There aren’t actually that many distinctions between RV air conditioners. For home-based air conditioners, experts recommend shooting for 20 BTU per square foot, but that guidance doesn’t really apply here. As a result, RV air conditioners may sound like overkill. Most RV air conditioners require between 1,200-1,800 Watts (W) at any given moment, which is realistically too heavy a burden to put on your RV’s battery. Technically, you could run the RV A/C off your RV battery, but it would last about 30- to 45 minutes.