[Equipment] Portable generator to power S9

[Galactus]

Ok being stupid Ill try to figure this out with some help please since there are conflicting posts about it.
Short term outage is not what I need to deal with for two machines. A week to four weeks is possible. Doesnt happen that long often but it has more than once due to ice taking down power lines and trees. I can store gas for that long in 5 gal cans with stabil.
Which I would do because several times even getting out of here in a full size 4 wheel drive or a atv has been iffy to impossible due to downed trees.

Now if im reading this right If I get a small generator, and a surge protector, plug the cpaps into the surge protector I would be ok???
Assuming a small generator will run two Apaps with heated humidifiers?? I heat with wood so that isnt a problem. Dont care about running anything else but the Apaps at night.

But I do need to figure this out before weather gets nasty. On a fixed income and cant really afford to spend money this way then that way to try set up a long term power solution that will work without wrecking the machines.

Welcome to my world, of wonderful power outages, and power companies that could drive a sane person crazy. I deal with the very same issue you do.

So the discrepancy is a simple one, the question of whether or not the power supplies can cope with the instability of generator power. I say yes, based on my own experiences. Others seem to say no. So not to argue who is right to be 100% safe do the following;

1- Get a pair of extra power supplies to be safe.
2- Get a UPS, not a surge protector, a UPS has a battery, you only need a tiny one as it's job is just to clean the power not act as a battery backup.
3- Start the generator, then plug in the ups, then plug the cpap supplies into the ups.

That will insure you are good, and will leave you with zero issues, and I think we all agree on that.

BTW for cpaps even the small generators will run them if that is all you are running, and they should run quite a while even on a small generator. Check the generators specs but you should easily be good overnight for a small unit.

If you have some extra money I highly recommend going propane because it is easier to store safer and less issues all around. Some of the generators will run 20-30 hours off a 20# tank with such a small load.

Hope that helps you out.

[Ghost1958]

Ok being stupid Ill try to figure this out with some help please since there are conflicting posts about it.
Short term outage is not what I need to deal with for two machines. A week to four weeks is possible. Doesnt happen that long often but it has more than once due to ice taking down power lines and trees. I can store gas for that long in 5 gal cans with stabil.
Which I would do because several times even getting out of here in a full size 4 wheel drive or a atv has been iffy to impossible due to downed trees.

Now if im reading this right If I get a small generator, and a surge protector, plug the cpaps into the surge protector I would be ok???
Assuming a small generator will run two Apaps with heated humidifiers?? I heat with wood so that isnt a problem. Dont care about running anything else but the Apaps at night.

But I do need to figure this out before weather gets nasty. On a fixed income and cant really afford to spend money this way then that way to try set up a long term power solution that will work without wrecking the machines.

Welcome to my world, of wonderful power outages, and power companies that could drive a sane person crazy. I deal with the very same issue you do.

So the discrepancy is a simple one, the question of whether or not the power supplies can cope with the instability of generator power. I say yes, based on my own experiences. Others seem to say no. So not to argue who is right to be 100% safe do the following;

1- Get a pair of extra power supplies to be safe.
2- Get a UPS, not a surge protector, a UPS has a battery, you only need a tiny one as it's job is just to clean the power not act as a battery backup.
3- Start the generator, then plug in the ups, then plug the cpap supplies into the ups.

That will insure you are good, and will leave you with zero issues, and I think we all agree on that.

BTW for cpaps even the small generators will run them if that is all you are running, and they should run quite a while even on a small generator. Check the generators specs but you should easily be good overnight for a small unit.

If you have some extra money I highly recommend going propane because it is easier to store safer and less issues all around. Some of the generators will run 20-30 hours off a 20# tank with such a small load.

Hope that helps you out.

Very much so thanks. Ill have to stick with gasoline though. Propane isnt that readily available out here and when these outages hit in a couple of days its non existent.

Yep all the generator will need do is run the 2 apaps with heated humidifiers at night. With the UPS being a battery do the apaps plug into them on DC adapter cords or do they just run off the normal power power cords? Hate to seem so stupid but electric outages just werent that big a deal before having these machines to run. I was raised for a time without power in the home so it was nice to have it when it came but nothing we couldnt do easily without for extended periods until now.

[Galactus]

Ok being stupid Ill try to figure this out with some help please since there are conflicting posts about it.
Short term outage is not what I need to deal with for two machines. A week to four weeks is possible. Doesnt happen that long often but it has more than once due to ice taking down power lines and trees. I can store gas for that long in 5 gal cans with stabil.
Which I would do because several times even getting out of here in a full size 4 wheel drive or a atv has been iffy to impossible due to downed trees.

Now if im reading this right If I get a small generator, and a surge protector, plug the cpaps into the surge protector I would be ok???
Assuming a small generator will run two Apaps with heated humidifiers?? I heat with wood so that isnt a problem. Dont care about running anything else but the Apaps at night.

But I do need to figure this out before weather gets nasty. On a fixed income and cant really afford to spend money this way then that way to try set up a long term power solution that will work without wrecking the machines.

Welcome to my world, of wonderful power outages, and power companies that could drive a sane person crazy. I deal with the very same issue you do.

So the discrepancy is a simple one, the question of whether or not the power supplies can cope with the instability of generator power. I say yes, based on my own experiences. Others seem to say no. So not to argue who is right to be 100% safe do the following;

1- Get a pair of extra power supplies to be safe.
2- Get a UPS, not a surge protector, a UPS has a battery, you only need a tiny one as it's job is just to clean the power not act as a battery backup.
3- Start the generator, then plug in the ups, then plug the cpap supplies into the ups.

That will insure you are good, and will leave you with zero issues, and I think we all agree on that.

