What are best practices in an extended power outage?

[jpek]

Here in Northern California, with frequent wildfires becoming the new normal, i'm making another real attempt to prepare for an emergency. We are told by experts that we should prepare to "shelter in place" for up to 2 weeks in case of a major disaster. Two weeks without power, water supply, transportation, access to stores... But what about our CPAP?

What is the best way to manage our sleep apnea while the power is out? Even for one or two day situations that's a challenge. I've been wanting to go camping for years now but I keep getting stumped by the absence of a power source for my CPAP. I know there are a couple of tutorials on this site for building your own power source, but they seem confusing and a bit overwhelming to me. I really don't know my way around building electrical devises. It seems like a lot to think through and construct.

But in any case, these power backups would only be good for a night, or possibly two. What happens after that?

With so many CPAP users now I figure someone must have thought about this.

[CapnLoki]

I started writing battery tutorials because people were complaining that the existing solutions were too complicated and they didn't know enough about electronics to put together a "do it yourself" system. Of course I wanted to explain everything and there were lots of questions, so the write ups again became overwhelming. But it really is quite simple - here are the basic steps - parts list is in link below:

Figure out how much battery power you need. My generic solution will run your pump for about 5 nights, you might want a larger or smaller battery, and its easy to add more batteries. Generic 35 amp-hour battery is $65, a big 100Ah for 2 weeks is under $200.

Your CPAP needs a 12 volt cord that plugs into a "cigarette lighter" socket. You will also need a wire with a socket and quick-connector
to hook to the battery.

Get a BatteryTender charger. They come with a color coded bolt-on cable for the battery. A quick-connector plugs to the charger or the above mentioned socket.

That's It! Assembly is bolting the color coded rings to the battery. That wire can plug into the charger or the socket for running the cpap.

The only additions are putting it a box so the terminal are protected - at the least you could tape the terminals. And I like to use a "splitter cable" so you can run the charger and the pump at the same time. And you probably want to add a cell phone charger - it can run of the 12V socket,

The charger is high quality, designed for long term gentle trickle charging, and comes in several sizes, depending on your battery and how quickly you need to recharge. I use the medium which is under $50. The battery can be any generic 12V deep cycle. AGM style is greatly preferred because they are sealed and can run upside down and are safe for bedroom use. The cables are high quality and come with a fuse.

More details are in the "Choosing a Battery" link in my signature below. The parts list is about 12 posts down on the first page. Its about 5 or siz parts, all from Amazon.

[prodigyplace]

In case of extended power outage, I bought a 12 volt solar panel kit from Harbor Freight to charge my battery,
A battery tender does not work well for an extended power outage, IMO.

[sburke91]

I've used portable generators of various sizes over the years during short and extended power outages, with decent success--everything from a small 2200W with a 1-gallon tank that had about an hour and a half of running time, to a 8500W with a 10-gallon tank.

The 2200W was a bit of a circus, as I'd sleep for an hour and a half to two hours, then wake up when the generator (and thus the air flow) stopped. Refuel, repeat.

[CapnLoki]

In case of extended power outage, I bought a 12 volt solar panel kit from Harbor Freight to charge my battery,
A battery tender does not work well for an extended power outage, IMO.

Nothing wrong with using solar power to charge batteries - but that requires addition expertise and the OP is specifically asking for simpler solutions. If the desire is to live off-grid, then solar is a good way to go, but a 100 AH battery will cover about 2 weeks and can be maintained easily by a larger battery tender.

As for gensets, also very handy in their place, but I don't like the thought of running a small genset (like a Honda) unattended, so I tend to only do it to charge batteries when there's no sun.

[Jack Burton]

Preparing for 2 weeks without grid power and "shelter in place" goes well beyond just cpap.

An appropriately sized standby generator could be part of a good solution.

Unless you are rich this is not a problem to just throw money at.
Figure out what you "need" to run and for how long and crunch the numbers considering the fuel cost.

I've done the planning for my family and we can get by with 1 of these http://a.co/d/3w49F4x and 2 of these http://a.co/d/hvH5viH.
As described earlier in this thread there are less expensive battery solutions but this is flexible, affordable and turnkey.

