Friday, April 10, 2015

CPAP Concentrator and Solar



CPAP Concentrator and Solar.

Below is my O2 setup in our class C in our bedroom slide out.

On the small ledge next to the bed is my CPAP it just fits and leaves just over an inch all the way around for ventilation.  The O2 concentrator has a couple inches all the way around as well so ventilation is good.  When in a camp ground on shore power it is great.



I also have two 100 watt solar panels on the roof and two 109 amp batteries in the basement just to run this if I am not on shore power.  Following a general rule of one panel to one battery.


At 6000 feet I can run my CPAP on this all night for days no problem. When I add the O2 concentrator I get only about 4.30 hours before the inverter auto shuts down.  The shut down is not from heat but from battery draw.  In temperatures below 32 degrees standard deep cycle batteries lose a third or more of their amp power.  At temperatures between 60 and 80 degrees (F) these batteries should be giving near ideal at 100% amps (Internet search).   This trip out was at 27 degrees (F) which says my batteries gave me only about 66% output.  Based on this at the warmer temperatures I should have about 6 hours on the current equipment.  This will work for me for an occasional night off shore power.


I currently average seven hours a night under pressure at home so this system (6 hrs) will work for the few nights we are off shore power right now.  If the sun is shining every day the batteries should be fully recharged by night fall.  In the future a third battery may be added once added, I should have no problem insuring longer and more nights in a row off shore power.

Also my solar is only hooked to these two batteries to the inverter and to my equipment it is not hooked in to our house battery.  This made me ensure good additional grounds for the batteries and the inverter.  I will probably add a 100 watt portable solar panel with battery clamps to recharge our one house battery.  Once this is done we will rarely need to run our generator when off the grid.


I run my power cords from my equipment to a compartment at the foot of the bed and plug into a cord that I pull out of the compartment.  In this compartment is my water heater, converter and my pure sine inverter for this equipment.


More on this soon.  Comments are welcome.


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