CPAP power usage and cost to operate

Hi all,

Does anyone here have an idea of how much power a CPAP machine uses, and/or how much it costs per month to operate it?

For almost the past 4 years, I lived in an apartment where the electricity was included in my rent.
Now I have purchased a home and am responsible for the power bill myself. So I am just wondering what to expect when I get the first power bill after running my CPAP machine all night, every night.

Thanks a million for any help!

These machines use very little electricity.


Den

Wulfman wrote:These machines use very little electricity.


Den

Good to know, thank you!

I think last I looked at the data, my machine on 10 cmH20 (without the humidifier) used 1.09 amps. So for a 110 v source your using 119.9 watts. Used for 8 hours a night, that's 959.2 wattHour, or just about a KilowattHour. So then you just need to figure out how much your electricity provider is charging you per KwH and you'll now what your cost to operate is.

Out here in Oregon our current average rate is about 9 cents per KwH, so in a month I spend a little less than $3 on electricity to run my machine. Adding the humidifier does make it go up though.

This is a good reference to see what your electrical rates are:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricit ... 5_6_a.html

amandalee wrote:Does anyone here have an idea of how much power a CPAP machine uses

It depends on your titration level and Humidifer settings, but typically a contemporary xPAP will use about 300W of energy on MAXIMUM settings. Most users will use much less.

amandalee wrote:and/or how much it costs per month to operate it?

That depends on how much you pay for electricity.

Where I live it costs me about $3.50 a month on my energy bill..... 14cm H20 titration level, Humidifier dial set about halfway.

Cheers,

Bill

My ResMed 7 says 100v at 2.2a. (Recall the basic elect. formula W = A x V) That would be 100 volts x 2.2 amperes = 220 watts, or about the same as three 75 watt light bulbs. It uses residual power (light, etc.) when not in use. My GoodKnight is rated at 20 watts, or about the same as a low wattage fluorescent. It also uses some residual power when not in use (e.g. keeping time etc.) You can reduce your electricity use by unplugging when not in use.

You should be able to find the amperage or wattage rating either on the back/underside of your machine or in your user's manual.

If you use your machine 8 hours a night then multiply the 220 watts by 8 to get your watt-hours. Your utility company charges by kilowatt hours. 220 watts at 8 hours is 1.76 kWh. Let's say your power company charges 10 cent a kilowatt hour. Gee, that sounds like a bargain to me at less than 20 cents a night or about $5 a month. If I used my GoodKnight instead of my ResMed, I would be paying a tenth of that!

pagebypage wrote:My ResMed 7 says 100v at 2.2a. (Recall the basic elect. formula W = A x V) That would be 100 volts x 2.2 amperes = 220 watts

That's the maximum energy draw including the Humidifier. A Resmed S7 flow generator without a humidifier runs at about 25W (depending on titration setting)... I used to have one and measured the energy usage.

pagebypage wrote:My GoodKnight is rated at 20 watts

That can only be without a humidifier.

pagebypage wrote:If I used my GoodKnight instead of my ResMed, I would be paying a tenth of that!

No, under the same operating conditions you would be paying about the same.

Cheers,

Bill

Check with your power company and see if you can get a discount. I have SCE in Southern California and qualify for a medical baseline allowance. Saves nothing in the winter, but during the summer when A/C is running my bills have dropped @ 20-25%. With the extra allowance of power, I have never used enough power to push me into tier 2 rates.

http://www.sce.com/NR/rdonlyres/217DA56 ... ne0908.pdf

Oh I was sure somebody would say...PRICELESS!!

Truthfully I haven't noticed any increase in my electric bills since I started.

Good luck in the new place!!

You can measure the exact usage and calculate the cost yourself with the best-selling wattmeter on Amazon for less than $20: https://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Electri ... 00009MDBU/ You can measure the cost of all of the rest of your appliances too.

It will be a tiny fraction of your electric bill (unless you have a pre-1986 model).

You both are replying to a seven year old dead thread, and the cost of the meter will be double or triple the cost of the XPAP power use. Jim

Well my let's see my Resmed power supply says 2.5 A MAX BUT note it says MAX and
I take it that that is saying for a fraction of a second when you first turn it on it may
pull 2.5 and that would calculate as ~ 260 watts But in real life it pulls about 10 to 15
watts without the humidifier. I actualy measured how much my resmed set at 14 ' drew
from a 12v backup power supply and it was only about .6 A ( my memory is hazy perhaps
it was as high as .7 A ) But an APAP will draw more but still not all that much more.

First, as for the Kill-a-Watt meters: I've always been a bit skeptical of the accuracy, especially for something the varies as fast as a CPAP , but they do seem to give an approximate answer.

A modern pump will use about 50 to 60 Watt-hours a night, with the humidifier/heated hose adding up to 5 to 7 times as much depending on the ambiant conditions and settings. About 250 Watt-hours, or 0.25 kWh per night might be a reasonable first guess of the power used. This would be maybe 7-8 kWh a month, or a few bucks in most places.

Woody wrote:Well my let's see my Resmed power supply says 2.5 A MAX BUT note it says MAX and
I take it that that is saying for a fraction of a second when you first turn it on it may
pull 2.5 and that would calculate as ~ 260 watts

Those are amps at 24 Volts DC so its 60 Watts at 120 plus about 10% overhead. That's about the same as the Respironics without the heated hose - the supply is 90 watts for the heated hose version.

There is a startup hit on the pump of around 2-3 amps (24-36 watts) for the Respironics; i've haven't measured Resmed.

Woody wrote:But in real life it pulls about 10 to 15
watts without the humidifier. I actualy measured how much my resmed set at 14 ' drew
from a 12v backup power supply and it was only about .6 A ( my memory is hazy perhaps
it was as high as .7 A ) But an APAP will draw more but still not all that much more.

Yes, roughly half an amp load on a 12V battery is normal for the pump alone. The mechanics of a CPAP and an APAP are virtually identical so there shouldn't be much, if any difference. A far as I know a Respironics 460 is the simply a locked 560. You could argue that the CPAP actually uses more power since it has to be set at a higher level.