No worries about power outages!

I have read so many posts on these boards about folks worried about suffocating during a power outage while wearing their masks. Well, last night, I found out for myself that there is no way I would ever sleep through a power outage and suffocate. We had a major thunderstorm and out power went out. I sat up in confusion for a second, trying to figure out what was wrong, and realized right away that my (beloved!) bipap was not blowing any air....and then realized that all of the power was out. I just took off my mask and untaped my mouth.....and then lay there, wondering how in the world I was going to get any sleep. I used my cell to phone to figure out what time it was and realized that I still had 3 hours until I had to get up for work. Grrr.....

Luckily, the power came back on an hour later and I re-taped and masked back up and snoozed until morning! By the way, I was wondering how long it took me to wake up when the power first went out. So, I checked my usage for last night and figured out based on the total time that I woke up immediately when the power went out.

Another worry checked off the list!

This happened to me a few weeks ago, but for me the power was out for only a few minutes. I woke up straightaway, looked at my machine and realized that it was not on. Before I even undid my mask I heard a beep, and it started blowing again.

Good for you - crossing that worry off your list!

AND thanks for sharing!

You have saved many new cpap users a lot of unneccesary worry as well!!

It's a nice feeling to know you will wake up!

You may want to look into a battery backup sometime down the road for long power outages so that you won't be sitting up all night or sleeping for most of the night without cpap.

I don't use my battery often but I have used it maybe 3 times and am so glad I invested it it.

No rush but something to think about.

So what do you use as a battery backup??

I would be interested in the brand and type.

I have two UPS for my computer equipment, but they both start beeping as soon as the power goes out with no option for turning it off.

Might keep my CPAP running, but the beeping is loud enough to prevent going back to sleep.

I just have the Respironics Battery pack available from cpap.com. I have had it for a number of years and only used it 3 times but each time I was glad I had it! It's simple and easy to use. I can set it up in minutes, should the power go out in the night, and sleep the rest of the night on battery powered cpap.

On the advice of a forum member, I try to remember to top up the charge every month or so.

wjp wrote:So what do you use as a battery backup??

UPS won't work.
Here's one lead: viewtopic/t51591/viewtopic.php?p=472879#p472879. This is what I use but there are other options. AND be careful when considering heated humidifiers; don't use with my Duracell option.

Just a note about power outages.I do not know about other states but here in Florida we can get put on a list of homes that have priority for restoring power during an outage. We would be put behind hospitals and nursing homes but still priority. There is paperwork that needs to be signed by the doctor and then sent to the power company.

Laura

I use a jump pack and a 12V adapter... Gets me through the night, which is all I've tried. Your results will vary depending on the quality and age of the jump pack (mine's old). I turn off the humidifier...

I run only my cpap with mine and use the humidifier in passover mode. I think it will give me 3 nights of power for the cpap only. Haven't checked that out in a while since I have only needed it for 1 night at any given power outage.

I live in the Pacific Northwest and will lose power maybe one a year for a short period.
We did lose power one time due to a snow and ice storm for about a week. I was not on CPAP at that time. We live in the country so I purchased a Honda generator 2000 watt because I need power where there is none, we use it for camping also. I did use it one night when we lost power for 3 hours, it work great, cost $1000.00 but I do use it for other things.

I have backup power (PowerSource 400...they seem to be hard to find now, I was looking at getting another...)

I wake up when the power goes out...but that's not the (big) problem. The problem is how do I go back to sleep with the power still out. My PowerSource 400 has worked well....I was able to get some sleep when power was out for ~6 hours due to a thunderstorm. Happened twice last summer.

Power coming back on also wakes me up....

I need to get quieter UPSs for the rest of my stuff....

The Dreamer.

That's another thing about the Respironics Battery pack If the power comes back on while I am sleeping with the machine on the battery, I am not wakened because the machine is plugged into the battery with it's DC cable and not into the wall outlet.