Any SUV dwellers? How do I Run a CPAP

[TampShawn]

I plan on joining the SUV ranks. I just got a 2017 Honda CRV and plan on hitting the road part time in the next 3 months to a year.

Thank you all for posting so much advice. There is so much to learn. Any feedback you have for me (51 YO Female) would be appreciated.

I have made some big outfitting decisions already but I am still need to figure out how to power my CPAP (Resmed 24 volts need to run 8 hours to sleep) and give me some power for laptop etc. There is so much to learn there. Right now I think getting a DC converter for my CPAP ($100!!!) AND my PC is a good start. Any advice help here would be appreciated. I am still a bit loss here.

@Cell phone connectivity decision has been made - Verizon and the weBoost Drive 4G-M Cell Phone Signal Booster. I need to have cell service to work. I am seeing some good prices on USED weBoost. I hope they are reliable used.
@Privacy - reflective for front window. Black curtains in back and behind front seat. Also got sunshade screens https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I9LN3CI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Anyone know if rain guards are worth the cost?
@Bed - using what I have REI mat etc

 

[Every Road Leads Home]

Anyone know if rain guards are worth the cost?

Rain guards would be worth it at 3x the cost,  if you were only going to do one thing to your vehicle, they would probably be my #1 choice.

 

[ArtW]

^^Agreed

 

[mpruet]

If I were going to do this, I would get the CD converter as you suggest, but I would also get at least one deep-cycle battery to run it. 

I did the Alaska trip in my RV last year and my wife uses a CPAP (same model that you mentioned).  I bought a couple of 35 amp hour deep cycle batteries.  Each battery would easily run her CPAP for two 8 hour nights with no problem.   I would swap out the battery every two nights so that I could charge it while using the other battery.  The real issue will be how to recharge the battery.   Probably the safest solution would be get a battery idolater installed and use your car's alternate to recharge your deep-cycle battery.  You could also get a 200-watt portable solar panel to charge the battery, but the only problem with doing that is that you just never know when you're going to have several days of cloudy/rainy weather.

 

[GotSmart]

If I were going to do this, I would get the CD converter as you suggest, but I would also get at least one deep-cycle battery to run it. 

I did the Alaska trip in my RV last year and my wife uses a CPAP (same model that you mentioned).  I bought a couple of 35 amp hour deep cycle batteries.  Each battery would easily run her CPAP for two 8 hour nights with no problem.   I would swap out the battery every two nights so that I could charge it while using the other battery.  The real issue will be how to recharge the battery.   Probably the safest solution would be get a battery idolater installed and use your car's alternate to recharge your deep-cycle battery.  You could also get a 200-watt portable solar panel to charge the battery, but the only problem with doing that is that you just never know when you're going to have several days of cloudy/rainy weather.

This is incorect information on so many levels.  

It would take 8 hours minimum to recharge a battery using the car system.  

Portable 200W panel?  Who sells that?  

Stopping there.

 

[mpruet]

Another thought on how to recharge a deep-cycle battery. 

Most battery chargers that you can from from an auto store require AC input but charge in DC.  You can get a pure sine wave 150 watt inverter that will plug into a cigarette lighter and that's enough to run a charger.  If you are planning on regularly driving your CRV then you could charge your battery by going cigarette lighter -> 150 watt inverter -> charger -> 12-volt deep cycle battery. 

I carcamp in a Prius and have a dometic 12-volt 18 liter refrigerator.  I normally keep the fridge plugged into one of my cigarette plugs.    I also keep a 12-volt deep cycle battery to run the fridge if I stop the car for a long period if time, such as when I go on a hike. I keep the Prius in ready mode during the night for heat and air-conditioner, but also for the fridge.  After using the battery that night I will also recharge the battery using the setup that I described above.

 

[mpruet]

I plan on joining the SUV ranks. I just got a 2017 Honda CRV and plan on hitting the road part time in the next 3 months to a year.

Thank you all for posting so much advice. There is so much to learn. Any feedback you have for me (51 YO Female) would be appreciated.

I have made some big outfitting decisions already but I am still need to figure out how to power my CPAP (Resmed 24 volts need to run 8 hours to sleep) and give me some power for laptop etc. There is so much to learn there. Right now I think getting a DC converter for my CPAP ($100!!!) AND my PC is a good start. Any advice help here would be appreciated. I am still a bit loss here.

@Cell phone connectivity decision has been made - Verizon and the weBoost Drive 4G-M Cell Phone Signal Booster. I need to have cell service to work. I am seeing some good prices on USED weBoost. I hope they are reliable used.
@Privacy - reflective for front window. Black curtains in back and behind front seat. Also got sunshade screens https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I9LN3CI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Anyone know if rain guards are worth the cost?
@Bed - using what I have REI mat etc

Oh yes - the advantage of using the ResMed converter is that since it is not an inverter, it is using 12 volt DC input and producing a 24 volt DC output.  Since it is not an inverter there is no loss of power that would otherwise occur that an invertor would cause.  That means that the nightly 8-hour power drain is directly dependent on the setting that you set your CPAP to.  In my wife's case she only drained at about 0.75 Amp Hour.  If you should be draining at a similar rate, then you would only be consuming about 6 Amp Hours per night - so it wouldn't take all that long to recharge.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

Since it is not an inverter there is no loss of power that would otherwise occur that an invertor would cause.  .

