Help With Camping plz!

[OMyMyOHellYes]

I have my batteries and now solar panel. Will be doing a four night test with the Intellipap backup (waiting on the batteries to hit about 6-8 weeks from charge to simulate a more realistic real-world charge condition) Also want to do the recharge via the solar panel. Have panel in hand but have not yet built the angle-adjustable frame yet (have figured an different angle at my latitude for each season - not perfect, but still better than a single, fixed angle frame. Want to use neighbor's drill press rather than free-handing a drill on the pvc I intend to make the frame from. Neighbor left on vacation early this week so will have to wait on him to return to get this put together.

Should safely get almost 4 nights from the battery and a charge current of 8 amps from the panel (at ideal conditions - which will never happen) I figure at least 8 hours under good conditions (since there are occasional clouds and I will not have an active tracking mechanism so the angle will be pretty good, but still always sub-prime), probably will get full recharge in most cases over two days.

Will report back when all is accomplished.

OMyMyOHellYes

[Vince Green]

You can buy a portable power pack You will need to recharge it that's the only problem but you should be able to get round that if you are staying on a proper site as opposed to out in the boonies.
I am in Britain so I can only give you a link to a British supplier

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[Eddie702]

I never used a inverter with a cpap machine but have used an inverter to power a lot of other things. My inverter is only 300 watt and is several years old. It works fine and is reliable.

[DreamDiver]

...Don't use your car battery. It's not designed to deep-cycle like a hybrid 12-volt Marine Deep Cycle battery or true Deep Cycle battery is. Car batteries are designed for a lot of amps delivered in just a few seconds (like starting a car)... they're not designed for extended periods of low-amp draw. Yeah, you might get a good night's sleep, but you might not be going anywhere in the morning 'cause your car won't start. ...

Not only won't your car start, you'll end up having to buy a new battery because car batteries are designed to be constantly recharged, never fully drained. Drain it too far, and your car battery is a doorstop.

[DreamDiver]

I never used a inverter with a cpap machine but have used an inverter to power a lot of other things. My inverter is only 300 watt and is several years old. It works fine and is reliable.

It's fine to use an inverter while your car is running, if it's got enough power for your cpap machine. That way the alternator can keep the battery charged. If you're in the passenger's seat and you're sleeping while your spouse is driving, great.

It's just not a good idea to do this while the car is not running because you could damage your car's battery.

Also, inverters are not very efficient. You're turning the current from 12 volts back into 120 volts only so your respironics power brick can turn it back into 12 volts again. For the price of an extra respironics power brick, you can plug right into a cigarette lighter (again while the car is running) and use much less battery power since no conversion is necessary. The same is not true for ResMed machines. They require a special power brick that produces a pure sine wave. It's still more efficient than using a regular inverter.

Buy a deep cycle marine battery (maybe 115 amp hours?) for long-term overnight camping batteries. That way you can camp for a week without having to recharge under most people's pressures.