Burning Man - CPAP and Power

Can you tell what's been cleaned and what hasn't?

Running a CPAP out at burning man was one thing I was a bit worried about. Being in a tent and surrounded by flying dust I was concerned my machine would get damaged, or I would be clogging filters or worse sucking in huge amounts of playa all night. And how was I going to power this thing for 7 days?

The first step was to playa proof my CPAP. I did this by purchasing a small plastic tub/storage container that my unit would reside inside. I then cut a rectangular hole into the container top that would be a vent to the outside world. This rectangular opening was then closed with an AC air filter I cut down to fit the opening. Using Gorilla tape I sealed it up tight so air would have to go through that filter first before being filtered yet again by the two filters on my CPAP. Of course you have to route your power cable and hose into the container as well. I simply cut holes to accommodate those and used more gorilla tape to close up the gaps. This worked great, and my unit was clean as whistle at the end of the event.

Of course a CPAP is worthless with out some electrical current, so next on the list was to find a power solution. At minimum I would need a battery to power the unit over night. Now whether that battery was a smallish 18Ah battery or monster 220Ah was a choice I had to make. The large Marine batteries you hear people using can run a unit with humidifier for a week or so. They are usually very expensive and super heavy. Also, being a bare battery it is safest to have them in a plastic battery box (which usually include safety shut offs and power outlets). Of course that's if you want to do it correctly. Many people don't, and that's their decision. For me I wanted a more compact option and one that would see use beyond camping.

Ultimately I decided to go with a car battery jumper box/power station as my main source of power. Schumacher makes a few units with AC/DC/USB/12V outlets, and with a 18Ah (amp hour) battery that would get me through a few days. The important bit here was knowing how many amps my device would use per hour. This information was pretty easily found on the bottom of my CPAP, however it was clear that with the humidifier on I wasn't going to make it over a day! So, over the course of a few weeks I was able to get used to not using my humidifier which made this electrical setup possible as it dropped the power consumption down to a very reasonable .4Ah.(+/-). 

Thankfully most CPAP units run on 12v so there was no need to use the inverter on the power station. At 120v the amps needed to do all this go up considerably! The right 12v cable was sourced online for about $30 dollars and allowed me to plug in to the power station directly via the cigarette style plug on the front.

There are two wires on the right, the red one is making hard to see the black

Of course a few days of juice wasn't going to cut it, I needed a charging option to make it an entire week. This is where a decision had to be made on whether or not I wanted to go solar or a gas generator or wing it and find someone on playa to help (which is not very self reliant). Well, a gas generator is huge, costs a ton and eats up fuel, so for me it was an easy answer to go solar. I sourced a semi-flexible 50W panel on amazon for $100. To not damage my battery I needed a charge controller which cost $20. Of course to get all this power moving to and from devices I needed some cables. As usual Amazon to the rescue. I bought a 12v extension cable, stripped off the the wires on the female end and ran those into the charge controller, leaving the male end to plug directly into the power station where it would charge up during the day. A pair of solar panel specific cables were purchased that let me plug directly into the panel with MC4 connectors. Again, stripping off the other end of those cables allowed me to place bare wires into the controller. NOTE: There is a specific sequence of placing the wires into the controller. If not followed you could damage the unit. Pay attention to your directions!

The dust build up in the front part of tent got a bit ridiculous . . . but my CPAP was doing well in it's little container!

This setup worked great for a few days; however on day 4, I stepped on and broke the 12v plug that went from the charge controller to the power station! Thankfully my insane amount of research on these units equipped me with the knowledge that the car jumper cables went directly to the battery, so a little precarious positioning of leads got me back charging! 

Extra bonuses: This little power station is awesome. Not only did it allow me to use my CPAP all week, it helped jump start a guy's generator who's battery had failed! Also, my neighbors bike had a leaky tire so I was able to use the air compressor to get him back on the road. As if that wasn't enough, this unit also has a blower/vacuum on it. This meant I could re-compress my "space saver bags" which saved a huge amount of space in the car (and kept the dirt contained). This made packing up pillows and comforters much easier too! Now, whether this thing lasts or not is to be seen, but reviews online indicate it's pretty well built and the battery is easily replaced if/when it goes.