Is there a Respironics battery guide somewhere?

[jpek]

I recently found a guide for setting up off-grid battery use fro ResMed CPAPs. Not enough detail for me to actually set it up myself, unfortunately, but very useful in a number of ways, including tables that specified the power needs for different machine types, with different settings and humidification or no humidification. I'm wondering if something like that is available for Respironics machines. Anyone know?

[HoseCrusher]

Pick up something like this...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Digital-Powe ... V8QAvD_BwE

Plug your machine into it and measure your power usage for a week. This will give you an idea of how much power you are using.

[Rickv]

I picked this up https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P6 ... UTF8&psc=1

And then installed a cigarette lighter plug in my 5th Wheel RV just in case we ever need to spend a night without shore power while traveling. I am sure this would probably work with or there is something similar for Respironics machines that would work in your off grid setup.

[jpek]

Pick up something like this...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Digital-Powe ... V8QAvD_BwE

Plug your machine into it and measure your power usage for a week. This will give you an idea of how much power you are using.

Interesting. Thanks.

[Chris8243]

I picked this up https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P6 ... UTF8&psc=1

And then installed a cigarette lighter plug in my 5th Wheel RV just in case we ever need to spend a night without shore power while traveling. I am sure this would probably work with or there is something similar for Respironics machines that would work in your off grid setup.

I did the same, my husband installed a "cigarette lighter" in our camper. We have never gone to a campground, we only go to remote places with no people. Works perfectly just using the battery power of the camper, we have never hooked up to electricity away from home.

[Rickv]

I picked this up https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P6 ... UTF8&psc=1

And then installed a cigarette lighter plug in my 5th Wheel RV just in case we ever need to spend a night without shore power while traveling. I am sure this would probably work with or there is something similar for Respironics machines that would work in your off grid setup.

I did the same, my husband installed a "cigarette lighter" in our camper. We have never gone to a campground, we only go to remote places with no people. Works perfectly just using the battery power of the camper, we have never hooked up to electricity away from home.

I haven't had a chance to use it yet (other than just making sure it worked), how does it work? Do you have a solar panel to keep the battery charged for multiple days?

[Super_Dad]

I have a jump starter with a cigarette lighter port to run 12v devices (Stanley FatMax). I also have a 12v DC adapter for my DreamStation Auto.

Is there any issue with using that as a battery backup for camping and/or power outages? The batteries specifically for CPAPs are pretty pricey but I will buy one if I have to.

[Rickv]

I have a jump starter with a cigarette lighter port to run 12v devices (Stanley FatMax). I also have a 12v DC adapter for my DreamStation Auto.

Is there any issue with using that as a battery backup for camping and/or power outages? The batteries specifically for CPAPs are pretty pricey but I will buy one if I have to.

I can't see any issue using that.

[Chris8243]

I picked this up https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P6 ... UTF8&psc=1

And then installed a cigarette lighter plug in my 5th Wheel RV just in case we ever need to spend a night without shore power while traveling. I am sure this would probably work with or there is something similar for Respironics machines that would work in your off grid setup.

I did the same, my husband installed a "cigarette lighter" in our camper. We have never gone to a campground, we only go to remote places with no people. Works perfectly just using the battery power of the camper, we have never hooked up to electricity away from home.

I haven't had a chance to use it yet (other than just making sure it worked), how does it work? Do you have a solar panel to keep the battery charged for multiple days?

No, don't have a solar panel. We have a bumper-pull camper and the rechargeable battery looks like a car battery (but it's not a car battery). Lasts at least a week, that's how long we've stayed in one spot anyway. The camper uses electricity for lights, refrigerator, water pump. The stove, hot water heater & heat run on propane. If we ran out of battery power (we never did) the camper can be hooked up to the truck, start the engine, and then it would recharge. The camper needs to be hooked up when driving (duh) so the brake lights work, and hence the battery is recharged at the same time. Pretty old-fashioned regular setup. When we find a spot, we unhook the trailer, set it up and it's home away from home.

[jpek]

Pick up something like this...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Digital-Powe ... V8QAvD_BwE

Plug your machine into it and measure your power usage for a week. This will give you an idea of how much power you are using.

Okay, I got one of these, but the operating instructions for it are truly awful. Obviously not written by anyone with even a basic command of English. So, I'm not sure how to make sense of the readings. Do you have one of these meters? Among my many questions: I don't really know if I'm supposed to leave it plugged in the whole week or unplug it and plug it back in each night. And, it gives a "hi" and "lo" power usage levels but I'm unclear what the time period is in which this usage is for. It just says W, not W per hour or anything. I also don't know if it's combining multiple days... Very confusing.

[HoseCrusher]

I don't have one of those, but I do speak English...