[prodigyplace]

Needs vary too. In my case, if we have a power outage then we have no well water either. We have a small pond for non-potable uses though.

[CapnLoki]

Needs vary too. In my case, if we have a power outage then we have no well water either. We have a small pond for non-potable uses though.

Exactly. I was trying to stay within the needs of the OP who was specially looking for the simplest way to run a cpap beyond 1 or 2 days. I would agree that living off grid for weeks can be a complex problem - I use large batteries, solar panels and gensets, DC appliances, etc. but the OP seems to want something different. A large deep cycle is the simplest way to prepare for several days, and is the first step in a system that could go several weeks or longer.

On the other hand, if the OP asked what could be done with $15,000 (or more) I'd be happy to make some recommendations. But $150 to $250 would cover the cpap for a while.

[Muse-Inc]

Hey can someone ask Pugsy to add a battery discussion to the posts (at the top) so we can easily find them? I'm clueless about electricity. My old GoalZero Escape battery works for 2 nights wo power. Got 2 solar panels, never tried to connect/use them. I really need a longer duration solution and one day when my head is screwed on I will commit to learning and exploring options. Thanks.

[Jack Burton]

The combination of this http://xantrex.com/power-products/backu ... -1800.aspx and http://a.co/d/bM9o7Oo is interesting, at least to me.

[CapnLoki]

The combination of this http://xantrex.com/power-products/backu ... -1800.aspx and http://a.co/d/bM9o7Oo is interesting, at least to me.

It's similar to the gear I have on the boat - a 2K Xantrex charger/inverter and a 2K Honda genset converted to propane. The real work horses are the 5 solar panels and the 4 golf cart batteries. The genset is essentially backup used maybe once or twice a year and the big inverter is used on for a few larger appliances like the microwave and coffee grinder. Most every thing else is either 12V (fridge, TV, lights, computers, etc) or I use a small, more efficient inverter. I keep the genset home in the winter in case we have a bad ice storm but it would only run a few critical items.

[klm49]

Preparing for 2 weeks without grid power and "shelter in place" goes well beyond just cpap.

An appropriately sized standby generator could be part of a good solution.

Unless you are rich this is not a problem to just throw money at.
Figure out what you "need" to run and for how long and crunch the numbers considering the fuel cost.

I've done the planning for my family and we can get by with 1 of these http://a.co/d/3w49F4x and 2 of these http://a.co/d/hvH5viH.
As described earlier in this thread there are less expensive battery solutions but this is flexible, affordable and turnkey.

I couldn't agree more! Unless the OP is ginna sleep solid for 2 weeks looks like other plans for the 2 week outage would cover CPAP needs. I have friends in Louisiana and there prep for extended power outages is a generator which will run on propane/gas and a 1000 gallon propane tank.

[jpek]

I couldn't agree more! Unless the OP is ginna sleep solid for 2 weeks looks like other plans for the 2 week outage would cover CPAP needs. I have friends in Louisiana and there prep for extended power outages is a generator which will run on propane/gas and a 1000 gallon propane tank.

I am in a slow process of getting together supplies and skills for sheltering in place or bugging out after emergencies, and do plan to eventually get basic solar to power things like my phone, but mostly I plan to live without electricity during that time, so I don't have an overall electrical solution. The CPAP though, is a problem, especially since I definitely use a humidifier. I mean, not having my computer or electric lights for two weeks will be a drag, but not having the CPAP might be a serious hindrance to good function.

[ragtopcircus]

I now keep HME’s on hand for humidity during power outages. I normally use a P30i pillow mask, but with the HME I use an F30 or F20. The HME needs to be as close as possible to your mouth or nose.

On my Dreamstation Go, I bump the mask setting from X1 to X2 to compensate for the pressure drop of the HME. On the Resmed Airsense, enabling the anti-bacterial filter option works well as a proxy for the HME.

The HME is no substitute for a real humidifier for daily use, but it is a lot better than nothing when operating from batteries.

[Jack Burton]

...but mostly I plan to live without electricity during that time, so I don't have an overall electrical solution.

What about your refrigerator?