[Sca-cooks] CPAPS at war (OT)

[Jeff Gedney]

>    Honestly, the only thing I can think of, if his unit is
>    totally incapable of being powered by battery, is a
>    generator of some sort.
>    But I know a number of people who use CPAP and BiPAP
>    machines at Pennsic, and every one I know if is powered by
>    some sort of external battery - not one integral to the
>    unit, in other words.  I believe that it is possible to
>    buy converters to take the form of electricity produced by
>    a battery and change it to other forms, isn't it?  The
>    person I am most familiar with, but whom I unfortunately
>    no longer have email info for, uses a deep cell marine
>    battery for his.  These batteries can be charged in the
>    barn at the power wheelchair stations by arrangement with
>    the disabilities coordinator, I believe. You might try
>    contacting him; he might have spoken with other CPAP users
>    about this that he could have contact you.
>

I am doing this as well. Most people just use a car battery.
If you use a sufficiently large battery ( Use "AMP HOURS" as
your comparator, that will tell you how long it is able to
maintain a charge at a rated current flow ), You may not have
to charge it but once or twice in the War.
There is also a charging stateion at Chirurgeons point, IIRC,
or there was one last year.

Note that different CPAPS will expend your battery at different
rates, depending on the rates pressure.
My wife has one which is very low, and can run hers for two
nights on one of those Battery Booster things you use for
emergency jump starts. Mine is very high, and only goes about 4
hours.  I bought a very large Deep cycle Marine battery ( they
are on sale right now at West marine ) and am putting it into a
nice wooden chest to keep is out of the way, and prevent
anything from contacting the battery by accident.

You can also take two average car batteries and connect them in
parallel to make a 12v battery bank (connect positive to
positive, and negative to negative). This will also last
longer, though you will want two of the exact same new
batteries, as sometimes old batteries have defective or
"shorted" electrode plates inside, and they also might have
different charging rates and other factors that could possibly
cause one to discharge the other (and possibly even cause a
fire) if things are not done right.

You will probably need the following.

1) A Voltage inverter (You can get them at Radio shack, if you
are in a hurry, though catalogs sources like HarborFreight.com
will be much cheaper, but it is too late to go that route if
you want this for Pennsic. You wont need a big one. One that
can run a small prtable tv is sufficient. They come with one of
those car adaptor plugs for a cig lighter.

2) A Battery. "Deep Cycle" is best, this holds the voltage at a
set rate value longer in the discharge cycle, instead of
gradually lowering voltage uas the battery discharges.

This will set you back anywhere from 40 to 300 dollars
depending on the size and type you buy. Mine was 110 on sale.

If you can afford it one that is "AGM" or "GEL" is vbery good
for travelling as there is little to no danger of spilling the
acid. These will require a different charger ("three cycle"),
though than the one they have at pennsic. That will be an extra
cost (probably over 100 dollars) so try to stay with Lead Acid
batteries, and buy a "battery case" that will contain any
spillage, if any occurs.

3) An adaptor to clip a 12 volt recptacle to the battery
terminals. Also at Radio Shack, this looks like a big pair of
clips, red and black, connected to a big tube about an inch and
a half wide and three or four inches long.

To use, clip the black terminal of the receptacle adaptor to
the Negative "-" pole of the battery, and the red to the
Positive "+".

Insert the adaptor end of the Inverter into the receptacle all
the way.

plug your CPAP into the 110 plug on the invertor and flick on
the little switch next to the plug ( a little light should come
on if you have power )

You are all set to go.

The inverter will continue to drain the battery even with the
cpap off, so remember to pull it out of the receptacle when not
in use.

The first time you do this, do it at home, and do it outside,
carefully. When you know how to do this so that it works, and
comfortable doing it ( it is pretty easy easy and you should
have no trouble as long as you are safe ) you can then pack
everything up, and take it camping.

brandu