going camping with a cpap and no electricity!

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Reba1m

going camping with a cpap and no electricity!

Post by Reba1m » Mon Jul 28, 2014 8:27 pm

Hi! I have 2 camping trips coming up where there will be no electricity. Does anyone know of a battery operated outlet that will work throughout the night that is reasonably priced?
Thanks!

Guest

Re: going camping with a cpap and no electricity!

Post by Guest » Mon Jul 28, 2014 9:19 pm

Reba1m wrote:Hi! I have 2 camping trips coming up where there will be no electricity. Does anyone know of a battery operated outlet that will work throughout the night that is reasonably priced?
Thanks!
You need to list the make & model of your machine to get accurate info.
You will do best if your machine has a DC input to use that.

You might also mention how long each trip will be.

Amenite

Re: going camping with a cpap and no electricity!

Post by Amenite » Tue Jul 29, 2014 3:56 pm

I had a very good experience recently using my Respironics 460P machine, with the correct DC power adapter, connecting it up to one of those combination battery pack/jump start devices. I picked up a 27 Watt solar panel for $100 that comes fitted with the proper tip to connect directly to the battery unit I have for convenient charging (there's also an inexpensive adapter you can get separately that turns that plug from the solar panel into a cigarette lighter socket and makes it almost universal to charge stuff). I added a measuring device in line for when the CPAP unit was connected to battery power and found at pressure setting of 14 with no heated humidifier the unit was draws around 8 Watts DC/12V. The particular battery pack has a capacity probably between 150-220 Watt hours, so even though I was topping off the battery each day with solar for several hours it probably would have run for 3 nights on a single complete charge.

So there's a little bit of investment in making this work but I found it was worth it for me. The battery pack serves multiple uses as does the solar panel. After 8 days without utility power after hurricane Sandy I am happy to have some non-generator options around to generate power also. My fellow campers also rejoiced at the extinction of the Snore-o-saurus Rex

Guest

Re: going camping with a cpap and no electricity!

Post by Guest » Tue Jul 29, 2014 4:11 pm

Sounds like a good setup. Which jump starter are you using?

With any jump starter you can connect the jumper cables to a (running) car battery (if one is near) to give it a pretty quick charge in a matter of minutes too.

There is a thread on here where the OP uses a Sears 1150 jump starter successfully. I think the thread it titled "Another Battery Option".

Amenite

Re: going camping with a cpap and no electricity!

Post by Amenite » Tue Jul 29, 2014 5:07 pm

I can't post links, but you can find these on Amazon if you're interested in details:

Battery pack: Wagan Power Dome EX (many others available, this just happens to be one I already had on hand)
Solar Panel: Instapark® Mercury27 Portable & Foldable 27 Watts Solar Battery Charger (5 days use so far, works well)
Adapter: BiXPower Car Cigarette Lighter Female Socket to 5.5 x 2.5mm & 5.5 x 2.1mm Female Barrel Connector Adapter

For the battery meter I made some custom connectors using Anderson Power Pole connectors (they work great BTW) to put inline one of these:
"Watt's Up" RC Watt Meter & Power Analyzer WU100 Version 2

I don't have the model number for the Respironics DC adapter handy, but I picked up the more complete version that includes a fused cigarette lighter adapter with battery clips to connect directly to battery terminals just in case I needed that in future. Make sure it's the correct kit for your model - there are a few versions out there, not interchangeable.

The CPAP and hoses, mask and power connectors live in a small hard plastic tote with carry handle. You could do this all for less money but alot of this stuff is multi-use for me, and assembling it all was nice little project.

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Goofproof
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Re: going camping with a cpap and no electricity!

Post by Goofproof » Tue Jul 29, 2014 11:12 pm

Reba1m, has not replied since the first post, without her equiptment posting is useless unless you make up scenarios for every make and model of equipment.
Use data to optimize your xPAP treatment!

"The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease." Voltaire