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Permalink Reply by Chris Larsson on January 3, 2012 at 9:19pm

Hi,

There was a discussion about this quite a while ago. I have had power outages a few times now and have gone camping with my setup something like 1/2 dozen times or so. Let me see if I can find my post from the old thread.....

OK, found it. I'll copy it here:

I experimented at home and the 100 amphour marine battery lasted about 2 weeks. Of course, how long it lasts depends on how long you sleep at night (about 6-7hours/nite for me) and pressure (6-16 for me) and of course the machine nd whether or not you use the humidifier.

The hook up is really simple, but knowing what parts to get can be difficult if you aren't familiar with electricity. You need:

1) a battery - a marine battery is best.... I have a sears middle of the road marine battery
2) A cable with clips to hook up to the battery. Red goes on + and black goes on - The other end has a plugin for a standard car cigarette lighter connector.
3) A cable to hookup the CPAP to a cigarette lighter plug. This cable is CPAP specific.

That's the hookup..... simple right?

Then all you need is a charger to charge up the battery once in a while.

However, if your CPAP can't run directly on 12v, then you'll need to add an inverter into the above hookup to convert the 12v from the battery to 120v for the CPAP. Here's a website that shows an example of this:

http://cchipman.com/cpap_on_batteries.htm

You should expect to have to replace your battery every few years ... (4? 5? 6?). You should use it occasionally both to test the configuration and to keep your battery up to snuff. There are lots of websites with advice for caring for batteries to make them last longer.

You can use smaller batteries or larger ones depending on portability/cost desired. The key thing to look for is the AmpHour rating (Ah). The bigger the better. Also of course, make sure it's 12v. There are lots of 6v batteries and 24v and higher are common for use in solar systems.

In theory, one could even hook up 8 D batteries in series to get 12 volts and have a 12 amphour battery which should last a night or so.....I've never tried it myself.

Chris

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Permalink Reply by Lynn on January 3, 2012 at 9:39pm

I just don't sleep to be honest. Even when my cpap really wasn't doing for me what I needed because the pressure was too low, I can't sleep without the durn thing. I guess if it went on for more than a day, I'd have to figure something out.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Larsson on January 3, 2012 at 9:46pm

Here's where I got the DC power cord for my machine:

http://www.directhomemedical.com/1001956-dc-power-cord-cpap.html

Of course, you'll need to search around to get the correct cord for your machine.

Here is an example of the battery clips you would need:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3889591#

Enercell™ 12V/10A Vehicle Adapter Socket with Battery Clips

And you can get charger just about anywhere. Of course, UNPLUG your PAP while charging or you might fry your machine.

Chris

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Permalink Reply by ZolliStar on January 4, 2012 at 9:31am

Chris, thank you so much for this detailed information.

I really appreciate it.

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