What happens if the power goes out?

I really started thinking about this a lot recently after I started taping my mouth shut... I can only imagine that waking up during a power outage when using a nasal pillow system with your mouth taped shut can't be fun...


Something I've been thinking about... I already have a deep cycle battery that I use for my little fishing boat, to power trolling motor and other electronics on the boat.. about 50 weeks out of the year, it's not used at all...

Last weekend we had a 'scheduled' power outage at my home, the power company needed to do some work and had to shut the power off for a few hours last Saturday morning. I charged my deep cycle in the garage, carried that heavy thing into my bed room and ran on it all Friday night and/or Saturday morning. All that worked fine... but I hadn't yet developed a solution for unexpected outages...

Then I also resorted to taping my mouth shut which gave me cause to really wonder what would happen if I was using the machine, sleeping away and the power went out.



So... here's something I've been thinking about... Tell me if I'm crazy and/or if this plan is going to damage my CPAP machine or something... (I don't think it will).

I put my deep cycle battery in the garage, take a $18 Black and Decker 'maintenance charger' and connect it to the battery... run some special wiring from my garage to my bedroom which will be connected directly to the deep cycle battery terminals... connect my CPAP machine to the special DC power I ran into and/or next to my bed...

I would run the humidifier off AC power, the CPAP would always run off DC power from my Deep Cycle battery... The maintenance charger charges at 1 amp... If my CPAP uses roughly 1.5 amps for 8 hours each night, that would mean I need a little more then 12 hours of charging at 1 amp... 14 hours of the day my CPAP should not be used, so it would seem that my 1 amp maintenance charger should more or less keep my deep cycle battery fully charged...

All I would have to do is periodically make sure my charging system and/or battery was still in working condition...

My only fears... is if the battery charger should put out some voltage higher then the CPAP should see... or that there would be some spike in voltage when the charger turns on, etc... I don't think this should be much of a problem... but am not 100% sure...

I could try it and see what happens... I could check the voltage with a meter before trying... I could even potentially put a oscilloscope on it and see what kind of spikes might exist...

Either way, if this setup would work... and not damage my CPAP... It could be implemented for little or no cost to me... (I have wire, charger, battery, etc...) Even if you were to buy all of this, I bet you could accomplish all of this for just over $100 using your typical lead-acid deep cycle battery...

Heck I could even go solar... Sams club has a 1.2 amp (15 watt) solar charger for $129... but I probably don't quite get enough sunlight in my are to keep my CPAP running each and every day... I bet for camping you could probably do pretty well with that solar charger and a fully charged deep cycle... probably could easily last over a week without power...

(all of this is not counting on humidifier running... at home I'd just leave that on AC, figure in the event of power failure I'd live without heated humidifier).

So... am I crazy or what?

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): cpap machine, humidifier, nasal pillow, CPAP, Power

Central,

There are other's of us that hold your same fear. My CPAP is pulled into a small UPS. It won't run my machine long, but the alarm will wake me up before I start to sufficate (I tape too). I can decide at that point if I need to go after my backup power source. I had a friend last year wake up to his alarm, when he went to get his battery, he discovered his sump pump (battery backed up) had failed, and ended up spending the night bailing.

Lot's to explain here.

If you get a deep cycle marine battery, and it is the water type, you can get explosive gases off it as it charges. I personally won't have a "wet" battery in the house while sleeping like that.

I went to Batteries Plus, bought an AGM battery, deep cycle, then went to my local Kragens, Pep Boys, Chief, or go to the Harbor Freight website and buy a 400 watt inverter. Modified Sine Wave is fine for our units, or at least for Respironics. I asked. Cost for the inverter, on sale, under $30.

My Respironics BiPap Auto SV uses more energy than most of yours will and it uses under 100 watts at full draw.

I now have both of our machines plugged into the inverter and the inverter is keeping a surface charge from a 2 amp battery charger from Sears. All the stuff I bought cost about what the APC would cost and it should last a lot longer.

My SV raises a loud alarm if I lose power. Don't know about yours.

IF YOU HAVE SMUD OR PG&E FOR ELECTRICITY (CALIF.), GO TO THEIR WEBSITE AND FILL OUT THE FORM THAT SAYS YOU ARE ON LIFE SUPPORT equipment. Give it to your doctor and see if they will sign it. I get about a 33% cut in my electric bill. Also, in case of power failure, I am supposed to be the first on our block (more or less) to get my power turned back on. I got my doctor to sign the form back when I was on the Respironics BiPap Auto. Now I am on oxygen (concentrator) and the SV unit. And the Nonin 9600 and.... you get the idea.

Good luck with it.

Is there such an agency in Massachusetts?

I goggled this topic because it happened to me last night. i ran across this question. Well, last night I woke up smothering to find we had a power outage, scared to ickens out of me, it took me a minute to get me breathe and I am calling the company tomorrow.

Welcome, Guest.

Sign up for an ID, and stay around for a while. There are a number of threads on the board about this. There are a number of strategies to deal with this, and info on how bad it really is.

Vintage post like this one are best read, most things that need to be said of the topic are found within.

My friend and neighbor across the street passed away yesterday. He was found lying in bed with a nonworking c-pap machine on his face. That's why I am here today. His step father told me that Ulysses had offered to let him use his machine, but the stepfather was leery because it had shut off one time. So the answer is yes, there can be a real danger if the machine shuts off.

If your machine has shut off before, get a new one.

KelleyE wrote:My friend and neighbor across the street passed away yesterday. He was found lying in bed with a nonworking c-pap machine on his face. That's why I am here today. His step father told me that Ulysses had offered to let him use his machine, but the stepfather was leery because it had shut off one time. So the answer is yes, there can be a real danger if the machine shuts off.

If your machine has shut off before, get a new one.

What did he die from, dead isn't proof, everyone dies from something. Jim

Not a shread to go on, no facts, tying cause and effect.

There's some missing information here that may or may not be a factor.
If someone is using a machine and they have the auto on/off feature enabled...if someone dies during the night the machine will turn itself off and give the appearance of a non working machine when it fact it was used and was working as designed.

Pugsy wrote:There's some missing information here that may or may not be a factor.
If someone is using a machine and they have the auto on/off feature enabled...if someone dies during the night the machine will turn itself off and give the appearance of a non working machine when it fact it was used and was working as designed.

Good point!

If the machine goes off and you are wearing a nasal mask or pillows, you can still breathe through your mouth. If you are wearing a full face mask there is an anti-asphyxiation valve that allows you to breathe. This happens very often when the power goes off during the night.You won't die from a power outage or if the machine stops working. Think of the thousands of sleep apnea sufferers in Houston that have no power for their machines.

An adult who is in reasonable good health would be able to wake up and remove the mask. Try to take it off as you would normally instead of ripping it off. You will not suffocate during the interim.