I designed the flow control valve for Mountain High Oxygen Systems as well as for most of the O2 concentrators available on the market today. The Mountain High systems will run for hours on a 9 v battery. I have one. Bottled oxygen is cheap and weighs a lot less than a concentrator
Concentrator valves are not altitude tested. The concentrator companies treat them as a commodity and just go for the lowest cost. Liability is low as concentrators are not considered life support equipment. They dont belong in airplanes or the big carriers would use them. Rich Parker RepcoDT.com > On Mar 12, 2014, at 1:07 PM, "Dan Branstrom" <4dan.branstrom at gmail.com> > wrote: > > Think about this: to concentrate the oxygen in the surrounding atmosphere, it > takes energy. Lots of it, and that is even on the ground, where there is > much more oxygen available. > If you're going to put an oxygen concentrator in an airplane, you'd better > have one large alternator or several very large batteries, even when the > plane is flying at low altitude. > > Since the number of oxygen molecules are far fewer at the altitudes where you > require oxygen, the concentrator has to work that much harder. If the power > goes out, you're out of luck, aren't you? To be safe, you'll need to descend > immediately. Out West, that may not be a good alternative. > > Considering cost, weight, complexity, the amount of horsepower needed to > generate the electricity, I wouldn't even consider it. There Ain't No Such > Thing As A Free Lunch. TANSTAAFL - courtesy Robert A Heinlein. > > Even if the generator is free, the cost of your time will be substantial. Do > you want to spend your time experimenting (along with an oxymeter to make > sure you're getting what you need), or flying? > > The OXYFLY unit that is designed for high altitudes takes 15 amps at 28 > volts. That's 420 watts. Probably, that's overkill, and you might be able > to adapt a smaller, ground-based one, but even if you find one that's > suitable that takes half the power for just you, that's still 210 watts (15 > amps at 14 volts) draw on your system. > > Dan Branstrom > > _______________________________________________ > Search the KRnet Archives at http://tugantek.com/archmailv2-kr/search. > To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to KRnet-leave at list.krnet.org > please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html > see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change > options
