Power Outages

Maxman190 wrote:I have a similar question to the OP, what do I do in a power outage that last for 2 weeks...? I was hit by Sandy, knocked my power out for 2 weeks and... my sleep was... needless to say, uncomfortable... Keep in mind that I don't have a car nor a driver's license.. lol.

That's going to be rough in your situation. An extended outage like that presents some real problems.

Battery backup only works if you have somewhere you can recharge the battery. They won't last 2 weeks. Some shelters might have power. So staying at a shelter or using shelter power to recharge a batter might be an option.
Portable generator if your residence situation would work might be an idea. For an extended outage even fuel will be an issue.
Go to a friend's/family member's house for a visit if they happen to have power and room for you to stay.
Motel....pricey. And a lot of others would likely have same idea.

If absolutely no power available and no way to recharge batteries (if you had battery backup) and absolutely no where to go..... we have the "sleep in a recliner semi upright or upright" thing. Not the most ideal of options but sleeping sort of upright (try not to let your head fall forward onto your neck) usually will reduce the amount of collapse of the airway tissues somewhat.

Pugsy wrote:

Maxman190 wrote:I have a similar question to the OP, what do I do in a power outage that last for 2 weeks...? I was hit by Sandy, knocked my power out for 2 weeks and... my sleep was... needless to say, uncomfortable... Keep in mind that I don't have a car nor a driver's license.. lol.

That's going to be rough in your situation. An extended outage like that presents some real problems.

Battery backup only works if you have somewhere you can recharge the battery. They won't last 2 weeks. Some shelters might have power. So staying at a shelter or using shelter power to recharge a batter might be an option.
Portable generator if your residence situation would work might be an idea. For an extended outage even fuel will be an issue.
Go to a friend's/family member's house for a visit if they happen to have power and room for you to stay.
Motel....pricey. And a lot of others would likely have same idea.

If absolutely no power available and no way to recharge batteries (if you had battery backup) and absolutely no where to go..... we have the "sleep in a recliner semi upright or upright" thing. Not the most ideal of options but sleeping sort of upright (try not to let your head fall forward onto your neck) usually will reduce the amount of collapse of the airway tissues somewhat.

I did the sleeping in a recliner, but my recliner isn't really stuffed with lot of stuffing, so it's hard and stuff. Did it for 2 nights and my whole neck was stiff and hurting, it just wasn't worth it... Also, it was like below freezing with no heat, so it was hard to stay warm in the chair... There was a charging station, but it was outside in the cold weather and I can't stay in the cold weather for hours waiting for my battery to charge... Also, the battery itself is expensive... After the outage, I checked that the government was issuing reimbursement for people who HAD to get portable generators for medical devices... Is my BiPap considered as a medical device?

Maxman190 wrote:After the outage, I checked that the government was issuing reimbursement for people who HAD to get portable generators for medical devices... Is my BiPap considered as a medical device?

It should be. It's a machine that helps you breathe at night when asleep. Check with them to make sure though. You never know what might be in the fine print of government regulations.
You would need to prepare a head of time. Portable generators are going to be scarce in another Sandy type of outage.
Need a place to store it and fuel. Need a safe place to run it outside that is safe for you and the generator.

Every option has its drawbacks unfortunately.

Maxman190 wrote:I have a similar question to the OP, what do I do in a power outage that last for 2 weeks...? I was hit by Sandy, knocked my power out for 2 weeks and... my sleep was... needless to say, uncomfortable... Keep in mind that I don't have a car nor a driver's license.. lol.

Irene knocked power out for a week, not two - so I'm hoping this will help a little, but probably won't go as far as what you actually need. My son in law is in law enforcement - so there was the option of going to the police station to recharge my battery pack. Another thing we did was go to a city where the power was on and recharge in some of the public places - the malls, Dunkin Doughnuts, etc.

You don't have a car or driver's license, so having a good network of people that can be of assistance is important - people who can take you to power sources. Having a plan for worse case scenario and people that are in the know and can put that plan into action is extremely important - as the communication will be down as well. Part of the plan has to be that they will come TO YOU.

Having the appropriate gear to charge your batteries from their cars would be a great thing, and probably a lot easier than running all over the place trying to find a place to charge - as they take several hours to charge.

With any plan for crisis, it would be a good idea to practice.

If you don't have a good support network available to you - now is the time to start building one. Neighbors, school, church, etc. If you cannot get out of the house much, the internet is a good place to start. 8 years ago, I was in crisis, and called for help, I had 15 people show up at my door - and every single one was a friend I knew from the internet and had never met face to face. (Which by the way was how I met my husband. )

Maxman190 wrote:I have a similar question to the OP, what do I do in a power outage that last for 2 weeks...? I was hit by Sandy, knocked my power out for 2 weeks and... my sleep was... needless to say, uncomfortable... Keep in mind that I don't have a car nor a driver's license.. lol.

In theory, without humidifier, I could get one week out of my car battery sized deep cycle marine battery with my PRS1 machine running off of the DC adapter. I actually have two of these batteries in my house on charge all the time for reasons other than CPAP, so in theory, I'd get two weeks. My machine draws less than an amp on average without the humidifier, and my batteries are around 100 Amp Hours each.

Details are in the links in my signature line.

In practice, things often don't work as well in the real world as they do on paper. Your battery may not really run as well as it did when new. Or it may not really put out as many amp hours as the spec says. Or your CPAP may draw more power than you think.

The obvious answer is a generator, but as many people found out during Sandy, you may not be able to get gas after an emergency. Also, storing gas can be a problem because modern gas goes bad pretty quickly when stored. Running a generator at night may be a problem, too, especially from the noise.

I think I could go a few weeks from my 115 amp hour marine battery before it drains out. This is without humidifier. I also have battery packs so I could last over a month if I had to. Enough time for zombies to eat everyone else first.