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Power Outages
Bit of a scare this morning - power went out in my house about 5 in the morning. Nothing like waking up without air! Friends suggest I get an Uninterruptible Power Supply - seem to be several available online, not too expensive. Probably a good idea; I'll order one later this week.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by 99 on
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judy perhaps your husband can chip in here as he is the expert
i have a car starter a unit to start cars which also has a car cigarette liter outlet
i have purcased an inverter to pulg in the cigarette outlet to give me mains voltage
first i looked at my manuel and worked out that 150 watt inverter was needed for one machine, i did not include a humidifyer in my calculations
this is what needs to be done and should two units be require look up the manuel for both machines if different or should they be the same just double the number
Judy said:We live in a rural area. After a severe ice storm in 1976 we were w/o power for a week. Since that time we've bought two gas powered generators. Hubby is an electrician so one is pretty much stationary and mufflered in an attractive outdoors shed the opposite end of the house from the bedrooms where our meter from the power company is. The other is mobile - just in case. We've used it to bail out more than one neighbor thru the years.
Hubby has it set up so that all I have to do if he is not home is flip a switch that switches us from company power to generator power. The generator isn't big enough to run the entire house so we do have to do some switching between the furnace and the freezer but he has them set up on "circuits" or something so it is just a matter of unplugging the one "circuit" and plugging in the other "circuit". He's been going to change that tho so that it is just a matter of flipping switches from one "circuit" to another. But he's not in a big hurry to do so as he wouldn't want me to inadvertently have both switches turned on at the same time.
Yeah, it wouldn't be a surprise if I forgot or wasn't thinking and did just that!
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Permalink Reply by S C. Osburn on
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I have used the battery from our boat when we've gone camping...........4 days and with my humidifyer and it did just fine. I purchased an adapter from the supplier of my cpap. Works great!
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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Donaldson on
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I've had this happen before and I wake up pretty quickly when it does. I use an inverter with a battery to run mine during a power failure. I do a lot of camping in the summer and quite often it's without any power availible, so this works quite well for that. A computer backup supply like a UPS will do just fine, however they beep when the power is lost and that would wake you up. If you can find one that dosn't beep, or somehow disable the beeper inside, that would be the perfect solution.
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Permalink Reply by Margo Lozoya on
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I have a tendency to pull my CPAP mask off at night withought even realizing it and I get a massive headache in the morning too. I think my machine has a battery back up too...but I would have to ask the respirator therapist for sure about this.
Mike said:Les -- how long do you think you slept without realizing the power was out? I know that if i were to go any length of time -- even a short time -- without my CPAP, I'd have a massive headache in the morning.
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Permalink Reply by Tim on
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UPS's are fine for short duration outages, but the battery won't last long (some number of minutes). As was mentioned, you will need need a UPS with a true sine wave output if you have a ResMed humidifier; true sine wave UPSs are not common and are expensive. On many UPSs, the power off alarm can be shut off.
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Permalink Reply by Mike on
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got this suggestion from a member: "Look at your computer stores as a computer is vulnerable to losing information if it suddenly loses power. The power supply that I have is used, a friend of mine works for a heating and plumbing company and he was on a call where the customer asked him if he had use for any of them.
The only thing wrong with the one that I got is that the battery was shot. The battery cost only $30. It is designed so that if the power goes out, the battery will run an inverter until the battery is exhausted or the power is back on.
Check at Best Buy, Circuit City (or did CC go out of business?), Office Depot, or Office Max. Wally World may even have them."
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All these are good ideas, I would add that a marine or automotive battery can be recharged from a car in an extended power outage. They can also supply multiple units, cpaps, tvs, computers, emergency lights and a fridge (on an intermittent basis). If one is kind of handy, more than one battery can be connected together for more available power. Good car batteries are not all that expensive and will last for 4-6 years if maintained properly. Hope this helps.
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Permalink Reply by Melinda Hertel on
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Here is a website to check out--the batteries are a little expensive, but might be worth it: www.batterypowersolutions.net.
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There are other solutions:
You can get an inexpensive power alarm online, that will tell you the instant your household power goes out, if your machine does not have a power failure alarm. For a regular CPAP machine, you can get a power inverter at AutoZone or another auto supply store, and then buy a marine battery. You will need a big enough power inverter to handle the peak wattage of your CPAP machine. It has red and black cables to hook to the marine battery. The marine battery should be fully charged when you buy it (ask them to charge it if it isn't). It has to be big enough to run a CPAP machine of your machine's wattage at least one night. Once it is charged, you can keep it fully charged until you need it with a trickle charger, which is low cost. If your household power goes out, your CPAP plugs into the power inverter, and the cable ends of the power inverter clip onto the posts of the marine battery. Just make sure that you clip the correct cable end (red or black) onto the correct post (positive or negative). Similar to clipping cables onto a car battery.
The power inverter comes in two types. One is pure sine, the other - can't recall - is the cheaper one. Pure sine costs a lot more. I didn't need pure sine for the Fisher & Paykel CPAP I had 4 years. For ResMed BiPap Adapt SV, you may need the pure sine, if you are using heat and humidity. Maybe not if not using heat and humidity. Check with their Tech Support department. For Respironics BiPap SV, which is what I use - and the SV machines are for those with both
Central (neurological) sleep apnea plus Obstructive sleep apnea - I have both - Respironics sells a converter kit to allow you to hook it to the machine (spare socket in back on right) and then clip the cable ends to a fully charged marine battery. It has a little power converter box, and it does not require a power inverter. The kit is not cheap, though.
Vicki in Homewood, IL
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Car starting batteries are not good for use with CPAPs because a deep discharge will permanently damage starting batteries. Deep cell batteries or marine batteries are not damaged as much by deep discharge. Marine batteries are not as good for deep discharge as deep sell batteries, but they are probably easier to find than deep cell batteries.
Heated humidifiers suck up the juice and will greatly shorten the life of batteries. Heated humidifiers also make things more complicated because they require the use of an inverter. Running a heated humidifier for one night takes about as much power as running a CPAP for two or three nights.
I have a li-ion CPAP battery that is good for almost three nights and a deep discharge AGM battery that will power my CPAP for about five days. Both of these types of batteries are designed to withstand deep discharging and are ideal for CPAP use.
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Permalink Reply by Banyon on
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If you don't want to risk sleeping in apneic state when the power goes off and you also don't want to invest in an uninterruptible power supply, there is something you should purchase for less than $20. Buy a Plug-In Power Failure Alarm - see link below for one example. You just plug it into an outlet in your bedroom and if the power goes off, the device sounds an alarm and lights up. The downside of this alarm is that it will likely wakeup others (non-CPAP users) in your bedroom and maybe nearby bedrooms.
http://www.amazon.com/Reliance-Controls-THP207-Failure-Flashlight/d...
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