CPAP Machines on the Road

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MusoCraig
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Last seen: 4 years 11 months ago
Joined: 04/23/2019 - 11:24
CPAP Machines on the Road

My wife and I, unfortunately both dependent on CPAP machines, just conducted an experiment with a portable power station and had unexpectedly positive results. The $280 unit (Portable Power UPS 288Wh 500W max) supplied us BOTH with 3 full nights of power. I had to revert to an older machine (Phillips RemStar M-series, Liz's is a somewhat newer, more power hungry Phillips Respironics 60-series Bi-Pap). Both connected directly to DC via 12-volt connectors. Humidifiers were at zero. Your mileage may vary... I'm not certain Liz's machine is operating at the full AC level, but she reports good sleep on it. We recommend getting your doctor's approval for this or any alternative approach. For us it is uplifting, as we were concerned about how dependent on plug-in power we would be on the road.

Note: I have NO connection or personal investment in promoting any of these units including the power station. Just glad to share our experience with others in need of this support. Eventually, we plan to add a 100-120 watt solar panel to our setup to recharge this unit as well as our Scamp battery while on the trail unplugged. Need to learn much more about that.

LEberhardt
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Joined: 11/02/2013 - 20:08
AC on the road

Anytime you need to know how much 12V battery power is required to run a home appliance, you need a common denominator for your equation. With electricity, that common denominator is watts and watt hours. Fifty watts for one hour is fifty watt hours. Another bit of useful information is that volts and amps are inversely proportional: 120 watts=1 amp@120V or 10 amps@12V. That's in an ideal theoretical world. Our world has conversion losses and practical battery use issues. To easily deal with these, consider your battery as being 10V: 120 watts needs 12 amps. Also keep in mind that a battery should not be discharged more than 50% for optimum life. So, a fully charged 100 amp hour battery can safely provide 500 watt hours (50 amps x10 volts) of power. With an inverter, you could run a 50 watt curling iron for ten hours or your 500 watt blender for one. Just do the math.