Thinking about small generator for backup

[DagoRed]

My experience with my xpap, the FnP Icon Auto running off a battery.
The Icon auto, when its just plugged in will draw 60 watts doing nothing.
When its turned on and the hose and humidity are turned off it draws 90 watts.
Turn on the hose and humidity and its close to 300 watts.

300 wats at 120vac is a draw of close to 30 amps at 12vdc. I have a deep cycle battery with 900 amps and I can run my machine for 30 hours before the battery is dead. I couldnt use my machine with the humidity and hose turned off as it was cold at nite and the desert air was dry. So thats approx 3 nites, however you dont want to run your battery till its dead. You can charge a battery with your car. I have a 450 watt inverter that I use to run a charger off my car. For my house I have a 3500 watt genny that can run most everything I have at home, and still charge the battery.
A 30 amp battery charger is the best to have, I can charge my battery in a few hours during the day.
Where my wife and I live we lose power for many days every winter.

[sylvie]

However, you all are talking WAYYYY above my head. [/quote]

All you have to do is read Archangel's Deep Battery Home Backup Thread. It WON'T get any easier than that and it can be assembled in a day if you can get your hands on the stuff, and an idiot like me can do the simple step by step directions. All the work has been done for you in that thread. Did you miss it?

[Guest]

300 wats at 120vac is a draw of close to 30 amps at 12vdc.

you are mixing up something in your conversion cuz there is no way that any cpap will use 30amps at any voltage
my guess is you are calculating the current at ac voltage then applying it at 12v
12v current is less than 120volt ac current

[DagoRed]

300 wats at 120vac is a draw of close to 30 amps at 12vdc.

you are mixing up something in your conversion cuz there is no way that any cpap will use 30amps at any voltage
my guess is you are calculating the current at ac voltage then applying it at 12v
12v current is less than 120volt ac current

300 watts at 120vac is a draw of close to 30 amps at 12vdc. There is an inverter used to convert from 12vDC to 120vAC.

[avi123]

DH bought this one.
Hope it works--we'll let you know.
http://www.harborfreight.com/engines-ge ... 66619.html

Comment,

Chunky, it makes sense to me. It weighs less than my dog at 42 lbs. I could place it in my garage and use a cable to my badroom.
I can plug my S9 Autoset, with the humidifier, right into the cable socket. No problem filling with gasoline during the daytimes.
THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THE 5 HRs RUNNING TIME & 50% load.


But, this one has 8.5 hours capacity at 50% load, and costs $140:





Your DH idea:




With the above 1200 watts generator, running in the garage (cars parked outside and garage windows wide open), I could also run the fridg. (600 watts) and several lights in addition to my S9Autoset plus the humidifier set at 5 to 6 (110 watts).

No batteries inside my house b/c they emit toxic fumes from the electrolite!

[Lizistired]

I bought a Diehard 1150 last year but have not had the need to use it yet other than jump starting vehicles and my lawn mower.
I will tonight. I checked/topped off the charge today. I will let you know tomorrow how it goes.

Sounds good, let me know. My family came up today to get us set-up and ready, our biggest fear are the trees at this point. We have a lot of oaks and huge pines trees that can be a HUGE problem! The good news is that the wind and rain today knocked off a lot more leaves so the oaks are more wind resistant, the bad news is now the ground is soaked and soft!

I used it last night but took the mask off between 3 and 5:30. I don't remember why. So I only used it about 5 1/2 hours.
The strange thing is, I checked the "percent of charge" and it said 90%. But when I plugged the charger adaptor in, it said 55.
Where's Gumby?? Guess I need to find the book.
I'll try it again tonight. I may invest in the Resmed DC adaptor. I need to replace the back up battery for my sump pump, so if I needed extra nights, I would have that as an option.

[archangle]

What are your thoughts on the "Battery Tender" brand slow chargers? I have one of them and would be one less item on your list I would need! I believe it is also 1.5 amps.

