• Real RV question sort of

    From Hank@21:1/5 to All on Sat Oct 7 14:10:13 2023
    A friend of mine (Yes, I have one) is buying prebuilt shed and put it in the woods. She wants to be able to run her CPAP machine for a night or two at most every weekend, or so. What does she need as far as solar panel power? How big of a battery? How
    big of an inverter? TIA

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  • From Technobarbarian@21:1/5 to Hank on Sat Oct 7 15:24:26 2023
    On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 2:10:15 PM UTC-7, Hank wrote:
    A friend of mine (Yes, I have one) is buying prebuilt shed and put it in the woods. She wants to be able to run her CPAP machine for a night or two at most every weekend, or so. What does she need as far as solar panel power? How big of a battery? How
    big of an inverter? TIA

    Hey, I have some recent experience with this. I use this battery for my wife's machine.

    ML35-12 - 12 Volt 35 AH SLA Battery- Mighty Max Battery Brand Product https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K8V2VD0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

    This will run her machine all night with a little left over. The inverter I use plugs straight into her machine where the ac transformer normally plugs in. That way I don't get any power loss from converting dc to ac and back to dc when it actually
    goes into her machine. If you search Amazon you can probably find dc inverters that will plug straight into her machine from her dc power source. That's where I found the one I'm using for my wife's ResMed machine.

    If she has room in her vehicle her best bet would probably be to install an isolated battery deep cycle battery in her vehicle and use that to power her CPAP.

    To have any idea what size solar panels she would need you need to know how much power her machine needs. It would help to know what machine she is using. The power specifications would be useful if she has them.

    TB

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  • From robert caprel@21:1/5 to Hank on Mon Oct 9 18:24:14 2023
    On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 2:10:15 PM UTC-7, Hank wrote:
    A friend of mine (Yes, I have one) is buying prebuilt shed and put it in the woods. She wants to be able to run her CPAP machine for a night or two at most every weekend, or so. What does she need as far as solar panel power? How big of a battery? How
    big of an inverter? TIA

    Your friend wants this shed placed in the woods you might want to tell him solar panels need sunlight to function, he might want to choose a wind generator instead they produce significant more power than solar that are only about 80% efficient at the
    best of time. We have a 5 KW air turbine to run the entire house that includes 2 AC units, and being by the ocean with a nice breeze we average about 100 Kw per day that’s fed into the grid and provides more than enough, all he would need is more the
    likely something in the 600 watt range and he would have plenty to also run lights as well and the nice thing about wind it works 24 hrs.

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  • From Hank@21:1/5 to Technobarbarian on Thu Oct 12 14:40:05 2023
    On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 6:24:28 PM UTC-4, Technobarbarian wrote:
    On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 2:10:15 PM UTC-7, Hank wrote:
    A friend of mine (Yes, I have one) is buying prebuilt shed and put it in the woods. She wants to be able to run her CPAP machine for a night or two at most every weekend, or so. What does she need as far as solar panel power? How big of a battery?
    How big of an inverter? TIA
    Hey, I have some recent experience with this. I use this battery for my wife's machine.

    ML35-12 - 12 Volt 35 AH SLA Battery- Mighty Max Battery Brand Product https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K8V2VD0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

    This will run her machine all night with a little left over. The inverter I use plugs straight into her machine where the ac transformer normally plugs in. That way I don't get any power loss from converting dc to ac and back to dc when it actually
    goes into her machine. If you search Amazon you can probably find dc inverters that will plug straight into her machine from her dc power source. That's where I found the one I'm using for my wife's ResMed machine.

    If she has room in her vehicle her best bet would probably be to install an isolated battery deep cycle battery in her vehicle and use that to power her CPAP.

    To have any idea what size solar panels she would need you need to know how much power her machine needs. It would help to know what machine she is using. The power specifications would be useful if she has them.

