Batteries and CPAPs, if you camp or have power failures

JimmyKSenior · Post by **JimmyKSenior** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:24 am

Not sure who all are campers or RV'ers so this is a "for what its worth" thread.

My family likes to camp, RV actually, in a trailer. We used to tent but as the kids got older we moved up to a pop-up and now we basically tow a motel room behind us. Also with winter coming, we had snow on Sat., we get quite a few power outages so I have been concerned what I would do with no power or when we are on the road in the trailer.

I found a place on-line called Batterystuff.com. I worked with a good guy, another vet, named Steve, Steve@BatteryStuff.com. For less than $140 I got a 12V battery, a charger to charge off 120V house current, and the cables to charge off DC current in my trailer or in my truck. The only thing this won't work for is backpacking as the battery weighs 24 lbs but then there are no power sources in the mountains to recharge anyway, unless you want to pack a solar recharger. I have seen no solutions lasting more than one night without a recharge. Steve has sold these before for CPAPers so he knew what my needs were.

I believe this will power my REMstar Auto with C-flex and HH for at least a good long night and will recharge fast the next day (deep cycle battery) from several sources. So whether in a tent, RV, or hotel room, I will have my beloved companion, and my APAP! Too bad my wife doesn't read these! The shipping on the battery was free but it is coming UPS Ground so I won't have it to test this week. Once I can run some tests, I will post my findings.

JimK

Kemosabe · Post by **Kemosabe** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 2:34 pm

As I live up in a forest in the mountains (almost like camping), power outages are common, especially in winter. I've got a 100AH AGM deep cycle battery, a trickle charger and an ordinary 10A car battery charger.

This will power my Remstar auto for up to five nights but will not run the HH as it's not 12VDC but 110VAC. I've heard that the HH doesn't do well with inverters, so I just use it as a pass-over humidifier.

This is not a camping setup as the AGM battery weights about 100 lbs, but it does last long enough to get through most outages without requiring me to take it somewhere to get it recharged. After the outage, I charge it up first with the 10A charger, then maintain the charge with the trickle.

Eventually I plan to set up a PV system to run it off the power of the sun itself.

If you're planning a battery setup:

You need a sealed battery, either Gel or AGM. Hydrogen gas is dangerous in confined areas.
Remstar Auto is listed for 12V 3A, so figure 24AH per night. (I usually do better than this)
It's a good idea to get a battery box to prevent accidents with bare terminals.
Car battery chargers do trickle charge but they also tend to hum. Get one of the new wall-wart style trickle chargers, they are silent.

JimmyKSenior · Post by **JimmyKSenior** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 3:13 pm

OK, so I'm not as helpful as I thought. So what you're saying is the HH can ONLY run off 120V house current? The battery I got is a AGM gel cell rated at 32 AH so it should be OK for a full night with HH as passover, correct? I was not aware of the HH limitation as it is an integral part with the machine, guess we know what assume does......

If the REMstar auto and HH are plugged into DC with the cord they sold me or hooked direct to the battery, what happens? Will it just not run or will it ruin the HH? I'm just trying to figure out the different configurations I might encounter and they really don't sell the right batteries on any of the on-line stores so I just went to a battery place and found someone who was helpful.

Its hard to find anyone who knows this stuff, thanks for the help! (Got snow yet?)

JimK

Severeena · Post by **Severeena** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 4:11 pm

I am really lucky for this winter if we lose electric my hubby has a really nice generator. wecan run the frig in the daytime and at night both CPAPs.

Hubby is a Viet Nam Vet with two tours 68-70 a helicopter door gunner.

Kemosabe · Post by **Kemosabe** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 4:15 pm

So what you're saying is the HH can ONLY run off 120V house current?

That's my understanding. No matter how you've got the 120VAC plug plugged in, the 12VDC only powers the xPAP.

Page 8 of the HH manual says: "DC to AC inverters cannot be used with this humidifier; damage could occur to the humidifier."

