Nothing to do with guitars, but still.........

[RBSinTo]

A good friend uses a CPAP machine, and is convinced  that if the power was to go off through the night, that she would die.

This is especially concerning for her as she often visits her mother who lives in another city where power failures are common.

This got me thinking about and researching emergency electric power supplies. 

Ideally a device that plugs into an electrical outlet and so is always fully charged, but only would automatically provide current if there was a power failure,

and has an outlet into which the CPAP machine could be plugged is what I'm looking for.

In other words the power pack is really only an extension cord from the wall outlet to the CPAP until there is a power failure and then is a power source itself.

So far I've not been able to find anything like this, but only emergency generators that are gasoline powered ( so can't even be used indoors).

Just wondering if anyone here knows of such a device (if it even exists)?

Please and thanks.

RBSinTo 

 

[Larsongs]

I don’t know about that but on the News this morning in Calif. they are asking People to not plug in their Electric Cars due to the Heatwave we are experiencing.. 

[gearbasher]

How about a computer UPS? They're a little bulky, but have gotten smaller.

[DanvillRob]

15 minutes ago, RBSinTo said:

A good friend uses a CPAP machine, and is convinced  that if the power was to go off through the night, that she would die.

This is especially concerning for her as she often visits her mother who lives in another city where power failures are common.

This got me thinking about and researching emergency electric power supplies. 

Ideally a device that plugs into an electrical outlet and so is always fully charged, but only would automatically provide current if there was a power failure,

and has an outlet into which the CPAP machine could be plugged is what I'm looking for.

In other words the power pack is really only an extension cord from the wall outlet to the CPAP until there is a power failure and then is a power source itself.

So far I've not been able to find anything like this, but only emergency generators that are gasoline powered ( so can't even be used indoors).

Just wondering if anyone here knows of such a device (if it even exists)?

Please and thanks.

RBSinTo 

 

I use a CPAP machine.... It can prevent someone from dying in the night from sleep apnea, but that is still a rare occurrence.  

It was explained to me that when you have an apnea occurrance, your brain wakes up even if you don't....and if you have multiple occurrences an hour every night, you don't get the REM sleep you need....so even if you get 6-7 hours of sleep, it's not as good a sleep as you get when you have uninterrupted REM sleep.

I tested at 14 apnea occurrences per hour before I started using a CPAP.   I now have less than 1 occurrences per hour.

And if the power went out..... I'd think the trapped stale inside the mask would wake me up...but wouldn't cause me to die.

[RBSinTo]

23 minutes ago, gearbasher said:

How about a computer UPS? They're a little bulky, but have gotten smaller.

gearbasher,

I don't know what you are referring to. What is a "computer UPS" please?

RBSinTo

[fortyearspickn]

RBS -  Hospitals spend million$  on redundant power back up systems.   But, from my third party knowledge and fading memory - those will not withstand major, long term outages.  That's why The Powers That Be Make sure to have 'roving' blackouts.  Here, 2 years ago we had an extended power grid crisis.  But the sectors that hospitals were on always got power.  If you lived in that sector (next door to a hospital)  you almost never lost power. 

UPS -- Uninterrupted Power Supply...  usually for IT stuff. 

[RBSinTo]

22 minutes ago, DanvillRob said:

I use a CPAP machine.... It can prevent someone from dying in the night from sleep apnea, but that is still a rare occurrence.  

It was explained to me that when you have an apnea occurrance, your brain wakes up even if you don't....and if you have multiple occurrences an hour every night, you don't get the REM sleep you need....so even if you get 6-7 hours of sleep, it's not as good a sleep as you get when you have uninterrupted REM sleep.

I tested at 14 apnea occurrences per hour before I started using a CPAP.   I now have less than 1 occurrences per hour.

And if the power went out..... I'd think the trapped stale inside the mask would wake me up...but wouldn't cause me to die.

DanvillRob,

I don't suffer from Apnea, and can't speak to the severity of our friend's problem, so I cannot offer an opinion on her fear, or what would or would not hsppen if she was subject to a power failure.

I'm just looking out for a friend and trying to find an emergency power pack with specific perameters that will allay her fears. Nothing more.

RBSinTo

[RBSinTo]

5 minutes ago, fortyearspickn said:

RBS -  Hospitals spend million$  on redundant power back up systems.   But, from my third party knowledge and fading memory - those will not withstand major, long term outages.  That's why The Powers That Be Make sure to have 'roving' blackouts.  Here, 2 years ago we had an extended power grid crisis.  But the sectors that hospitals were on always got power.  If you lived in that sector (next door to a hospital)  you almost never lost power. 