I recommend that particular Schumacher SE-1-12S charger because I've used up to 4 of them for many years on my own batteries and my dad's batteries for his boat.

Which particular "Battery Tender" model?

I've heard mostly good stuff about the "battery tender" brand. I haven't used them myself. They do make some that look a lot like the particular charger I use. With any brand or model charger, the big unknown is what happens to your battery after you've hooked it up to the charger for 6 months or a few years.

If you're hooking it up to charge the battery without the CPAP connected, almost any "float" charger should be good for a reasonably short period of time.

[archangle]

My experience with my xpap, the FnP Icon Auto running off a battery.
The Icon auto, when its just plugged in will draw 60 watts doing nothing.
When its turned on and the hose and humidity are turned off it draws 90 watts.
Turn on the hose and humidity and its close to 300 watts.

Wow! My PRS1 Auto and S9 AutoSet only draw about 30 watts average from the AC power line running all night with 14 or higher pressure and the humidifier going.

When not blowing, they draw very little power.

However, that's another good point. Unplug your CPAP when not in use if you're on battery power.

[Starlette]

So, whether you use a battery or a small generator, they go in the garage? If so, how do you connect it to your pap?

Starlette

[Lizistired]

Chunky, I am curious to hear how long that generator will run on a tank of gas.
I thought about getting one after our last ice storm when I lost power for 2 days.

[DagoRed]

My experience with my xpap, the FnP Icon Auto running off a battery.
The Icon auto, when its just plugged in will draw 60 watts doing nothing.
When its turned on and the hose and humidity are turned off it draws 90 watts.
Turn on the hose and humidity and its close to 300 watts.

Wow! My PRS1 Auto and S9 AutoSet only draw about 30 watts average from the AC power line running all night with 14 or higher pressure and the humidifier going.

When not blowing, they draw very little power.

However, that's another good point. Unplug your CPAP when not in use if you're on battery power.

Yeah the Icon is a power pig for sure, it calcs out to over 15.00 a month for a paperweight. Add the extra power use when I am actually using it. I bet xpap costs me 25.00 a month with this POS machine. But hey if you buy the software it will play a song for an alarm!!

[avi123]

So, whether you use a battery or a small generator, they go in the garage? If so, how do you connect it to your pap?

Starlette

Reply,

With a Generator in my single home garage, I would use a 50 feet long regular extension cord for 15 amps capacity at 120 volts . Buy at The Home Depot or Lowe's.

If using a battery it need be placed near the XPAP, I think, but then you have toxic gases from the acid.

Check also:


http://www.komonews.com/news/consumer/B ... 14551.html

[chunkyfrog]

We have not used it yet. DH only ran it a few minutes--not for endurance or capacity (he's a bit of a tightwad)
Reviews say it's noisy--DH says it's not--I reminded him his hearing aids were not in.
We will be sure to check the quality of the output wave form before plugging in our Autosets.
I'm leaning toward using a Cushman battery (deep cycle) that we already have, to run an inverter for quiet nights;
and using the generator to do a quick charge on the battery--when necessary.
Our power outages have mostly been short since the big ice storm a few years ago. (8 days, then)
(I wonder how big a baby boom there will be on the eastern seaboard next July! )

[Lizistired]

We will be sure to check the quality of the output wave form before plugging in our Autosets.

How do you do that?

[Guest]

Yeah the Icon is a power pig for sure, it calcs out to over 15.00 a month for a paperweight. Add the extra power use when I am actually using it. I bet xpap costs me 25.00 a month with this POS machine. But hey if you buy the software it will play a song for an alarm!!

i'd like to know what formula you are using for this miscalculation
better yet how bout for this one

300 watts at 120vac is a draw of close to 30 amps at 12vdc. There is an inverter used to convert from 12vDC to 120vAC.

anyone who goes to sleep with a generator running is asking for trouble but hey all the more o2 for me then