If the REMstar auto and HH are plugged into DC with the cord they sold me or hooked direct to the battery, what happens? Will it just not run or will it ruin the HH?

The DC power cord plugs into the REMstar only. It doesn't pass power to the HH, so no harm/no foul. It seems to work fine like this.

Its hard to find anyone who knows this stuff, thanks for the help! (Got snow yet?)

Happy to help.

No snow, and as I'm in California we may not get any this year. We've got about a 30% chance of at least one snowfall each season I figure. Year before last we had some, so we could be due.

Our outages come from living in a forest with overhead power lines. Any good rain/wind/hail/snow and we're practically guaranteed to lose power at least for a few hours, and sometimes it's up to a week or so.

biggziff · Post by **biggziff** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 7:35 pm

I bought a gel-cel and a solar charger along with a car charger. It's the size of a motorcycle battery, maybe 2-3 pounds and will run the machine for 12 hours.

JimmyKSenior · Post by **JimmyKSenior** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:12 am

Kemosabe -thanks for the info, good stuff!

biggziff - where did you get yours? Brand, etc? Yours sounds a little more portable and I like the solar thing, does it work?

severeena - say hi to hubby and tell him THANKS! He is one reason we can do all this info sharing and have freedom of choice amongst other freedoms. Our day is coming this month but as I am a vet, I have to work. Great holiday. I was in in '67 - '79. I guess I am a Vietnam ERA vet as I never actually stepped foot on the ground. I was a bombadier/navigator in A6 Intruders the last 6 years on the USS Coral Sea and was off-shore Nam for the embassy evacuation in '75. I was sitting in the cockpit, engines turning, on the catapult, ready to launch when the war ended that day and we shut down the engines. Door gunners - those guys have/had big ones; my admiration!

JimK

Severeena · Post by **Severeena** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:21 am

I have heard some of the things he got into over there and not all good and not all bad.

This is one of the reasons he is so prepared for things to come.

biggziff · Post by **biggziff** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 11:49 am

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/c ... type=store

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dl ... category0=

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 3:54 pm

You can run your hh from a pure sine wave inverter . $125 at invertersrus.com . The hh will never know the difference but you'll need a larger battery . How does 100 AH sound . Only 60 lbs . LOL

Just forget about the hh while you're on batt . That 100AH batt will last 2 weeks with a 420E .

:twis ted:

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 4:41 pm

Will a computer UPS work to run a XPAP for any length of time? I'm going to get my first machine next week and my power is always going out. I guess I'm on the end of the line. My power was out for 3 days after a windstorm a couple of years ago and I know that once I get my machine, I won't want to go without it for too long.

JimmyKSenior wrote:I was a bombadier/navigator in A6 Intruders the last 6 years on the USS Coral Sea and was off-shore Nam for the embassy evacuation in '75.

I've got a friend that flew right seat in A6's in Viet Nam, but I can't remember what ship he was on.

Door gunners - those guys have/had big ones; my admiration!

Anybody that flies in those things that beat the air into submission has my respect. I like my wings to stay in one place, thank you very much.

biggziff · Post by **biggziff** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 5:29 pm

a UPS for computers will work fine.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 10:58 am

well, a computer ups will work, but most of them have a VERY LOUD alarm when the power goes out so as to encourage the user to shut down the computer. You might want to review user manuals online to assure that you can shut the alarm off.

yardbird · Post by **yardbird** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 11:17 am

My wife and I are planning a new house. It's about 4 years out yet, but one of the things we're planning is a standby generator that runs on either natural gas or LP gas. With power-conditioned output. I have a 5000watt generator now but it's loud, runs on gasoline, and the power output really fluctuates. It's ok for running sump pumps in an emergency, or getting some lights on, but I don't like it for more delicate stuff.

chrisp · Post by **chrisp** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 9:04 am

skip the generator and think solar. Sell the power back to the power guys and make money . You won't regret it. Even in NY.

:twis ted:

Mask

Mask

Batteries and CPAPs, if you camp or have power failures

Batteries and CPAPs, if you camp or have power failures

re computer ups