CPAPa on Boats and in Campers

[anderson5420]

Although just a week into my CPAP journey, I am looking forward to cruising in my C-Dory 25 Cruiser and camping in my Alaskan Camper on our pickup truck. In 2017 my wife and I cruised America's Great Loop in our C-Dory, an 8 month 5,428 mile (for our route) cruise up the East Coast, up the Hudson and across half of the Erie Canal, into and across Ontario, Canada, down Lake Michigan, down the river system to Mobile, and across the Gulf of Mexico back to Florida where we started (we towed both ways between Florida and our home on the Upper Left Coast in Washington State just below the Canadian border).  IMHO, this is the greatest boating adventure on the North American continent. We also travel to and from Arizona in our Alaskan Camper (we are "snowbirds") and take some short camping trips in it as well. 

Pondering how to manage my sleep apnea on the boat and camper, I first thought I would buy a travel CPAP, but I am now thinking I could just take my Airsense 10, so I just bought the "cigarette Lighter" (12 volt socket) adapter. I am still pondering whether to turn off humidity and heat or use them. A friend says the power draw for the humidity and heat drastically reduce the time you can run a CPAP on battery power. OTOH, on the boat, the house batteries are always being recharged both by the outboard alternator and by solar panels (but not so in the camper). Anyway, I think I am going to try the Airsense 10 before I spring for the travel CPAP. I told my wife that I saved her a LOT of money by not buying the So Clean, and would save her even more if I did not buy the travel CPAP!

So, what do boaters and campers in this group do to keep up their therapy when they are boating or camping?

[SideSleeper]

We're a two CPAP machine family and dry camp often in our travel trailer.  Husband runs his off the trailer batteries which are recharged in the morning by the portable generator we carry--no solar.  I use a battery pack which is charged each morning while the genny is running.  The humidifier and heated hose use too much power.  Husband doesn't use the humidifier and I use pass-over humidity (water in tub, no heat in tub or hose) when camping.  On Resmed machines you need an converter (or is it inverter--never can remember) to change the machines 24 volt power to 12 volt for your camper/boat batteries--you can't just plug it into the 12 volt round plug.  This causes additional power draw from the battery.

[anderson5420]

Yes, it is a "converter" - 12 volt to 24 volt, and the description said it would work for the Airsense 10. I see you are from Western Oregon - we just returned from four days  in our Alaskan Camper at Sea and Sand RV Resort outside Depoe Bay - what absolutely spectacular waves there.

[StevesSp]

I can't use CPAP/APAP without humidity so, when camping, I use my Autoset but with the humidity and tube temps turned down. This way, I can just manage three nights 'free camping' with my 140AH deep-cycle battery.

If you have the means to keep recharging the battery sufficiently, I would stick with the Autoset.

Sleeprider kindly sent me some Resmed info about using 12V power, which included estimated power draw at different settings. I used that to choose my camping battery:

https://www.resmed.com/us/dam/documents/...lo_eng.pdf

[anderson5420]

I can't use CPAP/APAP without humidity so, when camping, I use my Autoset but with the humidity and tube temps turned down. This way, I can just manage three nights 'free camping' with my 140AH deep-cycle battery.

If you have the means to keep recharging the battery sufficiently, I would stick with the Autoset.

Sleeprider kindly sent me some Resmed info about using 12V power, which included estimated power draw at different settings. I used that to choose my camping battery:

https://www.resmed.com/us/dam/documents/...lo_eng.pdf

Thanks, the Resmed info is very useful - especially the power draw. It seems for the Airsense 10, with humidity (Auto) and heated air hose at a max pressure of 16, the power draw is 4.21 amps, and with the Slimline tubing and no humidity of 1.23 amps. Eight hours times 4.21 amps is 33.68 amp hours, and eight times 1.23 amps is 9.84 amp hours.  My boat has batteries with 200 amp hours and my Alaskan Camper batteries have 100 amp hours. The moral of the story is that I can't afford to use humidity and heated hose on either without drawing the batteries too far down. Their recommendation of a separate deep cycle battery is very good but I am a little perplex on how to recharge this separate battery.

[SideSleeper]

Our daughter is awaiting delivery of an Alaskan camper next month. She has decided to go with a small generator to charge batteries. I don't need to tell you we don't always have sunshine during camping seasons in the Pacific N.W. so it is hard to depend on solar. She is a volunteer at Mt. St. Helens Institute and also spends a lot of time in the winter skiing, so she has chosen the generator route. They are making some good knock-offs of the Honda and Yahama small generators now that aren't too high priced.

[Sleeprider]

You can wire and charge multiple batteries in "parallel". As long as the batteries are in parallel, the voltage is the same as the batteries but the amp hours are additive. For example two 12-volt batteries with 100 amp-hour capacity will result in 12 volts and 200 amp-hours of capacity. The only limitation to adding batteries is the capacity of the charging system, weight and space considerations. There are many articles on wiring batteries in series and parallel. As long as you daisy-chain the positives and negative terminals separately, you will end up with the capacity you need. If you connect a battery positive to another battery negative, you will be in series and the voltage doubles. In your case, all you have to do to add a second battery in parallel is place a second battery in the circuite, + to + and - to -. Both batteries will charge equally from an alternator or charger. A voltage regulator and fusing is a good idea for safety.