Setup for Portable Oxygen Concentrator

[John Pitts]

My wife has severe pulinary hypertension and needs oxygen 24/7. We have a portable O2 concentrator, Sequal Eclipse 2, that runs on 120AC, battery and 12VDC (from a car Chager) We also have a spare battery that we keep charger with a wall charger.

What I would like is PV system to run using the car 12VDC adapter and charge the spare battery as well. We currently have a gas powered generator for extended power outages but would prefer a solar option.

Where do we start and any suggestions?

Thanks

[Rob Beckers]

Hi John,

Do you want to just keep a battery charged by solar in case it's needed, or actually run the oxygen generator off of the battery most of the time?

The former can be done using a very small solar PV module that is meant for 12V battery charging. If the charge rate is around C/100 or less (with C being the battery capacity, for example 100 Ah, so the panel current would be around 1A maximum) it will keep the battery charged and no charge controller is needed. Check that the panel has a diode to prevent discharging the battery at night (and if not, add a diode in series with the panel leads).

If you want to generate enough energy to run the oxygen generator on a more or less permanent basis it gets a bit more complicated. You'll need to know how much energy it uses and size the battery and panels accordingly. The larger charge rate will need a charge controller to prevent overcharging the battery.

-RoB-