your solar production up somewhere closer to 1000 watts (probably two large panels hooked in series to up the voltage), switch to a modern MPPT charge controller (if you haven't already), rewire you battery bank to be 24 volts and thus put in a 24 volt inverter as well, you would probably greatly improve the overall performance.

If you have 12 volt DC appliances that you don't want to part with, you could still run them directly off the 24-volt battery bank, by putting in a "24 to 12" converter along the line between the batteries and the 12 volt loads.

Granted, in the real world that we live in, we can't all afford to just replace a bunch of equipment! I get that. But I just wanted to give you a glimpse of what sort of system is actually needed to run an AC unit and/or perhaps a fridge (lights and battery chargers, etc., are so easy, that I'm not even mentioning them here).