this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
10 points (91.7% liked)

Electricians

486 readers
1 users here now

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Hey guys, Im in the process of moving to a new place. The wall where I want to mount TV doesnt have any power socket, but there is indoor A/C unit just next to it. Can I just connect a power strip cable to A/C unit terminals and use it as a socket for my LCD TV? Is there any risk Im not aware of?

I live in EU and have 220V AC mains. AC is ~1kW indoor unit and also ~1kW outdoor unit. TV is just regular 43" LCD.

I have a general knowledge about electricity (high school), but have no experience with A/C units.

Cheers

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

High draw appliances like an AC should not go on a power strip (unless it is some heavy duty power strip designed for that load). I'm not really understanding what you mean by "1kW indoor and 1kW outdoor unit". So there are TWO AC units? If together they draw 2000W and your power is 220V, then they are drawing 9 amps of power. I don't know about in Europe, but outlets in the US are typically wired for 20 amps (but you should be using only 80% of that continually, so a 20A outlet is actually only 16A).

TVs usually don't draw a lot of power these days, but you can check the back of the unit to verify what it draws in power. I am guessing that it draws less than an amp which should technically make it perfectly fine in terms of power draw, but I still wouldn't wire it together with an AC unit which are known to introduce noise into the lines.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I dont know if you are using some other type of AC, but we have outdoor unit connected to indoor unit with pipes and cable. Indoor unit cools room air = heats cooling liquid that circles between units and then outdoor unit (on my balcony) cools that liquid using outside air. It looks like this.

If I enable turbo mode I think both units drain max power, but numbers are wrong I just realized. It says 1060W while cooling and 1010W while heating. Im sorry I missread that, my bad, I guess they use 1kW in total.

Its not using socket, but its connected behind 16A switch in electronic box. TV and AC shouldnt use more than 5A if my math is right.

Thank you for input!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That just looks like the mini-split. It is one unit with 2 parts that work together. One is the condenser and compressor, and the other part is the evaporator and blower. Most ACs like that would be hardwired and not run on a typical plug. I think most people read your initial post and thought you meant a window AC unit which plugs into a standard outlet.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Oh damn, thank you. I wasnt thinking about that tbh. I guess the answers would not be much different.

In Croatia, you can barely find window AC units and if you do its usually because they didnt have enough room for split unit or its just not allowed to mount outdoor unit on the facade