There is no electronic circuit known to man that does not convert some of the incoming power to heat, and thus waste it.

A simple Google search on "efficiency of dc to dc converter"  turned up this article, as well as many others on the subject:

https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/3166

 

[mpruet]

There is no electronic circuit known to man that does not convert some of the incoming power to heat, and thus waste it.

A simple Google search on "efficiency of dc to dc converter"  turned up this article, as well as many others on the subject:

https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/3166

You are missing the point.  I am comparing a DC->DC converter to a DC->AC inverter.

 

[slynne]

I too have a Resmed CPAP and have been researching options. I am having some trouble understanding everything but that is because I am a big dum dum when it comes to anything electrical. I have been using this document as a guide but I admittedly cannot evaluate how good it is but am counting on ResMed to make appropriate recommendations.

http://www.resmed.com/us/dam/documents/articles/198103_battery-guide_glo_eng.pdf

 

[mpruet]

I too have a Resmed CPAP and have been researching options. I am having some trouble understanding everything but that is because I am a big dum dum when it comes to anything electrical. I have been using this document as a guide but I admittedly cannot evaluate how good it is but am counting on ResMed to make appropriate recommendations.

http://www.resmed.com/us/dam/documents/articles/198103_battery-guide_glo_eng.pdf

This is the document that we used to size our battery requirements.  My wife has an S8 Elete and keeps the setting on 8.  Based on using the chart for the S8 using the converter we could expect to need about 15 Amp Hours per night.  That's why I got the 35 Amp Hour batteries.  We were using AGM so we could have gotten more usage out of the batteries since they sized the chart at 50% utilization, but I swapped them out every two days.  I didn't want to risk my wife waking up in the middle of the night because the CPAP stopped.  I ended out getting 4 batteries which meant we could boondock 8 nights with no power. 

I was in an RV and would charge them either through shore power or by running the generator.  It usually took about 4 hours to fully charge.

 

[GotSmart]

Perhaps you should have stopped earlier....

https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Monoc...=portable+solar+panel&refinements=p_89:Renogy

That is a perminant hard mount TWO PANEL system.  Not a portable 200W panel.  

Please do not give incorrect information on here.

(My Renogy system produces power on cloudy days.)

 

[mpruet]

That is a perminant hard mount TWO PANEL system.  Not a portable 200W panel.  

Please do not give incorrect information on here.

(My Renogy system produces power on cloudy days.)

I'm sure you are able to guarantee the wattage that it will produce on every day, regardless on the cloud cover, shade or angle of the panels.

If you are using a CPAP to sleep, then you have a required amount of power that you must have in a 24 hour period.  If you run out of power, then the the CPAP will stop and you will potentially stop breathing in your sleep.  If a solar system can not guarantee the recharge amount in a 24 hour period, then it could cause serious injury. 

I have nothing against a solar system, but in this case since it involves the health of the user, then a guaranteed delivery of a fixed amount of power is the prime requirement.  And that is why I said that the safest solution would be using the alternator solution (or even an external generator) -  that is - unless you can guarantee the amount of power delivered on any solar system.

But then you can't.  Even Renogy documents the fact that the total wattage delivered is dependent on the density of photon delivery on the panel - and that the photon density is impacted on the degree of cloudiness, angle of the panel, shade, and latitude. 



Oh yes - while the 200 watt system is technically two panels they are marketed by Renogy as a single entity and I guess that Renogy knows what they are doing by marketing them as a single unit.

 

[highdesertranger]

if I may interject. that pdf from resmed has a lot of bad info on it. lead acid batteries should not be taken down below 50%, not the 80% that they claim is ok. when you discharge your battery you need to charge it ASAP. daily will get you satisfactory results. leaving a battery partially charged for even a day then discharging it more the next night will seriously cut the life span of the battery. so for longest battery life the battery must be charged soon after use leaving it, sitting in a partially charge state does serious harm to the battery. are you going to charge these batteries daily. it did not sound that way. charging a battery off your alternator takes hours, charging off a generator hooked up to a battery charger takes hours. I think that's why Got Smart was recommending solar. highdesertranger

 

[ganchan]

Rain guards would be worth it at 3x the cost,  if you were only going to do one thing to your vehicle, they would probably be my #1 choice.

Will 2 rain guards get the job done, as opposed to 4? I just want to be able to get some air moving through my Ford Expedition on rainy nights, and I'll have a privacy curtain behind the front seats (which might block air flow from the front to the back).

 

[mpruet]

Will 2 rain guards get the job done, as opposed to 4? I just want to be able to get some air moving through my Ford Expedition on rainy nights, and I'll have a privacy curtain behind the front seats (which might block air flow from the front to the back).

