Power Outages

[Greyfort]

We're expecting really high winds tonight and they said to expect some power outages.

What happens if there's a power outage in the middle of the night, while you're sleeping? Does the loss of power to the CPAP machine wake you up?

[CaptainRaven40]

Haven't had to deal with that yet and I don't have a battery back up. I would think you would wake up when it shuts off and your breathing changes drastically. You would be fine. It would just be a pain in the ass.

[nobody]

I wake up if the power cuts out. I have a battery and flashlight by my bed. I turn on the light, hook up the battery and go back to sleep.

[HairyReasoner]

Yep, it sure does wake you up. I just had that happen last night (we've lost power 6 times in the last 3 months, often at night). There's a flap in your mask that will open upon the loss of pressure to allow air from outside into your mask so you don't suffocate. However, it can seem a bit weird until the flap opens--it can feel a bit like you're a bit short on air. Of course it's the same feeling you have if you turn off your machine while your mask is on, but it is unexpected when it happens in the middle of the night. I usually reach up pretty quickly and start taking off my mask. I need to get a battery backup since I can't sleep without my bipap.

[Wulfman...]

We're expecting really high winds tonight and they said to expect some power outages.

What happens if there's a power outage in the middle of the night, while you're sleeping? Does the loss of power to the CPAP machine wake you up?

I've only had it happen a couple of times, but it actually did. The lack of air blowing in my face woke me up fairly quickly.
Even though we have pretty stable power here, and I've had somewhat more expensive UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply / battery backup) devices for years on my computers, a few months ago I was looking for some more for my CPAPs at Walmart and found a couple of different brands for pretty decent prices. One was a Cyber-Power and the other was an APC.


Den

.

[Greyfort]

Thanks. I kind of imagined, *sputter* *sputter* "What the heck?!" And then ripping the mask off. LOL