Power outage weirdness

[lunaticds]

So, last night at 3.15am, the power went out.
At about the same time, I have a recollection of patting my cat as she'd curled up between me and the side of the bed. I recall thinking that it was really quiet.
I laid there for a while, and started to notice a faint beeping coming from the other end of the house (I have 3 industrial UPSes running some tech gear which beep when the power is off).

Then, the power came on - my bedroom lit up as the APAP machine came back to life, and a few LEDs on various things (tv, etc) all appeared. I noticed my chest was sore, and I had a headache that didn't feel like it just started.

I've concluded that the power went out and I kind of woke up enough to have some awareness and interact with the cat. I didn't have enough awareness to realise that I was still nose breathing, and trying to suck air through a powerless machine. The power coming back seems to have really woken me up, and I've finally realised that I'm sucking an abnormal amount of CO2. I recall when I fully woke up, and became aware of everything that I really was struggling to breathe. I could do it, but it required a fair bit of effort. When I became fully aware, the cat was exactly where I thought she was (which isn't a usual spot for her to sit), so I know that wasn't some unusual kind of dream.

Weird huh?

[trailrider]

Well, that must have been quite the unpleasant feeling! Now you are going to think abut this every night for the next two weeks! Maybe a backup battery?

For me last night my husband came to bed late and I was sound asleep. He rubbed my hand to try to wake me. He said the machine was making a noise louder than usual. I mumbled, fixed the leak and went back. According to the data, I was in apnea then and the machine when 3 cms higher than my normal highs. No wonder the machine was straining more than usual! When he woke me, it all went back to normal. I think that was the first time he's ever seen me in an apnea state.

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Will the ICON let you plug in a battery and have it auto switch between AC and DC like the DeVillbiss does?

UPS systems are generally not recommended for CPAP as they are intended for short run times to allow graceful shutdown in the event of outage. For me, and I think many others on the list, power outage while wearing CPAP is an instant awake event. If not, then maybe a power loss alarm that will wake you and let you transition to some kind of battery for the remainder of the night?

For me, that means unplugging the AC power supply, plugging in a 35 AH 12 V battery, turning off the humidifier heat and going back to sleep. The battery will run me almost a week with plenty of safety reserve cushion. Some units, like the DeVillbiss, will let you leave both hooked up and it will just switch over to battery when AC power is lost and will quietly switch back over to AC when that power is restored. It will also automatically kill power to the humidifier heater when it jumps to the DC power (as that little heating plate really sucks down the power). That auto switch feature is one of the reasons that I think that the DeVillbiss Intellipap series is an often underrated PAP appliance in this community. It is not a sexy machine, but it has great features and is probably built tougher than any other out there (and has a five year warranty).

I wonder if some of the older ResMed units like the S-8 will do the same thing. That will be a homework assignment for another time.

OMMOHY

[PaulaO2]

You weren't breathing an abnormal amount of anything but regular air, just not enough of it. The mask has a vent. Air is exchanged through that. All you had to do was open your mouth or take off the mask. Even in your sleep you would have automatically one or both.

When the power goes off with my S9, I am awake immediately. I am ripping off the mask before I am even fully aware of what I am doing. I take off the mask while also breathing through my mouth. It's not because I am breathing too much CO2, but because I'm not getting enough air period.

[lunaticds]

UPS systems are generally not recommended for CPAP as they are intended for short run times to allow graceful shutdown in the event of outage. For me, and I think many others on the list, power outage while wearing CPAP is an instant awake event. If not, then maybe a power loss alarm that will wake you and let you transition to some kind of battery for the remainder of the night?

Hahaha, you definitely haven't seen the size (or volume) of the UPSes I own
I'm half inclined to use one on it; I just need to dig around and find something a little less industrial as the running noise is a little louder than the Icon when there is AC. Somewhere, hidden in a box is a small enough UPS to do the job. The incessant beeping under my bed should wake me up straight away.

The most unusual thing is that I'm really not a heavy sleeper, so it's quite bizarre that this occurred.

[lunaticds]

You weren't breathing an abnormal amount of anything but regular air, just not enough of it. The mask has a vent. Air is exchanged through that. All you had to do was open your mouth or take off the mask. Even in your sleep you would have automatically one or both.

The theory is good, but in practice, logic seems to have gone out the window when my brain wasn't even registering that I was struggling.

I've always found the concept of the air exchange to be a little off when it comes to the mask vents - if I take the hose off the machine and leave the mask on and exhale, it's not all exiting through that vent, so I'm not convinced that there isn't an increase in the CO2, given that at least some of it is escaping into the hose.
Again, the theory is good, and the vent served its purpose as I'd be long since dead if I spent those 15 minutes breathing nothing but CO2, but the fact that I wasn't fully asleep, and wasn't aware enough to even realise I had a problem does kind of indicate that the theory of just opening ones mouth or taking off the mask isn't fool proof, and whilst it's easy to say, it's not necessarily perfect in practice.

I can't even narrow it down to a medication as I've taken nothing this week that would account for that kind of thing.

[archangle]

Make sure your F&P Icon machine is compatible with the MSW waveform your UPS probably puts out. Some machines have problems, especially the heated humidifier.

[lunaticds]

Make sure your F&P Icon machine is compatible with the MSW waveform your UPS probably puts out. Some machines have problems, especially the heated humidifier.

All of the industrial units that I have are pure sine wave (all 5.3kva worth of em). The only one I don't know about is the small one I want to use (assuming I even still own it). Must find time to look and see.

[truetopath]

That must have been a crappy way to wake up. I'm lucky I live on a pretty stable power grid, so here's hoping I don't get that kind of wake up call. I do have a battery backup just in case though.

[lunaticds]

That must have been a crappy way to wake up. I'm lucky I live on a pretty stable power grid, so here's hoping I don't get that kind of wake up call. I do have a battery backup just in case though.

Wasn't great, but hopefully it's the first and last time that happens.
It's quite ironic - my power has been awesome for a few years, and as soon as I replace all my UPS batteries, we've gone through 2 outages in as many days. I've also just built my camping rig with a 100AH battery in it. Would rather not have that monster in the bedroom, but at least it'll be handy if we wind up with a long outage.

Now to work out why my AHI is creeping up!