If the air conditioner needs 12 amps at 120 VAC to run, this translates to about 150 amps at 12 VDC into the inverter. This is a lot. I'm not sure that the alternator in most cars will put out 150 amps - almost certainly not with an idling engine. At the same time, you will need really big cables (welding cables?) from the alternator to the inverter to carry this much current.
So that is the situation when the air conditioner is running. How do you handle the startup transient? Even with the hard-start device in place, Padgett's experience is that the air conditioner needs at least 20 amps at 120 VAC to start - which will translate to about 250 amps at 12 VDC.
Finally, these big but cheap inverters produce either a square wave, or a modified sine wave. I'm not sure that the air conditioner will be happy with this kind of power. Padgett, any thoughts?
Overall, I'm not sure that an inverter is a good approach.
Bill
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