UPS -- Uninterrupted Power Supply...  usually for IT stuff. 

fyp.,

Thanks for the definition.

I'll check those out. Maybe something will match the specs. I am seeking.

RBSinTo

[RBSinTo]

51 minutes ago, Larsongs said:

I don’t know about that but on the News this morning in Calif. they are asking People to not plug in their Electric Cars due to the Heatwave we are experiencing.. 

Larsongs,

And I don't know about that because I live in Toronto, but I saw in the local supermarket flyer that Peanut Butter is on sale this week.

RBSinTo

[Whitefang]

I used to worry about that kind of thing when I was caring for my wife at home(an invalid stroke victim) and was being tube fed with the aid of a pump that ran on electricity and plugged into the wall.   It turned out that the pump also contained an internal battery that would keep charged from it being plugged into the wall and would automatically kick in when the power went off.  I'm surprised a CPAP machine, even more vital than a liquid food pump( since I had the option of manually pushing the Jevity through the peg-tube) wouldn't be set up in a similar fashion.  Check with the company that makes her machine to see if they do have one equipped that way.

Whitefang

[DanvillRob]

16 minutes ago, RBSinTo said:

DanvillRob,

I don't suffer from Apnea, and can't speak to the severity of our friend's problem, so I cannot offer an opinion on her fear, or what would or would not hsppen if she was subject to a power failure.

I'm just looking out for a friend and trying to find an emergency power pack with specific perameters that will allay her fears. Nothing more.

RBSinTo

RBSinTo, we have a 22kW home generator that powers on immediately if there's a power outage.   22kW  will power all the A/C units and all the refrigerators we have plus everything else in the house.

Remember, we live in California where the 'leaders' mandate 100% electric vehicles by 2035, (13 years from now), and tell people there isn't enough available electricity to charge the EV's in the same month!

[badbluesplayer]

Inverters are inexpensive and cool.  They run off your DC battery - like your car battery - and put out AC.  You could go sleep in the car and plug your CPAP into the cigarette lighter, lol...

[badbluesplayer]

43 minutes ago, DanvillRob said:

RBSinTo, we have a 22kW home generator that powers on immediately if there's a power outage.   22kW  will power all the A/C units and all the refrigerators we have plus everything else in the house.

Remember, we live in California where the 'leaders' mandate 100% electric vehicles by 2035, (13 years from now), and tell people there isn't enough available electricity to charge the EV's in the same month!

How much do those full-house generators cost, roughly.  I have a small generator that'll run most of the stuff but not the AC or water heater.  I hardly ever have to use it, but it's not easy to hook up when the power's out and I have to pull the thing out and get it all set up.

[NighthawkChris]

UPS is ok but they aren’t meant to run long-term. A CPAP has motor stuff going on for pumps or whatever… don’t know much but I hear it doing something with the water my wife adds to hers. 

A UPS is great for “interrupted” power - not to drain or standalone for hours. It takes a long time to charge them too if it has any real capacity to manage a server for instance. 

I run a UPS on my home workstation that serves the family. It is great when we get those times that the power lines outside the home stop delivering electricity for those brief moments - brief being long enough to shut down anything in the house plugged in the wall. I just need a few minutes for the PC to realize that the battery is in use and shut down gracefully when I get to say 80-70%. I don’t like getting down to low charge state - say 10-20%. 

$200 gets me a 1500VA UPS. If I drained it to 0% with my PC that consumes about 80W give or take, I don’t get that long to run really… obviously the more you use a PC the wattage goes up. But how much power does the CPAP draw is the first question to answer before identifying the solution. You need something that can deliver the power for X hours for the most robust solution. 

[DanvillRob]

4 minutes ago, badbluesplayer said:

How much do those full-house generators cost, roughly.  I have a small generator that'll run most of the stuff but not the AC or water heater.  I hardly ever have to use it, but it's not easy to hook up when the power's out and I have to pull the thing out and get it all set up.

I've had mine for a few years.....but a friend just put one in....think it was just over $17K.

The generator itself is only like $5500.

[RBSinTo]

Thanks for the quick replies and (mostly) good advice.

I passed along the information to our friend and she will both take her machine to a computer store and check out their UPS to see if one is compatible and will work with it in emergency situations, as well as contacting the manufacturer of her machine about an upgrade to a model with the emergency back-up built in.

With luck one of these solutions will work for her and allay her fears.

Again, thanks.

