Power Outage lousy night sleep

[toro33]

We lost power last night in the midst of a wild NorEaster and it messed up what started out as a good night's sleep. I hate waking up trying to suck air through the mask. That pushed me to decide on a fix for the future. I already have a DC Converter 24V 90W For S9™ Machines that I run off dual car batteries while camping. I've ordered an Optima Blue Top deep cycle battery and it is my plan to have it connected to a trickle charger next to my bed. My wife is not too happy about that, but does understand. I will then have my S9 VPAP S connected to the DC converter from the battery all the time and hopefully won't get that rude awakening next time we lose power.

[Ghost1958]

Yeah that would be bad. I expect ill probably wake up to that this winter. But when its supposed to get really bad here wife and I will move from bedroom to the living room cuz the power will usually go out.

That puts us in the fold out bed which aint bad to sleep on, in the same room with the wood stove which is what we heat with.

Ill have the generator gassed up and ready on the covered porch and in about five minutes be running both machines off of it. Surge protector is all we need between the genset and the PRS1 machines. According to the tech at Respirionics anyway.

We lose power in bad winters for weeks at a time along with most everything else around here. Batteries wont cut it for that long.
And during the day we can run the fridge and the freezer off the genset for few hours each to keep everything perishable from going kaput. We have just packed cold store stuff in snow but then you have to fight the critters off it. Coyotes love venison and such lol. She cooks on the wood burner during such times or a little propane camp stove so thats not an issue.
About 15 to 20 gal of stabil treated gas should handle any extended outages we have until the roads get cleared enough for the old 4x4 to get me out to get more. Probably be more than enough.

[mattnik]

We lost power last night in the midst of a wild NorEaster and it messed up what started out as a good night's sleep. I hate waking up trying to suck air through the mask. That pushed me to decide on a fix for the future. I already have a DC Converter 24V 90W For S9™ Machines that I run off dual car batteries while camping. I've ordered an Optima Blue Top deep cycle battery and it is my plan to have it connected to a trickle charger next to my bed. My wife is not too happy about that, but does understand. I will then have my S9 VPAP S connected to the DC converter from the battery all the time and hopefully won't get that rude awakening next time we lose power.

Let me know how this turns out! I'm concerned for that too, but I wonder how much current the BiPAP will draw for an eight hour run. Is two deep cycle batteries enough? Maybe some sort of power saving strategy (for instance, disabling the humidifier) will make the current draw manageable.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[toro33]

We lost power last night in the midst of a wild NorEaster and it messed up what started out as a good night's sleep. I hate waking up trying to suck air through the mask. That pushed me to decide on a fix for the future. I already have a DC Converter 24V 90W For S9™ Machines that I run off dual car batteries while camping. I've ordered an Optima Blue Top deep cycle battery and it is my plan to have it connected to a trickle charger next to my bed. My wife is not too happy about that, but does understand. I will then have my S9 VPAP S connected to the DC converter from the battery all the time and hopefully won't get that rude awakening next time we lose power.

Let me know how this turns out! I'm concerned for that too, but I wonder how much current the BiPAP will draw for an eight hour run. Is two deep cycle batteries enough? Maybe some sort of power saving strategy (for instance, disabling the humidifier) will make the current draw manageable.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

I can sleep 7.5 hours with max temp and max humidity settings in cool Fall weather with one Optima Yellow Top 34M car battery and still start the car. Not much margin tho so I have a second battery. You have to be close to the battery as DC power has a big loss over distance. I had to run 4gage wire to an outlet in the back of my 4Runner to make it work. I sleep in a tent attached to the back of the vehicle. With a battery next to your bed you won't have that issue.

[justMongo]

Optima Yellow Top -- best sealed, deep cycle, AGM battery out there.
I have a smart charger, Astron SBC10, 10 Amp, set to gel cell.

If you're good with electronics, you can mod an Astron RM-35 power supply as a float charger/supply.
(Without the mod, the battery will fry the RM-35 when line power fails.)

[toro33]

I have an Optimus Digital charger/maintainer which is also a great option, either the 400 or 1200 model.

[Kritiker]

Are you trying to run the CPAP overnight or just through a short power failure?

Would a UPS, an Uninterruptible (AC) Power Supply, work in your scenario?

A UPS's run-time depends on a number of factors. Even best case it likely won't work all night but might see you through shorter outages, possibly up to couple of hours, depending on the UPS and your CPAP.

There's a bit of discussion at What's It Like When The Power Goes Out? Battery Backup (UPS)?, UPS back-up for a CPAP machine and others.

Good luck.

[Evpraxia]

Yeah that would be bad. I expect ill probably wake up to that this winter. But when its supposed to get really bad here wife and I will move from bedroom to the living room cuz the power will usually go out.

That puts us in the fold out bed which aint bad to sleep on, in the same room with the wood stove which is what we heat with.

Ill have the generator gassed up and ready on the covered porch and in about five minutes be running both machines off of it. Surge protector is all we need between the genset and the PRS1 machines. According to the tech at Respirionics anyway.

We lose power in bad winters for weeks at a time along with most everything else around here. Batteries wont cut it for that long.
And during the day we can run the fridge and the freezer off the genset for few hours each to keep everything perishable from going kaput. We have just packed cold store stuff in snow but then you have to fight the critters off it. Coyotes love venison and such lol. She cooks on the wood burner during such times or a little propane camp stove so thats not an issue.
About 15 to 20 gal of stabil treated gas should handle any extended outages we have until the roads get cleared enough for the old 4x4 to get me out to get more. Probably be more than enough.

Sounds like you are ready. Glad you will be able to stay warm AND XPAP'ed. While we don't lose power for that long (a day is the most so far, since 2006 in our current home) we heat with propane. We move out to the living room on a hide-a-bed during a power outage OR when it gets really cold in the bedroom, as in below 50 degrees F.

Oh, I should check to see if there is a low temperature limit to RUN an APAP, hummmm...

[Evpraxia]

Are you trying to run the CPAP overnight or just through a short power failure?

Would a UPS, an Uninterruptible (AC) Power Supply, work in your scenario?

A UPS's run-time depends on a number of factors. Even best case it likely won't work all night but might see you through shorter outages, possibly up to couple of hours, depending on the UPS and your CPAP.

There's a bit of discussion at What's It Like When The Power Goes Out? Battery Backup (UPS)?, UPS back-up for a CPAP machine and others.

Good luck.

Thanks for the link - I am very interested as well.

[PaulaO2]

Our power went out the other night, too. Just for an hour or so. But with the S9, as soon as it goes off, I am awake. There is no air at all. With my S7, I slept through a power outage until the snoring woke me up. Not with this! Can't breathe!

After a financial hurdle it crossed this week, a battery backup system is one of our top five priorities. They're predicting a cold, wet winter for us and I plan on surviving it.