S9 UPS solutions w/ home generator

I am new to CPAP stuff only being on the S9 Autoset for a week. We have terrible power problems out here in the country. Lots of flickers and surges as well as times we lose power for days, once even a week. I have a LP fueled generator outside that restores power within 30 seconds. So for just about everything in the house I have a UPS. I am not concerned with how long the UPS can backup power as its never needed for more then a minute. The generator does not power the entire house but I can easily drill a hole to the basement and plug just the S9 into a circuit backed up.

My question is what type of UPS should I have on the S9, again it ONLY needs to power it until the generator kicks on. Would prefer something that does not beep when power is cut.

Thanks in advance.

Cuda wrote:I am new to CPAP stuff only being on the S9 Autoset for a week. We have terrible power problems out here in the country. Lots of flickers and surges as well as times we lose power for days, once even a week. I have a LP fueled generator outside that restores power within 30 seconds. So for just about everything in the house I have a UPS. I am not concerned with how long the UPS can backup power as its never needed for more then a minute. The generator does not power the entire house but I can easily drill a hole to the basement and plug just the S9 into a circuit backed up.

My question is what type of UPS should I have on the S9, again it ONLY needs to power it until the generator kicks on. Would prefer something that does not beep when power is cut.

Thanks in advance.

My advice would be to give it a try for a while with just your cpap and the backup generator. My guess is that you'll find there's very little benefit to adding a UPS into the mix.

The power-out alarm on the UPS will wake you up, anyway. It's possible you'll sleep right through a 30 second interruption until your generator kicks in.

I guess I never tried cutting power to the S9, I just assumed that when the power was restored the system would be off waking me up to turn it back on.

Also, some nights the power goes out for a second or two a few hundred times an hour. I have to use UPS systems everywhere to simply level out the power more than provide long term backup.

I would give the UPS a try.

Check this:

viewtopic/t57663/ResMed-S9-and-external ... upply.html

Interesting question, Cuda.

I'm adding this topic to...

LINKS to Battery operation, camping, power outage
viewtopic.php?t=9682

Cuda wrote: Also, some nights the power goes out for a second or two a few hundred times an hour. I have to use UPS systems everywhere to simply level out the power more than provide long term backup.

I think this is interesting. Made me wonder if the power supply to the S9 would take care of fluctuations in voltage and protect the S9 itself? One day a few weeks ago a motorist struck a telephone pole down the street from where I live and my power was interrupted twice in the space of a few minutes, cutting and coming back on within 30 seconds each time. I thought of my S9 and went to unplug it in case the power cut again, but it made me wonder how sensitive it could be to such occurrences, if the S9 were to have to reboot several times in a few minutes.

I wasn't concerned for my a/v equipment as it is all plugged into UPSes but my S9 (at the moment) is plugged directly into a wall outlet.

All equipment with electronic parts is susceptible to damage from surges and spikes--and those can be caused by lots of things... I doubt that the S9's power supply has much in the way of surge/spike suppression circuitry; but, that would be a good questions to email Resmed. Otherwise, if you are not going to run it off a UPS system of some kind, an investment in a $30 surge/spike suppressor power strip (make sure it has a light to indicate the circuitry is still working) would be wise.

Some gadgets get confused by short power outages and don't "reset" properly. If it really takes around 30 seconds for the generator to turn on, most gadgets will restart gracefully, but I haven't experimented with the S9 in particular.

Interestingly enough, on the PRS1 Auto, if the power goes out for a short time, it will start blowing immediately when power comes back if the power has only been off for a short time. (If the machine was on when power went off.) If power is off for a longer period of time, it will NOT start back up automatically. I forget how long the power has to be off before it doesn't restart, but I think it's something around 5 minutes. I think the PRS1 will restart if you have autostart turned on and breathe into it.

You might want to experiment with the S9 if it matters to you.