BTW for cpaps even the small generators will run them if that is all you are running, and they should run quite a while even on a small generator. Check the generators specs but you should easily be good overnight for a small unit.

If you have some extra money I highly recommend going propane because it is easier to store safer and less issues all around. Some of the generators will run 20-30 hours off a 20# tank with such a small load.

Hope that helps you out.

Very much so thanks. Ill have to stick with gasoline though. Propane isnt that readily available out here and when these outages hit in a couple of days its non existent.

Yep all the generator will need do is run the 2 apaps with heated humidifiers at night. With the UPS being a battery do the apaps plug into them on DC adapter cords or do they just run off the normal power power cords? Hate to seem so stupid but electric outages just werent that big a deal before having these machines to run. I was raised for a time without power in the home so it was nice to have it when it came but nothing we couldnt do easily without for extended periods until now.

The UPS is short for Uninterpretable Power Supply, and is basically a battery backup for standard electricity, it's added benefit is it brings in power, cleans it up and then powers the devices, so it handles everything in the way of unclean line voltage that could damage electronics. In this instance we are using it just to clean the power to be certain not to blow anything up. Usually bigger would be better as the battery would last longer, but we don't need the battery beyond the cleaning of the power as a cover our butts method. There may be a surge and spiker out there that does the same but my familiarity is with the UPS's and specifically units manufactured by APC. But there are many others so if you wind up in a store and they have something that will do the same job that is what you are looking for. I just looked up the correct verbiage and it is surge/spike/power conditioning that is what we are looking for, check out apc at their website if you like as well, other brands available too.

The plugs that plug in the wall outlets for ac power will be found on the UPS as well, they don't need any special converters or anything, in a house they go between the wall socket and the device. In this case between the generator and the device, same principle.

In regards to propane vs gas, I fully understand where you are coming from. the only reason I mention it is because it is quite easy to keep 5 or 6 20# propane tanks or even 1 100# filled and ready and safely stored, and then on the generator end there is no worry about carbs gumming up or bad gas or anything. But I know sometimes gas is the only way, have had it happen here too. Usually if you can store gas storing propane and or natural gas is even easier and larger sealed tanks are available. Just a thought.

[woozie38]

But I do need to figure this out before weather gets nasty. On a fixed income and cant really afford to spend money this way then that way to try set up a long term power solution that will work without wrecking the machines.

Hi O2meister,
I imagine you will need to use storage batteries during your power outages. Here is Resmeds guide to help you select & set up the right batteries to run your APAPs.

[Ghost1958]

I dont think storage batteries will work for the time periods Im talking about. Without a way to recharge them Id have too have a house full of batteries.

I did call later this evening and there are gen sets with built in sine wave whatevers that a Rrespronics machine can be run from but they are costlier than the regular generator an a UPS in line to smooth the flow.

I guess my next step is to figure out how much generator I need. I only need one big enough to run for 8 hours for two Apaps with humidifiers. Maybe a gas powered cpap machine LOL.

[woozie38]

I dont think storage batteries will work for the time periods Im talking about. Without a way to recharge them Id have too have a house full of batteries..

Won't your genset charge your batteries? Use a battery each night and recharge next day?

[Galactus]

I did call later this evening and there are gen sets with built in sine wave whatevers that a Rrespronics machine can be run from but they are costlier than the regular generator an a UPS in line to smooth the flow.

Yes, also if you buy a generator with the more expensive option and it blows up you also loose the sine wave and power conditioning of the UPS which is why it has always made more sense to me to use a less expensive generator and a better ups.

Just as an example a major liquidator is selling a 3250 generator for $219 delivered with free shipping currently which is way way more than you need for two paps and even a few lights, and a quick search yielded me this CyberPower CP850PFCLCD 850VA PURE Sinewave Series UPS - 10 Outlets which is also way more than needed for $119 from a large computer seller, and your all done. I can't post any commercial links here but if you want to PM me I'd be happy to link you.

If the genny dies you can replace it with anything, and if the ups dies same story. Otherwise you get stuck with a higher end genny that must be replaced with another high end unit.

[bwexler]

There are several types of UPS. The less expensive ones simply pass through what ever power comes in, until the power fails. Then it switches to battery power.
Some also provide modified sine wave power, which is what you are trying to avoid.
The type being suggested is refereed to as line interactive, and does pass all current through the battery powered inverter.
I agree that APC makes good UPS devices. I have used them for over 20 years. However, you still need to READ the specs on whatever you buy, UPS or generator or combo, to determine weather you are getting pure sine wave power.

[Galactus]

There are several types of UPS. The less expensive ones simply pass through what ever power comes in, until the power fails. Then it switches to battery power.
Some also provide modified sine wave power, which is what you are trying to avoid.
The type being suggested is refereed to as line interactive, and does pass all current through the battery powered inverter.
I agree that APC makes good UPS devices. I have used them for over 20 years. However, you still need to READ the specs on whatever you buy, UPS or generator or combo, to determine weather you are getting pure sine wave power.

Yes, the one I posted above is pure sine, not modified or any other terminology they like to confuse people with. You can get modified sine for under $50 some even less, but for the purpose here that is not what we want.

[Ghost1958]

I dont think storage batteries will work for the time periods Im talking about. Without a way to recharge them Id have too have a house full of batteries..

Won't your genset charge your batteries? Use a battery each night and recharge next day?

We could possibly do it that way. The catch is to do that We will have to buy the generator, the two batteries, which run over 100 bucks around here for a plain jane car battery, one for each apap, and a regular battery charger. The charger I have now is for motorcycles. Charging a full size regular car battery with it takes about 8 hours.

Or we can get the generator the UPS or spring for the generator that has the sine wave inverter built in though they are costlier.