APC UPS for xPAP

Read string starting at the bottom for maximum understanding. I was VERY happy with the level of customer service fro APC re a UPS for xPAP.

Subject
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UPS for CPAP Sleep Apnea equipment


Response (John Holliday, APC) - 07/23/2010 04:10 PM
Dear Pat,

I am happy to hear that you will be able to use an APC product to help you sleep at night.

Nothing extra needed, the external battery will plug right into the back of the SMX750.

The SMX48RMBP2U optional external battery comes with the battery cable and all you will have to do is plug it into the back of the SMX750, no configuration or anything needs to be done. The SMX750 will auto detect it.

You will have to use the front panel display to disable the alarms though, as default they are enabled.

Customer (Pat O) - 07/23/2010 03:51 PM
Yes it will be used on 120 AC. Not life threatening, just annoying when I can't sleep and have to work the next day.

When stringing together two UPS units do I need an adapter or is there a place where I simply plug one into the other?

Response (John Holliday, APC) - 07/23/2010 03:26 PM
Dear Pat,

Thank you for the update.

I will assume this is going to be plugged into a standard 120 volt AC outlet and not into a larger 220 volt AC outlet. Please let me know if this is correct.

Yes the A does indicate Amps. So this is a 1 Amp device running on 120 volts AC should use a  use a maximum 120 watts for power.

Our smallest battery backup up unit that will be able to give you hours of on battery runtime will be the SMX750.

The SMX750 as is with just the internal battery will give you around 115 minutes of on battery runtime with a load of 120 watts. As suggested previously adding an additional external battery will increase the on battery runtime to
around 7 hours.

You can view the SMX48RMBP2U optional external battery on the web.

As a side note since your equipment is a breathing type device I must say that APC does not make any medical grade battery back up equipment. So if the CPAP machine is considered a life support machine then you should not use any APC battery back up equipment.

If this is a life support situation then I can give you a list of some of our resellers that can help you find battery back up equipment that can be used to back up life support type equipment.

Customer (Pat O) - 07/23/2010 02:21 PM
Thanks for responding.
Manual says AC consumption 100-240 VAC, 50/60 HZ, 1.0 A max

Does "A" mean Amps in that string?

Response (John Holliday, APC) - 07/23/2010 01:53 PM
Dear Pat,

Thank you for contacting APC's email support on 07/22/2010 11:55 PM. I would be happy to assist you.

In order to suggest a back up unit for you I will need to know the total watt load of the devices that you are going to connect to it.
You can usually find this information on labels on the back or bottom of the equipment.
For example it may read something like 45 watts or 3.5 amps 120 volts.

Once we have the total watt load then I can suggest a battery back up unit for you and we can also look at the on battery runtime you will get.

Most of the time when a very long on battery runtime is required you will need a back up unit that can accept additional external batteries connected to it. This is usually how you get longer on battery runtime.

On our new models you can disable the alarms right on the front LCD display.

If you do not all ready have it you can down load the Power Chute Personal Edition Software and use it to connect to the XS 900 you have now and you have a few alarm setting choices. These two should be what you are looking for, disable all alarms  and disable notification sounds.

You can download the Power Chute Personal Edition Software .

Note if you have never downloaded software from our web site before you will have to create a quick login first.

The battery back up units you usually see at retail stores like Best Buy and Staples are what we call the
Back-Up series units.  You will require what we call the Smart-Ups series unit.

Note there are a few Smart-Up series units that do not have the pure sine wave.
These Smart-Ups will have a model number starting with SC.
All the other Smart-Up series units like the SURT, SUA, SMT, SMX , SUM all output a pure sine wave when they
are running on battery back up.

You can view all the Smart-Ups on the web.

Again note the SC model numbers do NOT have the pure sine wave out put.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me by responding to this incident.
It would be my pleasure to ensure that your issue is quickly resolved!

Solutions to most common customer problems  can be found in our APC Knowledge Base which can be found on the web:
In the event that you require additional APC solutions, please check out the link to my personal APC Web Commerce page.

Customer (Pat O) - 07/22/2010 11:55 PM
Looked at APC units at Best Buy. Need SILENT UPS Backup for Sleep Apnea gear. Live in area with many power failures of 3-4 hours (Minneapolis suburb.) Saw APC units with cartons that say they cover only 30 minutes to 3 hours. If I only have one device (CPAP machine) plugged into system instead of many devices, do you have a unit that would give me 4-6 hours of UPS? Can that unit be made silent with Powershute software or another solution?

Read that UPS unit needs to work with sine wave CPAP machines. Your cartons don't tell me if they do. Do you know the answer?

Own APC XS 900 which I use with my computer gear. Can I make that one silent?

Thanks!  Pat O

I have Mac OSX Snow Leopard and Windows Vista computers.

can you pls post what yr CPAP is and the matching APC UPS number so that we can follow your footstep?