Note that S8 humidifiers may have problems with UPSs or even some generators. More and more generators have inverters to generate 120VAC and may have MSW waveforms. S9 humidifiers are MSW safe. I haven't found an official statement from Respironics on their machines.

moresleep wrote:I doubt that the S9's power supply has much in the way of surge/spike suppression circuitry

I doubt that it doesn't have it..... Resmed has been building medical equipment for global use for a long time now.

Cheers,

Bill

billbolton wrote:

moresleep wrote:I doubt that the S9's power supply has much in the way of surge/spike suppression circuitry

I doubt that it doesn't have it..... Resmed has been building medical equipment for global use for a long time now.

Cheers,

Bill

I'd be surprised if the power supply of any Cpap, of whatever price or manufacturer, has more than basic spike suppression circuitry. They are unlikely to spend the money or weight on it. And, unless you know for sure, why risk it? A power strip with with reasonable spike/surge suppression is not that expensive. Get one with indicators to tell you that the suppression circuitry is still working, as involved components tend to blow out... Pay at least mid-price from a name you recognize. Note that this is still a far cry from a real line conditioner.

Hi Cuda,
With such unreliable power, I'd be seriously looking to operate the machine on battery power all the time. Then the frequent power outages would only be disrupting the charging circuitry which is less critical.

And depending on the humidity levels there...if you could get used to a passover level of humidification...or even add a second humidifier so that you didn't have to run a "heated" humidifier, you would reduce the current draw from the cpap considerably.

Your electrical reliability (or lack thereof) reminds me of when I lived in rural SE Iowa. Outages all the time.
Jamis

Given that you have already invested in a costly LP stand-by generator and a multitude of UPSs around the house, it should not be a stretch to spend another $100-$150 for a solution that will give you complete peace of mind. If you obtain a pure sine wave UPS, place it in the basement so the alarm doesn't wake you up (many UPSs are auto-resetting), and hook up both your CPAP and the humidifier to it, it will serve as a full-time power-line conditioner and will guarantee clean power to your sensitive equipment at all times - from short brown-outs to long outages. You might be able to get by without it, or with a lesser solution, but why take a chance and waste time experimenting?
McSleepy

Cuda wrote:I am new to CPAP stuff only being on the S9 Autoset for a week. We have terrible power problems out here in the country. Lots of flickers and surges as well as times we lose power for days, once even a week. I have a LP fueled generator outside that restores power within 30 seconds. So for just about everything in the house I have a UPS. I am not concerned with how long the UPS can backup power as its never needed for more then a minute. The generator does not power the entire house but I can easily drill a hole to the basement and plug just the S9 into a circuit backed up.

My question is what type of UPS should I have on the S9, again it ONLY needs to power it until the generator kicks on. Would prefer something that does not beep when power is cut.

Thanks in advance.

Does the Resmed 12-volt adapter power both the S9 Cpap and the humidifer? If so, I think I would get the 12 volt adapter, and power the machine and humidifier through that using an 80 AH or larger 12 volt AGP deep cycle battery, charged by a Battery Tender Plus. That way, your generator would keep the battery charged; but, even without the generator, you'd have several days of run time. Anyway, an alternative to consider...

moresleep wrote:Does the Resmed 12-volt adapter power both the S9 Cpap and the humidifer?

Yes for the S9 series, I believe. I think the answer is "No" for S8. And it's a different adapter as well.

[edit 2/25/2013 - Change "No" for S9 to "No" for S8]

billbolton wrote:

moresleep wrote:I doubt that the S9's power supply has much in the way of surge/spike suppression circuitry

I doubt that it doesn't have it..... Resmed has been building medical equipment for global use for a long time now.

Cheers,

Bill

Even if it's not heavily "surge proof," a lot of these external power supplies are sort of "sacrificial" protection. A surge may damage the power supply brick, but it usually only damages the brick. It's a lot cheaper and easier to replace just the brick than to disassemble and service the machine.