UPS backup for power outages

For those of you who use UPS backups in case of power outage, what kind do you use? I told someone else that people used those, and he said it wasn't possible since CPAPs draw too much power, and since those backups sound an alarm the entire time the power is out.

What do you use that has enough power for the CPAP, and doesn't alarm (or has an alarm that can be turned off)?

Thanks.

A good UPS will power a XPAP, just fine although it's not a long lasting solution, most power outages are short. The best part about a good UPS, is it's ability to condition the power, it's a safety net to protect the machine.

I have a APC Back-up 1250 NS, about $135 to $150, it will hold one of my computer systems and XPAP for about 15 minutes.

To run without power, you need the biggest deep charge battery you can get and a slow charger made for it. Then you get four nights of power. That gives you four days to build a generator., before your mind turns to jelly. Jim

Most power problems here are repaired in two hours.

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CollegeGirl wrote:I told someone else that people used those, and he said it wasn't possible since CPAPs draw too much power

The newer CPAP units will draw around a 100W or so of energy when they are not running a humidifier. It is fairly straight forward to support st least a few hours of operation at this power level with moderately priced UPS.

If you need humdification, the power need (Watts) goes up substantially, so the time the UPS will support operation goes down.

You need to figure out what sort of power outage ypou wan to be "protected" against, and form there you can go on to decide what sort of UPS might be useful for you.

In all but the most basic UPSs, any "alarms" can usually be disabled through configuration options on the UPS.

Cheers,

Bill

I am in the process of getting myself a power backup system. As stated above, first you need to determine what type of power outage you wish to protect against. A typical computer UPS will get you thru 2 to 3 hours; a deep cycle battery will get you thru 2 to 4 days; a fuel powered generator can get you thru weeks, months, or years depending on your access to the generator fuel (water, wind, sun, gasoline, diesel, propane, butane, methane, coal, wood, whale oil, elephant dung, nookyular, etc.).

Also as stated above, if you plan to use "heated" humidifier, your backup power will be significantly affected ... so plan on using pass-over humidification unless you go for the fueled power generator..

I have opted for the deep cycle battery system. Requirements include:

1) a 12 volt DC converter (available thru CPAP.com ... $90) or -- to use "heated" humidifier, a "pure" sine wave inverter (200 to 300 watt minimum rating ... $140 to $170)
2) an AGM type 12 volt, 75 amp-hour deep cycle battery (Optima DT31 ... $200)
3) an electronic 12 volt battery charger capable of trickle/floating charge ($60 to $80)

EDITED: 11/18/2006

Just thought I would add a link that billbolton provided in another thread related to ResMed S8 machines ...

http://www.cpapaustralia.com.au/articles.php?article=23

OK here's a thought...
I live near Niagara Falls which is near Buffalo, NY where we just went through the "Surprise October Storm" (I hate that name... the media won't let it go) which really wasn't a big surprise but what it DID was a surprise. The trees still had all their leaves and when several inches of the wettest snow you've ever seen fell on those trees, they broke. Like... I think estimates now are that about 80% of the trees are so damaged they won't survive.

Anyways.... MASSIVE power outage. Some folks without power for WEEKS.

I have a generator. Hey I live out in the country where generators and chainsaws are as common as bread and milk. Generators require gasoline.... or do they?

Did you know that you can convert just about any gasoline-powered generator to run on natural gas and/or propane? So easy that if you can change a spark plug you could install the kit to do this. It's a bolt on kit that requires no other modification. It allows your generator to run on gasoline, propane, or natural gas. A tri-fuel generator.

Run a natural gas line to an exterior point on your house and install a quick connect coupler. Now your generator will run for as long as you have it connected to natural gas (or propane) and you don't have to go hunt down a gas station and fill gas cans.

Gasoline has a surprisingly short "shelf life" and generators that don't get used often frequently won't start when they ARE needed because the fuel systems are gummed up from old gas sitting in them. With Natural Gas or Propane this is no longer an issue.

Engines under 12HP run great on propane or natural gas. On propane, a 20 pound propane tank (think gas grill) will run the generator about as long as 5 gallons of gasoline.

Those big, automatic, whole-house generators cost several thousand dollars. With a relatively inexpensive portable generator and a tri-fuel conversion kit, your generator is still portable but now you can power your cpap as well as a few other things (depending on how big a generator you get).

With the money you spend on a big deep cycle marine battery, a charger, and possibly a pure sine wave inverter (only safe way to run that heasted humidifier... a regular computer UPS would damage teh heater) this is at least worth a look.

I already HAVE a 5,000 watt generator. I'm converting mine to tri-fuel as I saw a few of them running through this power outage and they were wonderful.

for more info (I am NOT affiliated with this company in any way) go to:

http://www.propane-generators.com

Like I said... may not be for everyone, but it's worth a look as another option.

UPS backups are for brief power outages. They enable you to safely turn off any critical equipment , computers, servers, etc. to protect your information and systems. They only have small batteries, most batteries for the performance we need to get thru the night are larger than the whole UPS unit.

For those concerned about wave form, the smaller UPS units are generally square/stepped wave, the more costly units ($500+) are sine wave.

For those that really want a backup system, they need to consider the fact that they may need to power more than just their cpap machine.

You can buy inverters (modified or sine wave) that have built in automatic battery chargers and switching that do exactly what the UPS does. They can be had that will power your critical equipment or your whole house.