    TB
    Update...I told her what she was going to need. Before I told her the type, size, and such, whe went to a place called Harbor freight and the guy there told her what she needed and and she bought the 100 watt kit and all the other pieces (one stop shop).
    It had 4 panels, controller, Battery, 2000 watt inverter. It came with everything except the power wire to the inverter which I made one up for her so we could test it. It was very easy and worked very well. It supplied her cpap all the time she slept,
    which was only 6 hours. The battery voltage dropped from 13.0 to 12.6. I felt the items she had bought would be sufficient to do what she wanted to do. I then made a harness which included a fuse and polarized plugs so she or her daughter wouldn't be
    able to hook up backyards. I told her to try different things and keep an eye on the voltage so to determine the limits of the unit. She called me back about 10 minutes later to tell me it wasn't working. I went over and found she blew the fuse (whew).
    After asking what did, she said she plugged in a toaster! The fuse was only 5 amp. LOL. Changed the fuse to a 10 amp but told her not to use anything like a toaster of hair dryer, and buy a few extra fuses. She and her daughter will be testing it out
    this weekend. Wish ME luck. LOL

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  • From Hank@21:1/5 to robert caprel on Thu Oct 12 14:46:15 2023
    On Monday, October 9, 2023 at 9:24:17 PM UTC-4, robert caprel wrote:
    On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 2:10:15 PM UTC-7, Hank wrote:
    A friend of mine (Yes, I have one) is buying prebuilt shed and put it in the woods. She wants to be able to run her CPAP machine for a night or two at most every weekend, or so. What does she need as far as solar panel power? How big of a battery?
    How big of an inverter? TIA
    Your friend wants this shed placed in the woods you might want to tell him solar panels need sunlight to function, he might want to choose a wind generator instead they produce significant more power than solar that are only about 80% efficient at the
    best of time. We have a 5 KW air turbine to run the entire house that includes 2 AC units, and being by the ocean with a nice breeze we average about 100 Kw per day that’s fed into the grid and provides more than enough, all he would need is more the
    likely something in the 600 watt range and he would have plenty to also run lights as well and the nice thing about wind it works 24 hrs.

    I suggested that. Due to the fact it is farmland and she gets a tax deduction (agriculture), nothing permanent can be erected (according to her and zoning). The "she shed" isn't considered permanent because it can be moved anytime. Yep, more stupid shit.
    .

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  • From bfh@21:1/5 to Hank on Thu Oct 12 19:40:39 2023
    Hank wrote:
    On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 6:24:28 PM UTC-4, Technobarbarian wrote:
    On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 2:10:15 PM UTC-7, Hank wrote:
    A friend of mine (Yes, I have one) is buying prebuilt shed and
    put it in the woods. She wants to be able to run her CPAP
    machine for a night or two at most every weekend, or so. What
    does she need as far as solar panel power? How big of a
    battery? How big of an inverter? TIA
    Hey, I have some recent experience with this. I use this battery
    for my wife's machine.

    ML35-12 - 12 Volt 35 AH SLA Battery- Mighty Max Battery Brand
    Product
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K8V2VD0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1



    This will run her machine all night with a little left over. The
    inverter I use plugs straight into her machine where the ac
    transformer normally plugs in. That way I don't get any power loss
    from converting dc to ac and back to dc when it actually goes into her machine. If you search Amazon you can probably find dc inverters that
    will plug straight into her machine from her dc power source. That's
    where I found the one I'm using for my wife's ResMed machine.

    If she has room in her vehicle her best bet would probably be to
    install an isolated battery deep cycle battery in her vehicle and
    use that to power her CPAP.

    To have any idea what size solar panels she would need you need
    to know how much power her machine needs. It would help to know
    what machine she is using. The power specifications would be
    useful if she has them.