Plug the unit into your wall outlet. Then plug your CPAP machine into it. It looks like it defaults to KWh which is kilowatt hours. Take a piece of paper and write down when you plug it in. Use your machine for a few days, then write down what the display is showing as far as energy used as well as the period of time you had it plugged in. If you are planning on camping for a week, let it go a week.

Now you have a measurement of how much energy you used during that period of time.

Watts are a combination of volts x amps. A kilowatt is 1000 watts. If your unit says something like 0.056 KWh in 7 days of use, you can multiply that by 1000 to get 56 watts used during that period of time.

To figure out amps you would take 56/120 = about 0.5 amps at 120 volts.

Now you need to size a battery. Looking that the ResMed document it looks like half an amp would need about a 60 Ah battery for 8 hours of use. Going for 7 days would bring you to 7x60 = 420 Amp Hour battery. Now you can go shoping for your battery, assemble some pieces and be ready to go.

[jpek]

I don't have one of those, but I do speak English...

Plug the unit into your wall outlet. Then plug your CPAP machine into it. It looks like it defaults to KWh which is kilowatt hours. Take a piece of paper and write down when you plug it in. Use your machine for a few days, then write down what the display is showing as far as energy used as well as the period of time you had it plugged in. If you are planning on camping for a week, let it go a week.

Now you have a measurement of how much energy you used during that period of time.

Watts are a combination of volts x amps. A kilowatt is 1000 watts. If your unit says something like 0.056 KWh in 7 days of use, you can multiply that by 1000 to get 56 watts used during that period of time.

To figure out amps you would take 56/120 = about 0.5 amps at 120 volts.

Now you need to size a battery. Looking that the ResMed document it looks like half an amp would need about a 60 Ah battery for 8 hours of use. Going for 7 days would bring you to 7x60 = 420 Amp Hour battery. Now you can go shoping for your battery, assemble some pieces and be ready to go.

Thanks for your response.

So, this meter has several display functions. Right now:

one shows 0.604KWh and 0 days (it always seems to show 0 days)
two shows 0.0 V and 0 0 Hz
three shows 0.000 A and 0.00 power factor
four shows 1.2 W Lo
five shows 92.7 W Hi
six shows 0.00 cost / KWh
seven shows 0.0 W and 0.00 cost

At the top of all the function displays it says 18:22 which I'm going to guess is total hours read. There's a reset button which I haven't pushed so it's probably a cumulative measurement over all those hours. There are also mysterious Up and Down buttons that are supposed to control the settings, but I have no idea what the settings set.

Can you make heads or tails of this?

Does this means I've used 0.604 KW per hour over the whole time period? (Confusing that that it says 18:22 hours but 0 days).
I am guessing that functions two, three, six and seven have zeroes because they're meant to show current power usage and nothing is plugged into the meter at the moment?
Four and five seem to show the lowest and highest amount of power used in the given period?

That's as far as I've gotten.

If I'm correct, would i be looking at the display for function one only basically?

[HoseCrusher]

You are correct. Press the reset and things should go back to 0.

I believe one is what you want to keep track of. It is probably set to a 24 hour day so your day count won't increase until it is being used for over 24 hours.

My best guess is that two only displays when your device is being used.

Three most likely also only displays when whatever is plugged in is being used.

Four and five are trying to show low and high periods of use.

Six allows you to enter your local cost of electricity and using that figure seven will tell you how much it costs to run your device.

In the days of incandescent lights we use to play with devices like this. Plug a 60 watt light in and take a reading. Next plug a 100 watt light and take another reading. Next plug in a heat lamp and take a reading from that.

If you are on a farm an interesting project is to try to figure out your total cost of raising chickens. When hatching you use a heat lamp and in addition to the cost of the chicks or eggs and the cost of feed and the cost of building materials for the pen, you can add in the cost of electricity used.

[jpek]

You are correct. Press the reset and things should go back to 0.

I believe one is what you want to keep track of. It is probably set to a 24 hour day so your day count won't increase until it is being used for over 24 hours.

My best guess is that two only displays when your device is being used.

Three most likely also only displays when whatever is plugged in is being used.

Four and five are trying to show low and high periods of use.

Six allows you to enter your local cost of electricity and using that figure seven will tell you how much it costs to run your device.

In the days of incandescent lights we use to play with devices like this. Plug a 60 watt light in and take a reading. Next plug a 100 watt light and take another reading. Next plug in a heat lamp and take a reading from that.

If you are on a farm an interesting project is to try to figure out your total cost of raising chickens. When hatching you use a heat lamp and in addition to the cost of the chicks or eggs and the cost of feed and the cost of building materials for the pen, you can add in the cost of electricity used.

Thanks!