Power outage

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Got up and appear to have had a power outage last night.  Oven and coffee pot clocks were blinking.  I remember waking once and wondering why the projected digital clock wasn't showing on the ceiling.  This morning I found neighbor emailed me around 22:30 asking if my power was out.  It's 07:30 now and oven clock is showing 04:00 so power came back up around 03:30.  Estimate 4.5 hour outage, which is pretty long for my in-town location (been here for almost 15 years and don't often have outages, much less outages lasting more than an hour - growing up in a rural area, sometimes ice storms would cause days long outages).

Home brew UPS for the CPAP never missed a beat and I slept right through, never know a thing (other than wondering about why the projector clock wasn't showing). 

OMMOHY

[Sleeprider]

Can't beat the performance of no-disruption on a power outage. Maybe describe the UPS or point to a thread where you described it before?

[Hydrangea]

Very cool!!!

It's possible the power went out more than once, and the most recent time was what you were noting (re: the time on the oven).

[sheepless]

yes, I too would like to hear more about your ups. several I had years ago for computers only lasted a few minutes, presumably long enough save work and shut down. are they good for hours now? been on my mind I need to prepare for the occasional 3-5 day winter outage (one was 13 days as I recall).

[Marillion]

Ditto on hearing about your solution. I myself have a backup battery but I would have to hook it up in the case of a power outage. I would be awakened anyways by the house alarm going off with the main power going out... Thankfully it has never happened in the middle of the night yet.

[CHanlon]

yes, I too would like to hear more about your ups.  several I had years ago for computers only lasted a few minutes, presumably long enough save work and shut down.  are they good for hours now?  been on my mind I need to prepare for the occasional 3-5 day winter outage (one was 13 days as I recall).

Almost any computer use intended UPS would give you a great long period of time for a CPAP machine.  I have an 8-year-old APC ups for my computers that will run my system for about 10 minutes, but that is with 2 Windows PCs, an iMac, and 2 monitors, a router, a modem, and an 8 port switch plugged into it.

If I shut off the monitors and the iMac, I can stretch that to half an hour.  If I shut down the two PCs, I can keep my internet up and running for hours.  Your CPAP can't draw much more than the router, switch, and modem do.

And yet, knowing all that, I still haven't gone and bought an extra UPS for the bedroom. :-p  I *have* taken my CPAP into the office and plugged into the UPS and slept on the couch. :-p

[sheepless]

good to know. here's a dumb question: apparently it's okay to plug the ac to dc transformer (that I presume the cpap 'brick' is) into a dc source (the ups)? another: I guess it depends on the ups specs but even if it'll last longer than for a pc, is it enough power to get through a night? 2 nights? how does one do the math? gonna have to learn up on this...

[Sleeprider]

good to know.  here's a dumb question: apparently it's okay to plug the ac to dc transformer (that I presume the cpap 'brick' is) into a dc source (the ups)?   another: I guess it depends on the ups specs but even if it'll last longer than for a pc, is it enough power to get through a night? 2 nights?  how does one do the math?  gonna have to learn up on this...

Most UPS have an internal inverter and output AC power.  It loses efficiency compared to unconverted power, but if the battery pack is large enough it should run a CPAP and humidifier pretty easily. Just be sure to turn off any alarms that frequently sound on a UPS during a power failure.

[DaveY]

Check out Medistrom....not a cheap solution however. I have the Medistrom Pilot Plus 24 and Co-pilot 24 setup. My Airsense keeps on running during short power outages....none so far in 2018. Had several in 2017 including one lasting 16 hours.

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Stay.

Away.

From.

Computer.

UPS.