    TB
    Update...I told her what she was going to need. Before I told her
    the type, size, and such, whe went to a place called Harbor freight
    and the guy there told her what she needed and and she bought the
    100 watt kit and all the other pieces (one stop shop). It had 4
    panels, controller, Battery, 2000 watt inverter. It came with
    everything except the power wire to the inverter which I made one
    up for her so we could test it. It was very easy and worked very
    well. It supplied her cpap all the time she slept, which was only 6
    hours. The battery voltage dropped from 13.0 to 12.6. I felt the
    items she had bought would be sufficient to do what she wanted to
    do. I then made a harness which included a fuse and polarized plugs
    so she or her daughter wouldn't be able to hook up backyards. I
    told her to try different things and keep an eye on the voltage so
    to determine the limits of the unit. She called me back about 10
    minutes later to tell me it wasn't working. I went over and found
    she blew the fuse (whew). After asking what did, she said she
    plugged in a toaster! The fuse was only 5 amp. LOL. Changed the
    fuse to a 10 amp but told her not to use anything like a toaster of
    hair dryer, and buy a few extra fuses. She and her daughter will be
    testing it out this weekend. Wish ME luck. LOL

    Is she a Democrat?

    --
    bill
    Theory don't mean squat if it don't work.

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  • From Hank@21:1/5 to bfh on Thu Oct 12 22:19:08 2023
    On Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 7:40:43 PM UTC-4, bfh wrote:
    Hank wrote:
    On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 6:24:28 PM UTC-4, Technobarbarian wrote:
    On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 2:10:15 PM UTC-7, Hank wrote:
    A friend of mine (Yes, I have one) is buying prebuilt shed and
    put it in the woods. She wants to be able to run her CPAP
    machine for a night or two at most every weekend, or so. What
    does she need as far as solar panel power? How big of a
    battery? How big of an inverter? TIA
    Hey, I have some recent experience with this. I use this battery
    for my wife's machine.

    ML35-12 - 12 Volt 35 AH SLA Battery- Mighty Max Battery Brand
    Product
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K8V2VD0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1



    This will run her machine all night with a little left over. The
    inverter I use plugs straight into her machine where the ac
    transformer normally plugs in. That way I don't get any power loss
    from converting dc to ac and back to dc when it actually goes into her machine. If you search Amazon you can probably find dc inverters that
    will plug straight into her machine from her dc power source. That's
    where I found the one I'm using for my wife's ResMed machine.

    If she has room in her vehicle her best bet would probably be to
    install an isolated battery deep cycle battery in her vehicle and
    use that to power her CPAP.

    To have any idea what size solar panels she would need you need
    to know how much power her machine needs. It would help to know
    what machine she is using. The power specifications would be
    useful if she has them.

    TB
    Update...I told her what she was going to need. Before I told her
    the type, size, and such, whe went to a place called Harbor freight
    and the guy there told her what she needed and and she bought the
    100 watt kit and all the other pieces (one stop shop). It had 4
    panels, controller, Battery, 2000 watt inverter. It came with
    everything except the power wire to the inverter which I made one
    up for her so we could test it. It was very easy and worked very
    well. It supplied her cpap all the time she slept, which was only 6
    hours. The battery voltage dropped from 13.0 to 12.6. I felt the
    items she had bought would be sufficient to do what she wanted to
    do. I then made a harness which included a fuse and polarized plugs
    so she or her daughter wouldn't be able to hook up backyards. I
    told her to try different things and keep an eye on the voltage so
    to determine the limits of the unit. She called me back about 10
    minutes later to tell me it wasn't working. I went over and found
    she blew the fuse (whew). After asking what did, she said she
    plugged in a toaster! The fuse was only 5 amp. LOL. Changed the
    fuse to a 10 amp but told her not to use anything like a toaster of
    hair dryer, and buy a few extra fuses. She and her daughter will be testing it out this weekend. Wish ME luck. LOL

    Is she a Democrat?

    --
    bill
    Theory don't mean squat if it don't work.

    She's not too smart, but not dumb enough to be a Democrat. Thanks for asking!

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  • From robert caprel@21:1/5 to Hank on Fri Oct 13 13:22:59 2023
    On Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 2:40:07 PM UTC-7, Hank wrote:
    On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 6:24:28 PM UTC-4, Technobarbarian wrote:
    On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 2:10:15 PM UTC-7, Hank wrote:
    A friend of mine (Yes, I have one) is buying prebuilt shed and put it in the woods. She wants to be able to run her CPAP machine for a night or two at most every weekend, or so. What does she need as far as solar panel power? How big of a battery?
    How big of an inverter? TIA
    Hey, I have some recent experience with this. I use this battery for my wife's machine.