RBSinTo

[kidblast]

4 hours ago, Larsongs said:

I don’t know about that but on the News this morning in Calif. they are asking People to not plug in their Electric Cars due to the Heatwave we are experiencing.. 

so says the state planning to put a ban gas powered cars...  That place is like a huge birds nest being run by chickadees.   🤪

but I digress....

She must have sleep apnea pretty bad to be worried about dying.  and I mean EPICALLY bad.

My son was tested, and he hit the higher end of the spectrum (bad)..  he has a cpap machine but the face mask is a constant struggle for him, when it's working it works good,, when it's not,,... 

anyway, you'd think if that was a real "risk" they'd have them setup with built in UPCs??

[RBSinTo]

33 minutes ago, kidblast said:

so says the state planning to put a ban gas powered cars...  That place is like a huge birds nest being run by chickadees.   🤪

but I digress....

She must have sleep apnea pretty bad to be worried about dying.  and I mean EPICALLY bad.

My son was tested, and he hit the higher end of the spectrum (bad)..  he has a cpap machine but the face mask is a constant struggle for him, when it's working it works good,, when it's not,,... 

anyway, you'd think if that was a real "risk" they'd have them setup with built in UPCs??

kidblast,

I don't have first-hand knowledge of the severity of her symptoms, but if she believes it to be a possibility which can be assuaged by spending some money, then I'm all in favour of her getting either an upgraded CPAP, or a UPS.

RBSinTo

[kidblast]

11 minutes ago, RBSinTo said:

kidblast,

I don't have first-hand knowledge of the severity of her symptoms, but if she believes it to be a possibility which can be assuaged by spending some money, then I'm all in favour of her getting either an upgraded CPAP, or a UPS.

RBSinTo

Yea,  definitely something has to be available to help her out.

Sleep Apnea is no joke.  it's amazing the mess it can create for ones health.

[Murph]

The new "Power Nazis" will shut down power to certain areas anytime they see fit.

Some of you voted for this...

[CROWB8]

9 hours ago, RBSinTo said:

A good friend uses a CPAP machine, and is convinced  that if the power was to go off through the night, that she would die.

This is especially concerning for her as she often visits her mother who lives in another city where power failures are common.

This got me thinking about and researching emergency electric power supplies. 

Ideally a device that plugs into an electrical outlet and so is always fully charged, but only would automatically provide current if there was a power failure,

and has an outlet into which the CPAP machine could be plugged is what I'm looking for.

In other words the power pack is really only an extension cord from the wall outlet to the CPAP until there is a power failure and then is a power source itself.

So far I've not been able to find anything like this, but only emergency generators that are gasoline powered ( so can't even be used indoors).

Just wondering if anyone here knows of such a device (if it even exists)?

Please and thanks.

RBSinTo 

 

I use an oxy concentrator 24/7 or carry a portable. Not exactly the same but should be simular in this respect;

In the interum,

There should be a fault alarm that goes off when power is inerupted. It is very loud. Should waker her up. To test, simply unplug when in use.

That gives the user the ability to make emg contact.

Hope that helps somewhat.

--------

To my understanding.

CPAP is used typically only when sleeping.  When awake, a person breathes fine. So if one is awoken from sleep, they should be able to help themselves. So if the CPAP machine doesn't have a fault alarm, and the person is otherwise fine when awake, then maybe a power interuption alarm of some sort might be an easier solution to accomplish.

Edited September 8, 2022 by CROWB8

[Larsongs]

11 hours ago, RBSinTo said:

Larsongs,

And I don't know about that because I live in Toronto, but I saw in the local supermarket flyer that Peanut Butter is on sale this week.

RBSinTo

Glad you got cheap Peanut Butter.. What the heck is RBS? 

[ksdaddy]

8 hours ago, Larsongs said:

Glad you got cheap Peanut Butter.. What the heck is RBS? 

Ruth Bader…. No, that’s not it…

[gdecantoo]

12 hours ago, Murph said:

The new "Power Nazis" will shut down power to certain areas anytime they see fit.

Some of you voted for this...

Just like the water nazis. Damn them! How dare they ask people to conserve water because you know there is a never ending supply of potable water. I always vote for the ones that can promise me never ending utilities! I really didn’t know people voted for utility companies.

People need to start using their heads. ADAPT! For example, when I buy my first electric car, I will buy the model with the biggest trunk so that I can mount my 5000 watt gas powered generator.😁

[RBSinTo]

9 hours ago, Larsongs said:

Glad you got cheap Peanut Butter.. What the heck is RBS? 

Larsongs,

"R", "B", and "S" are my initials. And I live in Toronto. 

 RBSinTo