Running generator all night - Cpap

[2oldman]

Last night around 10pm I heard a generator fire up. Took a stroll and found it about 300 feet away. No problem for me as I could barely hear anything in bed. Got up during the night and opened the door and could hear it still running. My guess was a Cpap.

Yep, talked to the owner this morning and that's what it was for. Thank goodness it's a Honda and I was not parked next to him. I politely suggested he needs to get an inverter and more batteries. He had no idea what an inverter is.

He was real nice about it, her, not so much. I guess I'm kind of amazed anyone goes to a campground expecting to run a generator all night for any reason.

[ford_truck_guy]

I stop breathing approx 150 time an hour when sleeping without a CPAP. Sleeping without it is NOT an option.. I will ALWAYS camp with electric when available, but do have a 12v cord and power pack for those nights without power

[NamMedevac_70]

ferndaleflyer wrote:
2oldmen you obviously have never been to one of these events or know the rules. But thats ok we won't disturb you

Very well said and good advice to the old sport.

I have used a VA issued CPAC for years but I sleep as good as without it most times as it often interferes with my sleep. I never fire up a genny in the night and sometimes don't even bring the machine. I would get camp host permission before using the genny at night even for CPAC.

[ferndaleflyer]

Capacitor--last one I was to was this past New Years in West Palm Beach and if I remember right the race had 610 entries and nearly everyone with a motor home and trailer of some type. All parked on top of each other. Crowded was an understatement.

[capacitor]

I agree!

[time2roll]

valhalla360 wrote:
It's going to be a tough sell to claim quiet is an intrinsic purpose for camping when you have kids running around the campground yelling and screaming (or do they prohibit kids?).

Quiet hours includes generators, kids, adults, music and everything else.

If the power goes out I would fully accept the generator running all night for medical. If there is no power and there are generator limits the ADA person should know the limitations and bring the correct equipment or find another place to camp. JMHO.

[Fresno_Tundra_D]

wanderingaimlessly wrote:
It takes a special kind of arse to complain about something they can barely hear, but apparently feel an innate need to complain about.

IF ut's not causing an overt issue, let them be.

I was once camping in the beautiful Tuolumne meadows of Yosemite when I went inside my fifth wheel after dark and forgot to turn off my string of lights hanging from my awning. Not 15 minutes later the camper next door came over and politely asked if I could unplug them. No problem. My mistake. I enjoy the night sky as much as anyone. In cases like this it's more about RV education and etiquette than being a "special kind of arse".

[valhalla360]

ItsyRV wrote:

KD4UPL wrote:
This guy was running his generator due to simple ignorance, not need. ADA or not I don't think you can just do anything you want to power your medical device.

Sounds about right!

For private and government campgrounds where generator restrictions are in place, the RVer with a medical need for using a generator can't just fire it up as some absolute right.

Under the ADA (private and local governments) and the Rehabilitation Act (federal lands), the exemption from the rules for disability need is an accommodation. The provider of the services must attempt to provide that accommodation as best they can without unduly burdening the disabled camper. That accommodation can be locating the camper away from others, providing an electrical hookup, or even providing some alternative power source. It's the duty of the campground providers to figure out what is reasonable.

For certain federal locations (and even some local government locations) where sound is a critical part of experience and mandate, they do have the right to refuse an accommodation if the sound violates the intended purpose of that location's needs.

Govt entities are required to follow ADA...trust me I waste enough govt money meeting ADA rules on road projects I work on.

I'm sure most folks would jump at the site with electric in a non-electric campground. Of course, it still has to be a comparable site. If they had the perfect site backing up to the lake and you move them behind the bath house with a dumpster view, expect to be chastised.

It's going to be a tough sell to claim quiet is an intrinsic purpose for camping when you have kids running around the campground yelling and screaming (or do they prohibit kids?).

ADA is good intentions in a poorly designed package. Instead of Congress specifying exactly what is covered and what is expected, they used the term "reasonable accommodation" and that has been a moving target ever since with ever increasing craziness associated.

[ItsyRV]

KD4UPL wrote:
This guy was running his generator due to simple ignorance, not need. ADA or not I don't think you can just do anything you want to power your medical device.

Sounds about right!

For private and government campgrounds where generator restrictions are in place, the RVer with a medical need for using a generator can't just fire it up as some absolute right.

Under the ADA (private and local governments) and the Rehabilitation Act (federal lands), the exemption from the rules for disability need is an accommodation. The provider of the services must attempt to provide that accommodation as best they can without unduly burdening the disabled camper. That accommodation can be locating the camper away from others, providing an electrical hookup, or even providing some alternative power source. It's the duty of the campground providers to figure out what is reasonable.

For certain federal locations (and even some local government locations) where sound is a critical part of experience and mandate, they do have the right to refuse an accommodation if the sound violates the intended purpose of that location's needs.

[capacitor]

ferndaleflyer wrote:
2oldmen you obviously have never been to one of these events or know the rules. But thats ok we won't disturb you

And what “event” would that be?

[ferndaleflyer]

2oldmen you obviously have never been to one of these events or know the rules. But thats ok we won't disturb you

[wanderingaimles]

It takes a special kind of arse to complain about something they can barely hear, but apparently feel an innate need to complain about.

IF ut's not causing an overt issue, let them be.

[KD4UPL]

This guy was running his generator due to simple ignorance, not need. ADA or not I don't think you can just do anything you want to power your medical device. He could of used a battery and 12 volt cord; he admitted to being ignorant of that. He could have used a battery bank and an inverter; he admitted he didn't know what that was either. What if he hadn't known about inverter generators either and was using a really loud open frame generator. What if he was ignorant of portable generators and had a tow behind 20 kW diesel unit to run his CPAP.
The point is, there has to be some effort and reasonableness on the part of the "needy" person as well.
I once camped by a guy who ran his loud generator all the time because his refrigerator didn't work on propane anymore, just electric. It had been that way for some time. He just didn't feel like fixing it and ran his loud generator all day.

[rlw999]

dedmiston wrote:
This battery isn't cheap, but it will run your machine for a few nights on a single charge if you turn off your humidifier and heated hose. Or if you have an inverter but it isn't pure sine, you can plug in the battery to charge and run your machine (including heated hose and humidifier) off the battery for cleaner power. It will supply power to the cpap and charge at the same time.

I was going to recommend something similar, there are lots of portable power stations like that (they are sometimes called "generators" by people that don't know what a generator is). Most have an inverter for 120V power along with a 12VDC power outlet for devices that can use 12V (like most CPAP machines)

They aren't cheap, but neither is adding an inverter or upgrading batteries in an RV. And they have the advantage of being portable, if if you're going out where you'll have power during the day, you can bring it along to recharge and take back to the RV with you at night. Or you might be able to plug it in at the campground office to recharge during the day.

[rlw999]

2oldman wrote:
He was real nice about it, her, not so much. I guess I'm kind of amazed anyone goes to a campground expecting to run a generator all night for any reason.

Not that surprising, there are a lot of new RV'ers out there that don't know the etiquette and probably figure "If I can sleep while the generator is running, so can everyone else".

At least it was a nice quiet Honda and not something like the Onan in my RV -- despite the name "Microquiet", it is neither Micro, nor Quiet (when compared to a small inverter generator). For what Onan charges for Onan generators (list price is like $4000 for a 4000W Onan gas generator), they should be able to sell inverter generators, a Honda EU30000 is less than $2500. I wonder how much RV manufactures pay for those Onans - they must be pretty cheap since pretty much every RV manufacturer uses them.