Traveling in a motorhome with CPAP

[linda12345]

I travel on a motorhome and since I am new to CPAP machines, I am trying to anticipate any problems I may have. So far everything has gone okay since I have been staying in campgrounds that have electricity. Next week, I will be dry camping, no electricity. Does any one know how much electricity a CPAP machine uses. I have an inverter/converter that will transfer battery power to 120 v power but do not know if the drain from CPAP will drain battery before the night is up.

Need some input.
Thanks,
Linda

[Roman Hokie]

Hmmm... depends on the machine and if the humidifier is connected.

Power consumption information is available for each machine and humidifier on cpap.com.

There are different types of inverters and if you have the wrong one, I believe (if I understand right) that it could damage your machine. Someone much smarter than me will have to help you out for that.

[nanwilson]

Hi Linda
I motorhome too! Since I am a single dumb old lady and was getting confused by all the info the guys were giving me on this forum, I emailed the maker of my cpap (F&P) and asked exactly what I needed for backup power. They emailed me back within an hour, and along with their info and help from the guys here I am set up.
I went out and bought a sine wave inverter and a 12 volt deep cycle marine battery.
I do not use my humidifier when I am dry camping, and I have so far gotten 3 nights in a row. When I get back to an electric site I simply plug in my battery charger and recharge the battery. The reason I bought a new battery just for my cpap, I was kind of afraid I would deplete the charge on my motorhome batteries and they would not last me as long, also, by having a sep. battery; when the power goes out at home, I can hook up right away.
Good luck with your set up....remember..no humidifier, it takes way too much power.
Cheers
Nan

[topdragster]

Hey Linda,

My first time out "dry" camping wasn't very sucessful. My motorhome batteries were 5 years old but only lasted 4 hours with a respronics loaner while on titration. I opted to replace my batteries (2)for the next time out (costco deep cycle 85.00 each canadian). I just recieved my new S9 with humidifier and climate line hose so off we went for the weekend. My moho has a built in sinwave inverter and with the new batteries my cpap ran all night with no problems using the humidifier and climate hose too. I check the battery capacity left in the morning and it showed I still had 3/4 battery capacity left. The respronics is a 12volt dc machine and you could have a stand alone deep cycle marine battery and get 3-4 nights with out the humidifier I'm told. The resmed however is 24 volt dc power so a stand alone battery becomes more complicated. A 200 watt sinwave inverter however would solve this problem. Below is a link to resmed's battery guide, I hope this has helped you.


http://www.resmed.com/us/assets/documen ... lo_eng.pdf

[CorgiGirl]

Hi, Linda,

We are also motorhomers and we use the 12 volt cables from Respironics when we are dry camping. What machine do you use? Is it a 12v machine with an inverter to make is use 120v? If so, I'd investigate the 12v power cable options from your manufacturer.

CG

[linda12345]

Thanks for all of your input. I do not have any special 12v cables for my Respronics System One C flex machine. I do have an inverter on my motorhome that does convert battery power to electric outlet power (is that 110v?). I will be dry campting in 2 days. I called Respronics and they said that with out humidifier it uses 90 watts/hr and with humidifier it uses 180 watts/ hr.

Does anyone understand inverter and batteries enough to tell me if that means I can use the machine all night without draining the battery?

thanks,
linda

[topdragster]

If you have a 100 amp hour battery in your moho at 200watts your cpap with humidifier should last slightly more than 5 hours before charging is required. If you have 2- 100 amp hour batteries then double it. It would also depend on the state of your batteries too, ie: how old are they? Like I said in my previuos post I only got 4 hours on my old batteries, but my new batteries worked awesome all night and still had 75% charge left using my S9 with humidifier. You may want to see how old your batteries are in your moho and or get them checked to see if they need replacement.

here is a link to info on power inverters go to #2 in about power converters and enter your battery info ie: amp hours and the wattage use of the cpap machine to give you approx hour useage.

http://www.dcacpowerinverters.com/faq.htm

[linda12345]

So, topdragster, if I have 4 batteries with 225 amp hours, then I should not have any problems running the CPaP with humidifier at total 180 watts. Is that correct? I am not sure I know the conversion of how many amp hours are consumed by 180 watts/hr.