I ended up doing what Suanne (http://suanneonline.blogspot.com/) suggested and am using noseeum netting over my rear windows.  (https://www.amazon.com/Mosquito-No-...id=1494379819&sr=8-2&keywords=noseeum+netting). I hold this in place by using velcro.  Since I leave my Prius in ready mode all night long, I need to be able to crack a window to avoid Carbon Monoxide.  The netting blocks the bugs.  

I originally used a black felt curtain between the front and back seats for privacy, but that also prevented air flow between the front and back part of the car.  Since I wanted the AC on at night I didn't like that.  So I have switched to using blackened reflectix on all of the front windows and not using a curtain between the front and back seats.   Not only does that improve the AC/heater air flow, but it enlarges the space so it doesn't seem so cramped.  I still have the black felt curtains for the rear seats and hatch back.

 

[GotSmart]

I use a CPAP. Also computer, cell phone, lights and fan.  I usually shut everything down by midnight, with the exception of the CPAP and fan.  

I have about 450 AH of sealed gell battries that I got lucky finding.  One 100w solar panel kept everything completely charged up by 10AM. 

Now that I have 200W of panels, I am ready for a fridge.   

The 200W Renogy is sold as a system, not a "unit" Spelling and semantics do matter when communicating about electrical power systems. 

ResMed has it written that the S8 will not opperate the humidifier on 12V.  None of their units will. Without the specific numbers, I can only estimate that the unit uses 2 Amps per hour. So your using 30 AH out of a 35AH battery is quite amazing.  One might say, unbelieveable. 

http://www.rpc.com.au/pdf/battery-powering-products-usa.pdf

One little detail.  I do not sell Renogy.  It sells itself. I just help people with system design and instalations.  

Just ask any established member here.

 

[mpruet]

I use a CPAP. Also computer, cell phone, lights and fan.  I usually shut everything down by midnight, with the exception of the CPAP and fan.  

I have about 450 AH of sealed gell battries that I got lucky finding.  One 100w solar panel kept everything completely charged up by 10AM. 

Now that I have 200W of panels, I am ready for a fridge.   

The 200W Renogy is sold as a system, not a "unit" Spelling and semantics do matter when communicating about electrical power systems. 

ResMed has it written that the S8 will not opperate the humidifier on 12V.  None of their units will. Without the specific numbers, I can only estimate that the unit uses 2 Amps per hour. So your using 30 AH out of a 35AH battery is quite amazing.  One might say, unbelieveable. 

http://www.rpc.com.au/pdf/battery-powering-products-usa.pdf

One little detail.  I do not sell Renogy.  It sells itself. I just help people with system design and instalations.  

Just ask any established member here.

Perhaps you need to read the documentation that slynne posted from resmed a bit more carefully before you come out with a quasi authoritative diatribe. 

While it is true that the Resmed battery solution does not support using the humidifier, using the converter connected to a 12-volt battery most defiantly supports use of the humidifier. Please check the first paragraph from that document. 

And yes - I was using four 35 Amp Hour Mighty Max AGM batteries and each battery was able to provide power to the CPAP with humidity for two nights when using the converter rather than an inverter.

http://www.resmed.com/us/dam/documents/a...lo_eng.pdf

T

 

[mpruet]

Perhaps you need to read the documentation that slynne posted from resmed a bit more carefully before you come out with a quasi authoritative diatribe. 

While it is true that the Resmed battery solution does not support using the humidifier, using the converter connected to a 12-volt battery most defiantly supports use of the humidifier. Please check the first paragraph from that document. 

And yes - I was using four 35 Amp Hour Mighty Max AGM batteries and each battery was able to provide power to the CPAP with humidity for two nights when using the converter rather than an inverter.

http://www.resmed.com/us/dam/documents/a...lo_eng.pdf

Oh yes - the reason that I chose this solution was that my house batteries have a modified sine wave inverter which I didn't want to use.  I thought about switching to a pure sine wave inverter but chose using the converter instead because it would result in a much lower drain on my batteries.  Since the drain that most inverters require is pretty much all or nothing I felt that they would have a greater drain on the batteries.  The documentation from ResMed indicated that battery drain using the converter would be  dependent on the pressure settings that the CPAP user sets.  In my wife's case the charts indicates that she would need somewhere between 11 and 15 amp hours.  But since that is including a 50% margin the real amp hours were closer to 5.5 to 7.5 amp hours in a night.

 

[Awntehloose]

I am interested in this topic because I may need to do a sleep study to see if I have sleep issues. I've been looking at preppers and campers on YT that have to deal with CPAPs and what they do. It seems that many use a Yeti 400 and most are now going to the Yeti Lithium. Well that is certainly an option this has a few issues. First being cost. The second being the charge time. Both suck on Yeti platforms even the lithium options.

So I went to YT and saw DiY solar generators that cost a fraction of the price and have the same size that can be charged off a single panel like a 30-50 watt. From ammo can Yeti clones to gun case the options are there. IMO if you need to power a CPAP it may be a good option to make it its own dedicated power. This allows you to also move it around the vehicle a bit better.

Just traded up my Kia Soul for a Sorento CSUV so this is how I was thinking my situation out if I am diagnosed with sleep apnea soon.