Another Battery Option

I wanted to ask about this -

-tim wrote:That would mean the basic load for 9 hours...

I don't know about anyone else but seldom would I sleep 9hrs straight esp. IF the power is out. I would be waking up to check things like whether the power is back on. Esp. IF the Wx is H-O-T like is is now AND the power is out.

In the past when I tried to calculate or estimate battery needs I would base it on 6.5-7 hrs maybe 8 tops but to me 9 hrs is stretching it.

Actually when I first tried this Sears jump starter I just went to bed like normal to see IF it would make it thru the nite and contrary to everyones calculations it did fine. I tend to think the formulas and current estimates are faulty.

Tonite there are more thunder storms expected to blow thru during the nite. I will go to bed shortly and hope to sleep straight thru maybe even 8hrs

fwiw - we did have a 4hr outage last week during the day. Since there was nothing else to do AND it was pouring out, I went to sleep.

Turns out it was a spectacular storm and the thunder kept waking me.

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/weather/m ... 4.html#top

I'm on my 3rd jump start type of battery backup. The first was from Harbor Freight and it couldn't recharge enough during the day to keep it going all night. I exchanged it for a new one of the same but no joy so I returned it and just bought the Costco version thinking to was the one Gumby has. Now I know better but am trying it anyway and if it fails as I expect I'll get the Sears model he has.

I expect it to fail because even though it says it is to be used as a power supply, it warns don't charge it at the same time you use it. Well, the charger turns on and off when the battery needs it so they want me to unplug it at night and plug it back in the next morning. Is that what you do Gumby?

OldLincoln wrote:I expect it to fail because even though it says it is to be used as a power supply, it warns don't charge it at the same time you use it. Well, the charger turns on and off when the battery needs it so they want me to unplug it at night and plug it back in the next morning. Is that what you do Gumby?

No unfortunately, what I am doing is NOT recommended by the manufacturer. However, it has and remains working just fine for well over a year now. I don't even use the AC power adapter anymore unless I am traveling.

I think the warning is more a cya for the manf. than anything.

Been on the Costco battery unit for about 3 weeks now and it's working terrific. I think it has a thingy that will convert AC to DC and feed it directly out the cigar plug adapter port. The battery level never goes down and the battery charge light never turns on. Well, except I unplugged it from AC for one longer than usual night and there was still 12V of charge left. I plugged it back in and the charger light was on all day and still when I went to bed, still from my mid-night stroll but off when I got up. That's what I have been looking for.

Uh, okay, I'm not sure what to do with this one, so I think I'll leave it alone.

EDIT: There was a spam in between this and my prior post and it was appropriately deleted.

Mike here. New member, also member @ windsun solar forums. I'll repost a posting I made there about my experience with a portable power jump start pack (so good, I bought a 2nd one for use in LA for power outages when I'm not camping). The one I use off grid at night, is recharged after each use with it's wall wart charger. When I'm away, I plug the wall wart into a lamp timer, and set it for 1 hour recharge daily, that keeps it topped off, and not over charged.

also the review is posted at the amazon site for the charger



OK, I wussed out, and bought a commercial product! We have a small sleeping hut built on the ranch now, but no power in it yet. It's going to take a while to mount a panel, batteries, charge controller, wire up lights and such, and we arrive at nighttime, and no where to plug the CPAP in ! So I spent a couple days pricing out different ways to accomplish this, and settled on a portable jump start pack. Found a model with good reviews, and no air compressor (that often fails after 50 total minutes of use). Located one in stock at local autoparts store, and bought it, taking a chance it's been parked in a warehouse for a year, and then in the back room for 2 more years, resulting in a flat, sulfated battery. (fully half of the complaints at Amazon)

Other choice was to get a AGM battery, rig up a case, cigar jack outlet, charger and hope it still fits into the car.

Upon opening it up, and throwing a voltmeter on it, I was pleased to find it reading 12.85V on a warm afternoon. It's built-in indicator showed it was 4/5 charged - also good. I plugged it's wall wart (transformer, not switcher, 12V, .5A) in, and let it top it off for a couple hours, it came to quiescence at 13.37v, and I unplugged it. After an hour, it read 13.13V. Awesome! And the Respironics power cord appear to fit snugly into the lighter jack.