    ML35-12 - 12 Volt 35 AH SLA Battery- Mighty Max Battery Brand Product https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K8V2VD0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

    This will run her machine all night with a little left over. The inverter I use plugs straight into her machine where the ac transformer normally plugs in. That way I don't get any power loss from converting dc to ac and back to dc when it actually
    goes into her machine. If you search Amazon you can probably find dc inverters that will plug straight into her machine from her dc power source. That's where I found the one I'm using for my wife's ResMed machine.

    If she has room in her vehicle her best bet would probably be to install an isolated battery deep cycle battery in her vehicle and use that to power her CPAP.

    To have any idea what size solar panels she would need you need to know how much power her machine needs. It would help to know what machine she is using. The power specifications would be useful if she has them.

    TB
    Update...I told her what she was going to need. Before I told her the type, size, and such, whe went to a place called Harbor freight and the guy there told her what she needed and and she bought the 100 watt kit and all the other pieces (one stop shop)
    . It had 4 panels, controller, Battery, 2000 watt inverter. It came with everything except the power wire to the inverter which I made one up for her so we could test it. It was very easy and worked very well. It supplied her cpap all the time she slept,
    which was only 6 hours. The battery voltage dropped from 13.0 to 12.6. I felt the items she had bought would be sufficient to do what she wanted to do. I then made a harness which included a fuse and polarized plugs so she or her daughter wouldn't be
    able to hook up backyards. I told her to try different things and keep an eye on the voltage so to determine the limits of the unit. She called me back about 10 minutes later to tell me it wasn't working. I went over and found she blew the fuse (whew).
    After asking what did, she said she plugged in a toaster! The fuse was only 5 amp. LOL. Changed the fuse to a 10 amp but told her not to use anything like a toaster of hair dryer, and buy a few extra fuses. She and her daughter will be testing it out
    this weekend. Wish ME luck. LOL

    There is usually a very good reason for the size of the fuse, and solving the problem with replacing it with something larger inevitably creates a fire hazard and or over heating of wiring.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Technobarbarian@21:1/5 to Hank on Fri Oct 13 16:35:14 2023
    On Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 2:40:07 PM UTC-7, Hank wrote:
    On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 6:24:28 PM UTC-4, Technobarbarian wrote:
    On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 2:10:15 PM UTC-7, Hank wrote:
    A friend of mine (Yes, I have one) is buying prebuilt shed and put it in the woods. She wants to be able to run her CPAP machine for a night or two at most every weekend, or so. What does she need as far as solar panel power? How big of a battery?
    How big of an inverter? TIA
    Hey, I have some recent experience with this. I use this battery for my wife's machine.

    ML35-12 - 12 Volt 35 AH SLA Battery- Mighty Max Battery Brand Product https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K8V2VD0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

    This will run her machine all night with a little left over. The inverter I use plugs straight into her machine where the ac transformer normally plugs in. That way I don't get any power loss from converting dc to ac and back to dc when it actually
    goes into her machine. If you search Amazon you can probably find dc inverters that will plug straight into her machine from her dc power source. That's where I found the one I'm using for my wife's ResMed machine.

    If she has room in her vehicle her best bet would probably be to install an isolated battery deep cycle battery in her vehicle and use that to power her CPAP.

    To have any idea what size solar panels she would need you need to know how much power her machine needs. It would help to know what machine she is using. The power specifications would be useful if she has them.

