Boondocking with a Cpap

**Jim Van Ostran** · 04-09-2017, 11:19 AM

I am still new at RVing. I have a 2016 29RS. Will the portable solar panels that plug into the solar plug generate enough power to operate my cpap machine all night? I currently only have the single battery that came with the unit. I would appreciate any guidance that you could give me.

Jim

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**Silverbeard** · 04-09-2017, 01:27 PM

Without knowing the amphours of your battery and the amp draw of your CPAP device, it's difficult to give you an accurate answer. My personal experience with solar and "boondocking" has been on my sailboat which has a 100 watt panel with two 105ah batteries. I have spent three days at a time relying on just the solar to keep the batteries charged while using two CPAP devices thru an inverter, running a 12v refrigerator part of the time, LED lights in the evening, charging the usually electronic devices(phones, iPad), powering a VHF radio 24/7, plus a couple other minor uses. Even with a couple of cloudy/partly cloudy days, the batteries maintained at least 12.7v. When using the CPAP device under boondocking conditions, if your device has a heated hose and a humidifier, turn both off.

**sande005** · 04-09-2017, 05:25 PM

Lots of things to consider, and messy details here.
My CPAP has a box on the power cord that drops the wall volts from 110 down to 24 v. Adaptor cords or battery packs for it are crazy expensive. And of course it means you can't plug it directly in to an RV battery. Look on the label on yours to see what voltage it really takes. If it uses 12v, you're one step simpler/closer. The label or manual should also spec the amps or watts it uses.
For me, I had two 6v golf cart batteries in my old fifth. That gave me about double the capacity of the standard battery dealers give you. I installed a 600w inverter (bumps 12v up to 110) for the cpap and to run the TV. Using the led lights in the trailer for about 4 hrs per day, the TV for 2, and the cpap for about 7-8 (with heat), we could go almost three days. The inverter eats power by itself, so it was not a very efficient setup. But, from the above, you very likely will be able to get a day out of your battery, as long as you are conscious about what else you use. Then you need to get a solar panel big enough to recharge it, in one day, with poor light.