CPAP with no on-board battery

[West Coast Canuck]

West Coast Canuck
Do you use the Mini at home? Either this year or next the Dr is going to prescribe a new machine, and will probably want to push me to the P10.

We use it for travel only since the replaceable cartridge doesn’t require us to use a humidifier so it is very efficient when we have to rely on the battery. We use the Resmed S9 with the humidifier at home. We got it as a package deal

 

[bob414]

ResMed S9 user, N2M Popup, no real data yet. I have the 12 V adapter for the CPAP.
Just spliced in a 12V Cig type socket into the water pump 10 AMP circuit and got a triple Cig socket adapter with QC USB/ USB and USB-c connectors with DC Voltage gauge. I plan on not using water pump.
Using one type 24 deep cycle battery that I used while tent camping with no humidifier CPAP one night and charged phone and used 15% of battery capacity.
Have multiple recharge capabilities, TV, 45 Watt solar, 900 and 2000 watt generators.
Current planned electric usage, is CPAP, pup heater and led lights, phone charging and maybe a computer if battery holds up
First planned trip is in 2nd weekend in March. Wish me luck.

Bob

 

[GreyFox]

Using one type 24 deep cycle battery that I used while tent camping with no humidifier CPAP one night and charged phone and used 15% of battery capacity.
Have multiple recharge capabilities, TV, 45 Watt solar, 900 and 2000 watt generators.
Current planned electric usage, is CPAP, pup heater and led lights, phone charging and maybe a computer if battery holds up
First planned trip is in 2nd weekend in March. Wish me luck.

Good luck! Running all that, especially the camper's furnace fan with just a single G24 you'll also be running one of those gensets quite a bit. Make sure you have sufficient gas!

 

[dbhost]

ResMed S9 user, N2M Popup, no real data yet. I have the 12 V adapter for the CPAP.
Just spliced in a 12V Cig type socket into the water pump 10 AMP circuit and got a triple Cig socket adapter with QC USB/ USB and USB-c connectors with DC Voltage gauge. I plan on not using water pump.
Using one type 24 deep cycle battery that I used while tent camping with no humidifier CPAP one night and charged phone and used 15% of battery capacity.
Have multiple recharge capabilities, TV, 45 Watt solar, 900 and 2000 watt generators.
Current planned electric usage, is CPAP, pup heater and led lights, phone charging and maybe a computer if battery holds up
First planned trip is in 2nd weekend in March. Wish me luck.

Bob

You are going to need the luck. Turn the humidifier off on the CPAP, and turn off the pup furnace. Try a Buddy Heater. No electricity required.

The CPAP humidifier and pup furnace suck down electricity like Barney the down drunk sucks down beer.

Radiant heaters such as the Mr. Heater Buddy Heater, like the Portable Buddy, or Big Buddy (9k BTU or 18K BTU) or the Camco Olympian Wave (3K BTU and 6K BTU models) are popular units among full time RVers and boondockers. I have been using a Portable Buddy heater for tent camping and now going to PUC camping since 2005. My BIL has a Class B camper van with a built in furnace. His furnace drains the battery overnight, and uses WAY more propane than my Buddy Heater, and I am FAR more comfortable with my soft sided camper than his furnace rig...

FWIW, so far my electrical usage is.

CPAP, LED lighting, and IF needed laptop.

I use VERY little LED lighting though. My laptop with light use can go the whole weekend without a charge and have plenty left.

Unless you are a digital nomad, which a pop up makes life sort of interesting to say the least, I don't see a lot of good use to even have a laptop with you on a camping trip. Want to shoot video or stills? Great, use your phone, or GoPro / camera of choice. Wait till you get home to edit and share them... Of course if you ARE a digital nomad, then the story changes entirely...

In use so far, my jump box works great for running what I need to. If I run the CPAP for 8 hours or less, I can eke out 2 nights with it. If I sleep in, or take forever getting to sleep, I need to charge it with my generator for at least an hour or so every day...