    TB
    Update...I told her what she was going to need. Before I told her the type, size, and such, whe went to a place called Harbor freight and the guy there told her what she needed and and she bought the 100 watt kit and all the other pieces (one stop shop)
    . It had 4 panels, controller, Battery, 2000 watt inverter. It came with everything except the power wire to the inverter which I made one up for her so we could test it. It was very easy and worked very well. It supplied her cpap all the time she slept,
    which was only 6 hours. The battery voltage dropped from 13.0 to 12.6. I felt the items she had bought would be sufficient to do what she wanted to do. I then made a harness which included a fuse and polarized plugs so she or her daughter wouldn't be
    able to hook up backyards. I told her to try different things and keep an eye on the voltage so to determine the limits of the unit. She called me back about 10 minutes later to tell me it wasn't working. I went over and found she blew the fuse (whew).
    After asking what did, she said she plugged in a toaster! The fuse was only 5 amp. LOL. Changed the fuse to a 10 amp but told her not to use anything like a toaster of hair dryer, and buy a few extra fuses. She and her daughter will be testing it out
    this weekend. Wish ME luck. LOL

    That should work just fine. If she needs more power she can always add a second battery. She could also squeeze more hours out of her battey by using an inverter that was made for her CPAP. I actually have 2 of those 35 AH batteries because this
    is primarily my emergency power system and I can go 2 days without needing to recharge my batteries. I put my batteries in 50 caliber sized plastic "ammo" cases and added 12 volt and USB outlets to the cases. Thanks for the update.

    TB

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  • From Technobarbarian@21:1/5 to robert caprel on Sat Oct 14 14:59:27 2023
    On Friday, October 13, 2023 at 1:23:01 PM UTC-7, robert caprel wrote:
    On Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 2:40:07 PM UTC-7, Hank wrote:
    On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 6:24:28 PM UTC-4, Technobarbarian wrote:
    On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 2:10:15 PM UTC-7, Hank wrote:
    A friend of mine (Yes, I have one) is buying prebuilt shed and put it in the woods. She wants to be able to run her CPAP machine for a night or two at most every weekend, or so. What does she need as far as solar panel power? How big of a battery?
    How big of an inverter? TIA
    Hey, I have some recent experience with this. I use this battery for my wife's machine.

    ML35-12 - 12 Volt 35 AH SLA Battery- Mighty Max Battery Brand Product https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K8V2VD0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

    This will run her machine all night with a little left over. The inverter I use plugs straight into her machine where the ac transformer normally plugs in. That way I don't get any power loss from converting dc to ac and back to dc when it actually
    goes into her machine. If you search Amazon you can probably find dc inverters that will plug straight into her machine from her dc power source. That's where I found the one I'm using for my wife's ResMed machine.

    If she has room in her vehicle her best bet would probably be to install an isolated battery deep cycle battery in her vehicle and use that to power her CPAP.

    To have any idea what size solar panels she would need you need to know how much power her machine needs. It would help to know what machine she is using. The power specifications would be useful if she has them.

    TB
    Update...I told her what she was going to need. Before I told her the type, size, and such, whe went to a place called Harbor freight and the guy there told her what she needed and and she bought the 100 watt kit and all the other pieces (one stop
    shop). It had 4 panels, controller, Battery, 2000 watt inverter. It came with everything except the power wire to the inverter which I made one up for her so we could test it. It was very easy and worked very well. It supplied her cpap all the time she
    slept, which was only 6 hours. The battery voltage dropped from 13.0 to 12.6. I felt the items she had bought would be sufficient to do what she wanted to do. I then made a harness which included a fuse and polarized plugs so she or her daughter wouldn't
    be able to hook up backyards. I told her to try different things and keep an eye on the voltage so to determine the limits of the unit. She called me back about 10 minutes later to tell me it wasn't working. I went over and found she blew the fuse (whew).
    After asking what did, she said she plugged in a toaster! The fuse was only 5 amp. LOL. Changed the fuse to a 10 amp but told her not to use anything like a toaster of hair dryer, and buy a few extra fuses. She and her daughter will be testing it out
    this weekend. Wish ME luck. LOL
    There is usually a very good reason for the size of the fuse, and solving the problem with replacing it with something larger inevitably creates a fire hazard and or over heating of wiring.

    The 12 volt outlet in your car is usually wired to handle a 15 amp fuse. He would need to have pretty light wiring to overheat it on a 10 amp fuse. I would suggest glancing at the manual. It mentions that these things aren't built to handle
    heating devices. They're great for small motors and electronic devices as long as it isn't something so sensitive that it can't handle a modified sine wave.

    TB

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