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Hi just received my electricity bill, been on cpap for a few months now,and it has gone from $250 to $600.Only thing different is the cpap with supplemented O2, and I may have used the air conditioner a little but more. Does using cpap with an Oxygen concentrator make that much difference to your Electricity usage? Thanks

I have not noticed an increase in my electric bill from my CPAP, but I don't use oxygen. I do know some electric companies give discounts for life saving medical devices, and CPAP and oxygen generators qualify.

Ok thanks. I will look into that.

I use a Trilogy Ventilator & Invacare Perfecto2 Oxygen Concentrator. I have not noticed any difference in my electric bill from it.

I don't know any electric companies offering any discounts. I know mine sure does NOT. Some of them will put someone like me on a supposed priority list for power restoration. I've found that to be a worthless piece of paper. Normal power outages -- they get to it when they get to it. Serious issues (like major storms) they call me and tell me to make other arrangements.

I cannot see how the addition of a cpap and an O2 generator can cause a 60% increase in your electric bill. The ResMed s9 uses a 90 watt power supply. So that would be like leaving a light on all night.

I would be looking at your AC or maybe a leaky hot water faucet (if you have electric hot water). Maybe a sump pump running all the time. One last thing, if you have a well, maybe your foot valve is leaking or a leaking valve causing the pump to run more often.

Just a few things,
-tino

So, Australia is home? At one time they had one of the best rates on electricty. In the last few years it has been on the rise. In the past six months it has gone up in some places double. Depending on where in Australia you are the rates could be double than the start of this year. And possibly a tax or charge added to that. You need to check your bill and look for the "kWh" numbers. I don't know how they list that information on your billing, but kilowatt hour, "kWh" would be the numbers to use to compare usage. Price per kWh should be listed as well to compare. We pay a stright number like .14 cents per kWh. I think you will find that australias kWh rates vary by demand. Cheaper at night when there is less demand. That could make it confusing to figure out. The "kWh" is 1000 watts per hour used, to make it easy to understand. Example, if you had sixteen of the old style 60 watt light bulbs on for an hour that would be close to 1000 watts in an hour. So whatever the kWh and any extra tax that may be added to that would be the cost of the lighting for an hour. I would guess, just a guess that the number will be around .18 to .28 cents per kWh. I would guess the higher side. Do a search ( Energymatters.com.au ). Somebody correct me if needed please.

I've noticed no difference due to cpap. When I was temporarily running an oxygen concentrator I did notice an increased bill. And I remember it did throw off a fair amount of heat. I do know that increasing my use of air conditioning did make a huge difference in the past. Sometimes three times as much. An updated air conditioner helped that a bit.

Can you measure the usage of your a/c and your concentrator?

Go into the electric utility office and request an audit of the meter.
They do malfunction, and if pressured , they should replace the meter.
As for any over-payment, you are on your own. Go to the top, or the media, if necessary.
We had a gas meter go berserk, Cengas refused to admit the meter was bad, but replaced the meter anyway.
Privately, we were told by a tech that the meter was registering 3x actual usage, but to help us would put his job in jeopardy.
We went to all electricity within a month. This was in 1980. Look how much they lost!

I remember hearing that the oxygen concentrators do use quite a bit of electricity-someone compared them to having a window A/C unit turned on. The newer units have decreased in size and according to the manufacturer use less electricity (i.e. Respironics Everflo). But even the older units would not cause such a big spike in electricity..if that were the case the majority of elderly COPD pts that use the concentrators day and night and are on fixed incomes would not be able to afford them. So I really doubt its your cpap or concentrator that caused such a jump in electric bill.

Call the utility company and request someone come out and do an audit. Most utilities offer this service as a way to reduce usage during prime hours. A 60% increase is crazy for what you are running.

Oxygen concentrators have been known to add as much as $30 to $4 a month to our electric bills. The newer concentrators do use less. Many electric companies do allow a "discounted rate" for life-saving equipment such as an 02 concentrator, but considerably fewer offer any kind of discount for CPAPs as life-saving equipment.

Our electric company requires a letter from our doctor verifying the necessity of 02 (life-saving equipment) and filling out and submitting a special electric company form. Our "discounted rate" when I was first started on 02 (2003) amounted to considerably more than it is now. Right now it is only amounting to some $4 a month.

Some good suggestions have been offered.

One more thing to check on the bill that you received, and to compare it with previous bills. Look carefully at each bill to see if it is based on an actual reading of the meter or an estimated reading. If the current bill is an actual reading and bills were based on estimates, then your current bill could be large because it's catching up to a longer term increase in electric use.

As an example, I used to have a property where electric meters were read just once per year, but bills were issued quarterly (e.g. every 3 months). The electric company based the bill on the previous year's consumption, divided by 4. If I used more electricity during the year than I did the previous year, then the next time the meter was read, I received a large bill that included all of my increased annual consumption. A long hot summer with lots of AC use, or a cold winter with lots of electric heat, only was seen on my electric bill many months later.

Thankyou everyone for your suggestions, explanations and recommendations, I will be ringing the company re increase in charges, and hopefully work something out... thanks again

Shadow2 wrote:Does using cpap with an Oxygen concentrator make that much difference to your Electricity usage? Thanks

Even running every xPAP Setting at maximum, you would be pushhed to add more than about AUD $20 a quarter to your electricity bill. I have no direct experience with the cost of running an oxygen concentrator, but this site.....

http://www.copd-international.com/COPD- ... rchives/66

... suggests that their energy comumption is a LOT higher than for a contemporary xPAP machine.

AIr conditioning also consumes a lot of energy, so that could also be a significant component of the increase. If you want to know how much energy any individual electric applicance in your home with a power plug is consuming, you can buy one of these....

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MS6115

... for AUD $20 and see for yourself.

Lastly, depending on which state you live in, you may have had an increase in the regulated energy rates due to "poles and wires" network reinvestment by your energy supplier. In some states you can get some lebevl of energy subsidy for some types of medical devices. The level of subsidy varies depending on which state you are in and also the type of device, so you should ask your energy supplier about what may be available for you

Cheers,

Bill

There's a gadget called a Kill-a-watt that you plug your device into, and it records kilowatt usage for whatever's plugged into it. It works for all kinds of electrical gadgets and is useful whenever you think something is a power/cash hog.

I don't know what the price/availability for these is in Oz.