There are 2 drawbacks as you know to running the generator. Actually 3...
#1. Noise. These things are NOT silent no matter how quiet a generator you get. Don't be rude, only run your generator during the day. Preferrably during afternoon hours.
#2. Fuel consumption. This varies by generator, but you have to carry fuel to power these things. I typically carry 2 gallons of fuel oil mix per trip. I like having extra, and use what I don't in camp, for my lawn equipment at home.
#3. Smell / pollution. 2 stroke generators like mine are worse than 4 stroke, but even then, All generators are going to produce some pollution, and stink. Once warmed up and doing its thing the 2 stroke isn't bad, but getting there is a cloud of smoke and stinky 2 stroke oil. Again, be consierate of your neighbors, and minimize your use if you can.

Your solar is a good idea, but for your use, seems massively undersized. You probably don't need a ton of solar, but depending on your CPAP, for example mine draws 90w max with the humidifier. Harbor Freight sells a cheap, and easy 100w solar panel and charge controller set. That should suffice for your application, again that laptop depending on model, CPU, GPU etc... could radically increase your power needs. Many modern CPUs for example use 105 or so watts, plus disks, displays, RAM etc... you could easily be looking at 200w or more...

 

[bob414]

I camp a little differently from most people, mostly during events called Star Parties. As an amateur astronomer, I sleep during the day and stay up late at night. My neighbors are also of like mind. I also have 5 12VDC power packs for powering scope and gear.

I have used my little Buddy heater in a tent, but was worried air quality, so I did not sleep with the heater on. My genny is a 2000 Watt Inverter type and sometimes I have access to limited electric power.

I will test my battery running both CPAP (no heater) and pup Heater. May have to run CPAP (no heater) on one of my power packs.

I know I will over pack for my first trip. But I will see what works, what else I need and what is overkill.

 

[bob414]

Finally have some real data.

Feb 22, 2019
Tidewater Virginia.
Temp ~ 42 F raining.
Deep Cycle battery 24 fully charged.
Flagstaff 206LTD camper
Camper Heater maintaining ~ 68 F (turned on 30min before CPAP)
Resmed 9 (9 setting) no humidity control or heater.
7 1/2 hr sleep time with CPAP.
Battery voltage at end of run 12.2 VDC.

Should be able to sleep easy now and not worry about loss of power on CPAP or Heater for a overnight er. However, will have to recharge daily.




data.

I camp a little differently from most people, mostly during events called Star Parties. As an amateur astronomer, I sleep during the day and stay up late at night. My neighbors are also of like mind. I also have 5 12VDC power packs for powering scope and gear.

I have used my little Buddy heater in a tent, but was worried air quality, so I did not sleep with the heater on. My genny is a 2000 Watt Inverter type and sometimes I have access to limited electric power.

I will test my battery running both CPAP (no heater) and pup Heater. May have to run CPAP (no heater) on one of my power packs.

I know I will over pack for my first trip. But I will see what works, what else I need and what is overkill.

 

[Dan Wilson]

I bought a portable jump starter at Harbor Freight for $38 on sale. It has two 12v sockets. I tested it in my bedroom and got two and a half nights out of one charge. Enough for most boondock situations. I have a 12v adaptor for my Resmed and turn off the humidifier. It is much more portable than a 12v battery. Get the adaptor, do not plug an Inverter in the 12v, it sucks too much juice.

 

[dbhost]

I bought a portable jump starter at Harbor Freight for $38 on sale. It has two 12v sockets. I tested it in my bedroom and got two and a half nights out of one charge. Enough for most boondock situations. I have a 12v adaptor for my Resmed and turn off the humidifier. It is much more portable than a 12v battery. Get the adaptor, do not plug an Inverter in the 12v, it sucks too much juice.

Which item # from Harbor Freight?

I've got the Everstart J45TKE from Walmart that seems similar to the HF models, sort of... Only one 12V outlet though, and I believe a larger battery...

 

[dbhost]

Finally have some real data.

Feb 22, 2019
Tidewater Virginia.
Temp ~ 42 F raining.
Deep Cycle battery 24 fully charged.
Flagstaff 206LTD camper
Camper Heater maintaining ~ 68 F (turned on 30min before CPAP)
Resmed 9 (9 setting) no humidity control or heater.
7 1/2 hr sleep time with CPAP.
Battery voltage at end of run 12.2 VDC.