I power my whole house with one, my tv, home theater, desk top & laptop computers, cpap machine, toaster, drills, skill saw, bench saw, compressor, with a Xantrex DR 2424. It is a 2400watt unit that surges to 8000watts and is modified sine wave. It has powered my Remstar Pro and humidifier from May 2005 with no problems. I have a smaller modified sine wave unit that I power both the cpap and humifier in the truck when I have to be out overnight.

So it comes down to do you want to breathe or not? A few hours we can just stay awake but what happens when its longer? The UPS wont do it!

I realize that the cost may be a hurdle for some but the 2400watt inverter can be had for $900 to $1000, 8 golf cart batteries $350, plus having it wired in can provide you real backup that would include your refrigerator, lights, etc. for 3 or 4 days!

Just a few thoughts, I have lived with this equipment since 1995 and have smiled thru the ice storms and the power outages the many suffered thru, you have the means to protect yourself!

Charlie

An added thought about generators, they are lousy bed mates! But you can use that 5000watt generator to recharge your batteries thru the inverter and then you wouldnt have to listen to the the generator. Plus you would effectively use the fuel you're burning instead of wasting it powering a small load.

I use a diesel generator (made out of Rabbit diesel car) for the few times that my solar panels and wind generator need help.

I all depends on what you want!

AltPwrPuffer-

HEY! Sounds like you're off the grid! Seriously... sounds like you have quite the alternate power setup. I'm VERY interested in this stuff. If you have time and inclination to share some details perhaps we could take this to PM and email or something if the group as a whole is not interested.

I'm interested in what kind of solar panels you have and stuff like that. This goes along with my quest to find alternative building materials for house building that use far less lumber and yet are still affordable (ideally, MORE affordable) than current new builds.

If one were going to spend that kind of money, why wouldn't they just drop the $400 for the real thing?

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/respir ... -pack.html

Heck, at the price it looks to cost to put together your own power source, one could buy several.

I guess if you're so attached to your humidifier that you were willing to spend that much money and go to that much trouble just to make sure you didn't have to sleep without it for a night, well - I guess that would make sense.

Otherwise, why would you do that? Or is this just a guy thing that I really don't understand?

--CG

CollegeGirl wrote:If one were going to spend that kind of money, why wouldn't they just drop the $400 for the real thing?

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/respir ... -pack.html

Heck, at the price it looks to cost to put together your own power source, one could buy several.

I guess if you're so attached to your humidifier that you were willing to spend that much money and go to that much trouble just to make sure you didn't have to sleep without it for a night, well - I guess that would make sense.

Otherwise, why would you do that? Or is this just a guy thing that I really don't understand?

--CG

For about $50 more than the price of the $400 Lithium setup you have linked to ... you can rig your own setup to run a machine with heated humidifier for twice as long.

The Lithium rig looks like a good option for light weight transport needs such as overnite camping in remote locations.

- r

CG - -
There is a device we can buy called the Kill A Watt P3.

I bought one to check on electrical consumption and put this on both of our
Respironics Auto BiPAPs

EDIT: power off, just lights on is 7 watts.

Fan only, no heater the highest either unit ran was 16-19 watts.

HH and Fan, the highest I saw was 63 watts.

That said, I did not sit there for an hour, but I would think when we first turn the heater on, the power surge would been then, not an hour later.

IF you really wanted to fudge with a UPS, pretend it is like a 75 watt bulb.
Also, the two units fluctuated in power consumption. Fan only and HH bounced from about 44 watts as high as 63. So you might consider it similar to a 50 watt bulb. The power readings were never steady.

Hope that helps...

Oh yeah, the unit costs as low as $22 on the internet, with shipping mine was about $27. It has sure settled some disagreements about power usage around the house. (I AM the typical..."Shut the door, were you born in a barn" dad.)

50 watts x 8 hours = 400 watrs a day x 30 days = 12000 watts/12kw and multiply it times your local power costs per KWH. Seventeen cents x12 out here so I pay roughly $2 a month to run my unit, or $4 or so a month for both of our units. I agree with you, a UPS to run this would not cost a fortune and it would ensure a good nights sleep.

Thanks mam, good idea. I have a ups from 5 years ago, replace the battery and I should be ready to go. I also have two power surge protectors on the units. A cheap one and a GOOD one sold by my local utility company.
Their engineers told me the cheap UPS's will not protect from power surges.

If you want REAL protection, they install a unit between your power meter and the house, sell you extension cords that will protect your phones and appliances. Cost? $600+ about 1997. It was a business expense at the time, but worth it.

Plan B for losing power at night for us is to put a light bulb in our Casablanca overhead fan. The light bulb comes on to tell us we just got power back. I can set it to just glow or it can be a full 75 watts which wakes us up.

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If you can do without a humidifier, just get a deep cycle marine battery, the 12 volt power cord for your machine, hook it to the battery and sleep all week or more. Then just use a small 10 amp battery charger to recharge it and you're ready to go again.

This thing on the end of my face goes into major stuffed mode unless I use my humidifier in lets try and drown the guy mode! The humidifier on the Remstar Pro was run on 5 until I started using the F&P HC100 which I have set at just above half and it provides what I need. More Power!

I would love to not have to use a humidifier!

It all depends on what you want and what you need.

dllfo wrote:HH and Fan, the highest I saw was 63 watts.

That's not really information without knowing what pressure and altitude setting your xPAP unit was running at, as these can make a significant difference to power consumption.

Cheers,

Bill

CG, Love the new avatar. Which # was this one? They were all good.