No Audio alert on CPAP machines in power outages?

[dave21]

I haven't tried anything other than ResMed so it might just be a limitation of ResMed, but I know several people with BiPAP's and they seem to have a good audible alarms that sound if your power goes out.

I went through a spell of 6 months where I would wake up in the night and the power to the house had gone out either due to a power cut or due to the circuit breaker tripping. I would awake on my own but usually 30-40 mins after the power had gone out, I'd feel dizzy, disorientated probably due to the excess carbon dioxide not getting out of the mask quick enough and the reduced oxygen intake (and probably obstructive events occurring).

I also had a recent experience in a hotel where they notified you that all the corridor lighting would be out after midnight for essential work but said it wouldn't affect power or lighting in room, and awoke around 1am to find that I had no power to my CPAP because the corridor lighting seemed to be on the same ring main as the in-room power sockets

I guess some BiPAP's have this because the machines are larger and heavier and have some kind of backup battery internally to cater for this.

It would be good to get this technology into our CPAP's and APAP's providing it didn't increase the size or weight too much. We wouldn't want a backup battery that would still run the machine but a backup battery that's enough to sound a long beep to wake us up.

[SleepyInIndy]

First if all, if my home power was as unstable you indicate, I'd be inclined to get something like this: http://www.tiptemp.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=22438. This couldn't be good for your refigerator/freezer - - - don't ask me how I know.

If I wanted a more permanent solution, I would probably look into a power switch-over setup that would automatically change my CPAP from the mains to a battery backup. Or power the CPAP permanently off of batteries and charge the batterys during the daytime.

[dave21]

Thanks, didn't know these kind of devices existed. I think I'll see if I can buy one of these. It doesn't happen that often, not now anyway but it's very disconcerting when it does.

[dtsm]

In case you want to make your own backup, John did a great job here:
viewtopic/t49115/Battery-Backup-Design.html

[letchworth]

I followed the link provided earlier and discovered that our host carries the same unit $10. cheaper
https://www.cpap.com/productSearch.php?q=1&query=alarm

letchworth

[dave21]

I had a look on UK websites and the cheapest one I could find was £50 and looked a bit bulky not as good as the links above. I'll have to keep searching and see if I can find one.