Quote:
Originally Posted by Padgett
One place I would work with a hungry generator/inverter manufacturer is for an integrated system that could use the coach batteries to absorb the starting surge for the AC. Then a "soft start" would not be necessary.
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The electronics required for battery-assisted start are more complicated and expensive than for those required for soft-start. In battery-assisted start, you must have a full inverter, and synchronize the frequency to the AC of a generator (which is going to be changing in frequency under load as that happens).
Soft-start works by switching in a capacitor for power factor correction and chopping the incoming AC at the leading edge of the sine wave so that the overall power used by a locked rotor is limited and it starts rotating more slowly rather than abruptly as it would with the application of full power.
Ultimately, inverter-drive motors in the air conditioner with more than one phase of winding and a higher frequency than 60 Hz will both solve the hard-start problem and lower weight and power drain. A 60 Hz winding is too big and heavy vs a higher frequency one.
We also need to have the air conditioner recover energy from expansion of the coolant, as the Prius air conditioner does. Note that the Prius AC is electric, not belt-driven.