Please keep us posted... I am looking into one for the battery backup benefits but also because they have a lifetime warranty and will replace any equipment attached to their systems that is damaged due to power surges. I should remember how to configure one as I used to sell them but they're so different now.

I just ran the numbers for this unit connected to the S9 , ( which draws aprox. 133 watts) and this would give us aprox. 6.5 hours of run time if we add a third battery that would provide a little over 11 hours of run time. not a bad idea

Chris

Adding more battery it one thing, but taking two APC's to power your equiptment will result in burnout. You CAN"TCAN"T connect two A/C power providers to One load at the same time, the sine wave output will not be in sync. and they will be fighting with each other. "VERY BAD"

Also as stated all APC's aren't full wave, Full Wave is costly. Also APC's have a life span, the batteries aren't lifetime warranty. Jim

Jim
I think you over looked that he is only adding additional battery storage not an additional apc
I checked the web site nice looking over all but pricey

How did you measure the current draw of your machine? My machine (with no humidifier) draws about 12 watts on DC -- it would draw a tad more on 120VAC. 133 watts seems very high for a machine and humidifier.

KC5cychris wrote:Jim
I think you over looked that he is only adding additional battery storage not an additional apc
I checked the web site nice looking over all but pricey

This line is in the his first post. "When stringing together two UPS units do I need an adapter or is there a place where I simply plug one into the other?" Jim

bearded_two wrote:...it would draw a tad more on 120VAC. 133 watts seems very high for a machine and humidifier.

Since the standard 90W rated mains power adapter will run an S9 + H5i at maximum titration setting + maximum altitude adjustment + maximum humidification, its cleary not the actual current draw of the S9 + H5i..... possibly a suggested rating for an inverter, or something similar

The optional 30W rated mains power adapter will run an S9 at maximum titration setting + maximum altitude adjustment, so presumably the maximum H5i power draw is ~60W (or less)!

Cheers,

Bill

WHY can one not connect CPAP to Sine wave apc smart ups?

(or laser printers for that matter)

explain the prohibition of certain devices

pawod wrote: Note there are a few Smart-Up series units that do not have the pure sine wave.
These Smart-Ups will have a model number starting with SC.
All the other Smart-Up series units like the SURT, SUA, SMT, SMX , SUM all output a pure sine wave when they
are running on battery back up.

You can view all the Smart-Ups on the web.

Again note the SC model numbers do NOT have the pure sine wave out put.

powertrip wrote:WHY can one not connect CPAP to Sine wave apc smart ups?

(or laser printers for that matter)

explain the prohibition of certain devices

Where did you get the idea that CPAP won't connect to Sine wave APC smart UPS's?

The CPAP machine should be happy with it.

As for laser printers, I'd need a reference on that, too. It might draw too much power when the fuser is running, or maybe its power factor is too bad for some UPS's.

billbolton wrote:

bearded_two wrote:...it would draw a tad more on 120VAC. 133 watts seems very high for a machine and humidifier.

Since the standard 90W rated mains power adapter will run an S9 + H5i at maximum titration setting + maximum altitude adjustment + maximum humidification, its cleary not the actual current draw of the S9 + H5i..... possibly a suggested rating for an inverter, or something similar

The optional 30W rated mains power adapter will run an S9 at maximum titration setting + maximum altitude adjustment, so presumably the maximum H5i power draw is ~60W (or less)!

Cheers,

Bill

The "1A" rating is probably just a spec number chosen to give a worst case estimate for planning/safety purposes.

The peak draw may be 90W, but my S9 Autoset averages around 30 watts with 16 cmH2O and heated humidifier. No heated hose. I get around 10W without the humidifier heater turned on.

There's a link to the ResMed battery backup manual somewhere in my signature line links.
Those numbers are the AC power draw with the standard power brick.

archangle wrote:

powertrip wrote:WHY can one not connect CPAP to Sine wave apc smart ups?

(or laser printers for that matter)

explain the prohibition of certain devices

Where did you get the idea that CPAP won't connect to Sine wave APC smart UPS's?

The CPAP machine should be happy with it.

As for laser printers, I'd need a reference on that, too. It might draw too much power when the fuser is running, or maybe its power factor is too bad for some UPS's.

Decades ago laser printers used to be a huge power draw when their fuser lit up. I don't a $40 laser printer has enough electronics in it to have a problem.

The Resmed S9 (and FP and PR 560) power supply can cope with all Australian power conditions. That involves 250VAC with nominal rural spikes (which means peaks of 400V or so). Since the same power supply can cope with 90VAC, I don't think it would care what you feed it. If I had a spare, I would be tempted to hook it up to my 48VDC telco style power system and see if it was happy. A fake sine wave UPS would be cleaner than some of the single wire/ground return power to some of the rural farms. Some of the new inverters/ups are getting quite efficient.