I installed new batteries last August so I know that they are new and should be in good condition. They are the Trojan t-105's.

thanks,
linda

[topdragster]

Linda by using that link I provided it shows that with 225 ah @ 180 watts you should get 12.5 hours out of the batteies before needing a charge. I would assume that with 4 batteries you have a fairly large moho that has a generator to charge them the next day if you need to. You should be fine with what you have. I'm leaving this afternoon to go to a family reunion at a lake resort in the B.C. interior for 3 days so I'll be testing mine again. The last weekend I went racing I used my cpap for two nights on my new batteries with no issues. Good luck and enjoy your trip.

Brian

[linda12345]

Brian,
I will let you know how my dry camping adventure goes. I will not be in as beautiful place as BC but will instead be in Mitchel , SD , on Cabellas parking lot. Interestingly though, I am traveling to BC and plan to tour the Vancouver Island for a month or so.

Have fun,
Linda

[Patrick A]

I travel on a motorhome and since I am new to CPAP machines, I am trying to anticipate any problems I may have. So far everything has gone okay since I have been staying in campgrounds that have electricity. Next week, I will be dry camping, no electricity. Does any one know how much electricity a CPAP machine uses. I have an inverter/converter that will transfer battery power to 120 v power but do not know if the drain from CPAP will drain battery before the night is up.

Need some input.
Thanks,
Linda

Linda
My Bipap machine runs on 12vdc. Your new Cpap Machine should run on 12vdc.
For this trip you can run it off the inverter but I would not recommend it.(runs batterys down quick)https://www.cpap.com/productpage/respir ... e-kit.htmlI would say you can order one of these, but you will not have it before next week some time. Unless you pay for next day delivery. Or you can order one of these if you have a couple of 12vdc recepticales near your bed in the RV. https://www.cpap.com/productpage/respir ... -cord.html
You could pay for next air on this not so bad. Good luck

[topdragster]

OMG Cabella's parking lot whoo hooo!!! I have been to the one south of Seattle and all I can say is WOW it was an adventure and I could have stayed there for a weekend to try to see all. The Cabella's there was very camper friendly with sani dump and water too. Vancouver Island is beautiful and if you get a chance come up to the interior its beautiful up here too. My weekend went extremely well with my S9 and humidifier I slept well and it was chilly enough in the evening to have the furnace come on and still had oodles of battery life left in the morning . This was using my inverter only because the S9 is 24 volt and Resmed hasn't released a 12volt to 24volt transformer As Patrick says a 12v cable for your respronics would be easier on your batteries than running it through the inverter but in my case I cannot because my resmed is 24 volts. Hope you enjoyed your trip.

[torontoCPAPguy]

I travel on a motorhome and since I am new to CPAP machines, I am trying to anticipate any problems I may have. So far everything has gone okay since I have been staying in campgrounds that have electricity. Next week, I will be dry camping, no electricity. Does any one know how much electricity a CPAP machine uses. I have an inverter/converter that will transfer battery power to 120 v power but do not know if the drain from CPAP will drain battery before the night is up.

Need some input.
Thanks,
Linda

Linda:
Do not wear CPAP while you are RVing. You will fall asleep and crash.

[Patrick A]

I travel on a motorhome and since I am new to CPAP machines, I am trying to anticipate any problems I may have. So far everything has gone okay since I have been staying in campgrounds that have electricity. Next week, I will be dry camping, no electricity. Does any one know how much electricity a CPAP machine uses. I have an inverter/converter that will transfer battery power to 120 v power but do not know if the drain from CPAP will drain battery before the night is up.

Need some input.
Thanks,
Linda

Linda:
Do not wear CPAP while you are RVing. You will fall asleep and crash.

Maybe next week if we go somewhere in the RV I will try that.....stay tuned.

[SleepyInSeoul]

As an electrical engineer, I was confused by the manufacturer reportedly specifying "watts/hour" as a rating. It should be just "watts", which the unit of power. A simple aid for those wanting to get a very rough idea would be to note the following two basic equation:

Power (watts) = Voltage (nominally 12V for a battery) x Current (Amps)

Battery Capacity (amp-hours) = Current (Amps) x Time (Hours).

Keeping the numbers simple, here is a sample calculation:

(a) Say your CPAP machine uses 120 Watts. At 12 volts, that would be 10 amps. (12 volts x 10 amps = 120 watts)

(b) If your battery's capacity is 200 amp-hours, then it would run for 20 hours on the battery (10 amps x 20 hours = 200 amp-hours)

Disclaimer - these are very simplified calculations, and ignore very important real-life factors such as convertor efficiency, actual battery voltage, actual battery capacity, temperature, load variation, etc. However, it is a good way to get a rough estimate - just remember the actual length of time will always be less than this theoretical calculation.