Using a cpap machine on boat

[a64pilot]

A lot of people with Apnea do not dream, reason is if your being woken up several times an hour, you never get to the dream state
http://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-new...d-dream-recall

I was waking up several times a night to pee, was even taking meds for it, beat down dead tired always. I bought a cheap recording pulse oximeter and wore it one night, then when I looked at the chart, I could see where my O2 saturation was dropping several times and hour. Had to be Apnea, went to the Dr and got a CPAP, did more homework and had it changed to an APAP. Difference is amazing, I now have much more energy, way fewer headaches, etc.
Lots of health problems associated with Apnea,

[Is05land]

I use one with a large battery bank and inverter, but check the watts. A small inverter, probably like 300W, should do it- if it has a heater (to increase the air's humidity) disable it if possible. If you can check the 12v amps, that will give you the amp-hrs it will draw as it runs continuously.

[a64pilot]

The 120V power supply on mine is 60W, heated hose requires a 100W power supply.
I'll try to measure it with a clamp on multimeter if I can find it.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

.. did more homework and had it changed to an APAP...

Yes, much better than CPAP, but even better still, many now go further than just varying the air pressure over time, they synchronise with your breathing and vary the pressure as you breath in and out.

They really make a difference in comfort, I don't know which makes/models do this, other than the Phillips Respironics model I tested for my mate. He was really happy that it did so well on power consumption as it was the one he most liked to sell to his clients as he had the most positive feedback from them.

I suppose one of the reasons it did so well on power consumption is that because of the pulsing nature of the unit, it was effectively "idling" half the time as you breathe out. Conventional wisdom suggests to me that the power needed to spin the fan back up again would eliminate the power savings, until I think about how electric motors work and where they draw power, then I can see the 50% idle time is a big advantage, the fan is not working against the exhaled breath.

Matt