Using my kill-a-watt before I was shopping, I'd discovered that the CPAP consumed about 75 watt hours in a 6 hour run, and that for 2 nights, I'd consume about 12.5 ah of battery. The "450A packs" claim to have an 18AH AGM battery in them, but I figured, I may as well have a portable unit, than a hulk that will last me a month. And if I only ran it one night (6.25 AH consumed) and then recharged, it'd live a long lifetime. Well, the power brick for the CPAP is a pig. After running all night (6 hours) , the voltage in the AM, read 12.66v Whoo hooo! Internal battery indicator LEDs still showed 4/5 charge, way less drain than the power brick used (all my testing is done with humidifier OFF) so even though the brick read about 3 watts idle, it was using more with a light load.

So, this will recharge at my shop, and I think I'll get a plug in lamp timer, and set that for a 1 hour charge daily, to keep it topped off between visits. And since the shop is on solar power, now my CPAP is too!

Added benefit, the power pack has a LED lamp built in, and a USB power port, so I don't even need a cigar plug Y cord to charge my phone and PDA.

So, I've owned this less than 2 days, but I think it will do the job I need it to, and it's not DOA out of the box. It can also charge via a running car too, but I've not tried that yet, I think I can also feed it from a 3 stage charge controller set for AGM. And it can jump start the tractor too, if I need it.

And it was a lot less than the $$ soft side 14ah CPAP battery pack. I hope the AMA does not come after me!

original at http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/showthr ... ght=PKC0AZ May 2011

mike95490 wrote:also the review is posted at the amazon site for the charger

For those who want to know - which charger did you use?

JohnBFisher wrote:As I've noted, I'm all ears to experience from others who've worked with batteries.

this guy has used his jumper since june 2011
that is good enough for me

GumbyCT wrote:

OldLincoln wrote:I expect it to fail because even though it says it is to be used as a power supply, it warns don't charge it at the same time you use it. Well, the charger turns on and off when the battery needs it so they want me to unplug it at night and plug it back in the next morning. Is that what you do Gumby?

No unfortunately, what I am doing is NOT recommended by the manufacturer. However, it has and remains working just fine for well over a year now. I don't even use the AC power adapter anymore unless I am traveling.

I think the warning is more a cya for the manf. than anything.

I'm not very good with electric wiring so maybe SOMEBODY can jump in with some HELP.

I have a CPAP battery setup for the M series
My setup now is a S9 VPAP : "The QUESTION is" can I connect to the battery's in my Electric wheelchairs ? If so can I get the wiring to go from the three wire plug (straight XLR 3 pin plug) on the chairs to the CPAP?

Or do I need to buy this setup from CPAP.COM
and open the wheelchairs too clip into the battery's with the Alligator Clips.

If somebody has already made up a setup for the S9 and willing to make a second one PLEASE PM me

Bert_Mathews wrote:... If somebody has already made up a setup for the S9 and willing to make a second one PLEASE PM me ...

PM sent. However, here's my advice for others reading this post:

Unfortunately, I have not made something like this. Do you have a local DME (Durable Medical Equipment) supplier from whom you purchased the wheelchair? If so, they might be willing to make an adapter. If the wheelchair is 24v, it might not be possible, since most units assume you have a 12v supply. However, the DME would know better.

Caution is warranted. Your wheelchair battery is probably powerful enough to present a considerable fire hazard if you have a short in your added wiring. Be sure that there is an appropriately sized fuse between the battery and any wiring you add.

Bert_Mathews wrote:"The QUESTION is" can I connect to the battery's in my Electric wheelchairs ? If so can I get the wiring to go from the three wire plug (straight XLR 3 pin plug) on the chairs to the CPAP?

the way i see it you have the following options
1 switch back to respironics or another 12v machine and use the dc cord you already have (prob the easiest way out)
2 buy the resmed adapter (if the chair turns out to be 24v you will have to also buy a jumpstarter or another battery)
3 if the chair does have 12v battery you can have someone install a 12v outlet so you can easily plug in when needed. i prob wouldnt recommend an auto mechanic but you can give it a go if you feel comfortable with it
4 you can have jbf build you one of his super safe battery boxes and ship it to you but then you would still need the resmed adapter
doesnt sound to afforable

o as for the 3rd resmed wire
no one has taken the time to understand what purpose it serves
so that is why i listed #1 above

Guest wrote:

Bert_Mathews wrote:"The QUESTION is" can I connect to the battery's in my Electric wheelchairs ? If so can I get the wiring to go from the three wire plug (straight XLR 3 pin plug) on the chairs to the CPAP?

the way i see it you have the following options
1 switch back to respironics or another 12v machine and use the dc cord you already have (prob the easiest way out)
2 buy the resmed adapter (if the chair turns out to be 24v you will have to also buy a jumpstarter or another battery)

The Resmed DC adapter operates on either 12 v or 24 volt.