CPAP machine w/ inverter. How much power?
Hi Folks, A little background. Not new to RVing, but starting to deal with battery issues more, now that I have a week long music festival coming up w/ no hookups. I decided that after last year, n...
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With the smaller inverter you're looking at, you'll probably be looking at using at most 25 to 30 percent more than you would if you had to run straight off the battery. This will be due to the efficiency loss in the inverter, and then again within the CPAP machine which internally runs off DC voltage. You'll be converting DC to AC, then back to DC. Unless you're using a lot of other stuff through the night as well, you shouldn't have any trouble running things off the batteries you have provided you run the generator 2 to 3 hours a day to charge things up. You'll want to of course charge the batteries all the way up when you get home from your trip but you should do fine for the week.
If you do a google search, there are several companies that sell DC power cords, and stand alone battery power supplies to run CPAP type machines on. I can't remember where I saw it, but one of them has a pretty good chart that will tell you how long the assorted brands will run off their battery power supply at different pressure settings. As I recall most of the units will supposedly make it though the night on an 8 amp hour battery, even the ones that need to run on an inverter, providing of course you don't run the humidifier heater.
For others looking in to camping a lot with a CPAP, the modern Respironics machines run on 12vdc and just need a power cord to hook to a cigarette lighter etc. ResMed machines mostly run off 24vdc and are easiest run off of inverters. With other brands, its worth looking in to if you intend to camp without hookups often.
If you do a google search, there are several companies that sell DC power cords, and stand alone battery power supplies to run CPAP type machines on. I can't remember where I saw it, but one of them has a pretty good chart that will tell you how long the assorted brands will run off their battery power supply at different pressure settings. As I recall most of the units will supposedly make it though the night on an 8 amp hour battery, even the ones that need to run on an inverter, providing of course you don't run the humidifier heater.
For others looking in to camping a lot with a CPAP, the modern Respironics machines run on 12vdc and just need a power cord to hook to a cigarette lighter etc. ResMed machines mostly run off 24vdc and are easiest run off of inverters. With other brands, its worth looking in to if you intend to camp without hookups often.