Should be able to sleep easy now and not worry about loss of power on CPAP or Heater for a overnight er. However, will have to recharge daily.




data.

Do you have a means of recharging the battery daily?

My rig, at this time, is just the Everstart jump box that I charge with the Harbor Freight Tailgator generator. And honestly, the jump box takes forever to recharge. Not happy with that. I do get, running the CPAP only off of it, 2 nights sleep time before i have to charge it though. By day #3 I am having to crank up the generator though...

Mind you, I am still in the tent phase, not yet in the pop up... Although we technically have the pop up now, the TV is not ready for prime time, and the PUC needs things like tires, new battery, and a good go over on the propane system before we are ready to go...

Long term goal? Fill the roof with solar, and at least 2 100 amp hour AGM deep cycle batteries. Considered lithium ion, but those are insane expensive, and have problems charging in cold weather. When AC is needed, will supply power for that via a larger generator. Not that I dislike the HF generator, but it is tiny, and uses 2 stroke oil, 2 big strikes against it... However it was as close to free as I could get.

Consider this...

My Everstart jump starter, J45TKE was bought on sale for around $60.00 after tax. My Tailgator generator was bought for $89.99 - 20% off coupon, so about $71.00 ish... Cheap. HOWEVER, I immediately swapped the NGK spark plug and plug boot in to insure proper operation as the Chinese plugs in these things are KNOWN bad... That added another $7.00 to my cost... I already had 2 stroke oil and gas can from my yard tools so no extra cost there...

I can, and do run my CPAP off of that, I CAN also run a small compressor fridge off of that if I chose to, however I would be recharging my jump pack every day...

My long term for the camper is to get at least 400w of solar on the roof, and 2 100 amp hour AGM deep cycle batteries into the system. I would like to be able to hitch up my camper to the truck and take off from Texas to Oregon, camping along the way without having to once start the generator...

 

[Haybale]

My first jump pack crapped out after 23 months, good ol 2 year warranty, walmart refunded me 100%, then bought another one off the shelf.

Using a 20w flexible solar panel now, the 10w I use to charge phones and such.

 

[GPSAdventureTouring]

My wife and I both run an Airsense 10 CPAP. full on they draw ~10amps/hour combined. I use the available ResMed DC to DC converter saving ~10% draw from running a 120V Inverter to power the units. We are explorers and travel new places each day so I equipped ourselves with the below set up.

I run the Ctek 140A Off Road DC to DC charging system off our Colorado ZR2 alternator (#2 gauge wire) to a 220Ah battery bank in the box of the truck. From the battery bank I run 25amp (#4 gauge wire) supply to our Aliner Scout 10. This supplies the required 12V power for the CPAP's and the fantastic fan / lights for each night. The next day travels will replenish the battery bank for the next night. The Ctek DC to DC charging system also allows for solar panel direct connection which I may do at some point but adventuring each day is more than enough to replenish the batteries.

 

[GPSAdventureTouring]

Reference material attached;

 

[Haybale]

So after buying a couple cars to make 1 good 1, I had a spare group 75 size car battery without a car, it has the GM screw in side posts, I got top posts that screw in and can use alligator clips easily now. With a 5 night camping trip I wanted to see how well that battery worked over the Jump pack. As the jump pack some times does not make contact with the solar panel plug and there is no way to tell if it is charging until the end of the day and it is still at 11.8v...

So anyway, I charged this battery with a 50w solar panel a few hours and it worked well. Before the trip I put a battery charger on it to ensure it was topped off.

I did not check the voltage until after the 2nd night of use and it was at 12.3v.

After the 3rd night of use, still at 12.3v

After the 4th night of use, 12.2v

After the 5th night of use, 12.2v

So far, it is using less than .1v per night.

Airsense 10, heated hose off, humidifier block off plate, and airplane mode set.

So I will no longer be using the jump pack (will take with anyway for back up).

This battery was basically free, so I don't care if it wont last as long as a deep cycle, it is less bulky than the jump back (a little heavier), and easier to use and charge if needed.