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WARNING to CPAP Users: PREPARE for the Unexpected - When the power goes out
RE: WARNING to CPAP Users: PREPARE for the Unexpected - When the power goes out
I don't have a battery backup for my CPAP yet, but am going to start saving.

In the meantime, I do work in the emergency management industry. That said, there are many websites out there that have lists of how to prepare for an emergency.

I never let my gas tank go below 1/2.
I always have dollar bills in my emergency kit (no sense carrying 20s - they won't have change)
I have backups of all my meds, and phone numbers for all emergency contacts.
There is now a note in my kit that says I use a CPAP.
My kit has alot more, (including the kit that is always in my car), obviously
My kids know to call their aunt out of state if there is a disaster so that we can all check in with her to see if everyone is okay.

Besides the essentials - food, water and family safety - there is alot we can do to prepare that will help us survive and thrive when disaster strikes.
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RE: WARNING to CPAP Users: PREPARE for the Unexpected - When the power goes out
From my experience of using computers over the last 28 years in India, -one has to have a solution for short term power outages from a few minutes to a few hours. This is very common and happens daily. For these events, the use of an inverter is very common in all homes and even offices. My house in on a 700VA inverter with 200 AmpHr 12V inverter battery - which provides power for about 4 to 6 hours when it is used together with a ceiling fan in the night. Also, most offices and industry have diesel generators installed to cover these breaks to support essential support systems.

In the very rate instances of the power outage being more than a day to a few days or even a week - like the example of India's northern grid collapse - the only solution, that works from my experience is to have a diesel generator. Since this type of long breaks are very rare even in India, the investment in a generator for an individual or family is not practical. What I would do is to go and hire a petrol or diesel generator -- which is not too difficult in most cities in India -- or even better go and sleep in the Office - where diesel generators are routinely installed !!
Another option probably is to request the local hospital to let you sleep there for the nights as they must be having a generator backup.
Overall, looks like in India, you have better options for tackling this contingency !

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RE: WARNING to CPAP Users: PREPARE for the Unexpected - When the power goes out
It may be too late for those on the eastern coast to prepare for Hurricane Sandy, but the rest of us can prepare and learn from this current superstorm that is hitting the east coast of the U.S.

Bumping this thread for newbies who haven't read through it. We all need to consider what happens for when the power goes out - for our CPAP machine, food, water & shelter during emergencies.

Also for those who are experiencing Hurricane Sandy right now, please feel free to give reports or comments in THIS THREAD in the Off-Topic Forum.

Bump2
SuperSleeper
Apnea Board Administrator
www.ApneaBoard.com


INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.


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RE: WARNING to CPAP Users: PREPARE for the Unexpected - When the power goes out
Geez, I shouldn't have to say this, but...

If you run a generator in your garage, you and your family are going to DIE!!!

OK, you may get away with it, but I'll wager there will be several deaths due to Hurricane Sandy victims running generators in the garage. It's definitely a Russian roulette situation.

It's not safe even if you leave the garage door open. You might even be in trouble if you put the generator outside near a window.
Get the free OSCAR CPAP software here.
Useful links.
Click here for information on the main alternative to CPAP.
If it's midnight and a DME tells you it's dark outside, go and check it yourself.
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RE: WARNING to CPAP Users: PREPARE for the Unexpected - When the power goes out
I do have a small gasoline generator, but my main electric "generator" is a cheap solar panel kit. No trouble, no hassle, no fumes, no fire risk (unless I'm stupid with the 12-volt wiring). Much safer than my pull-start noisy gas generator.

I love my solar backup system. It won't run my major appliances, but it allows me some conveniences, including limited lighting, TV, radio, a laptop computer and continuous CPAP power when the grid goes down.

I don't have a lot of "preps", but there is a sense of peace and satisfaction that comes from knowing that I can survive for a quite a while without ever leaving my own property during an extended scenario like an earthquake, power outage, winter storm, etc.

SuperSleeper
Apnea Board Administrator
www.ApneaBoard.com


INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.


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RE: WARNING to CPAP Users: PREPARE for the Unexpected - When the power goes out
When Ike hit here in 2008 we had several deaths from people putting their gasoline-powered generators in their homes!
Sleepster

INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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RE: WARNING to CPAP Users: PREPARE for the Unexpected - When the power goes out
[quote='SuperSleeper' pid='1399' dateline='1330521036']
[parts of this thread were copied from our old forum]


Here's the scenario:

>You are proud of yourself - you've been using CPAP as a member of
>the secret society of "hoseheads"...

That used to be reserved for us Canadians.

> you've tinkered with your own machine.... you may have even
>fiddled with changing your pressure... and you may have gone so
>far as to use CPAP data-analyzing software to help you tweak your
>settings.

Still working on that actually.

> ...at 3:05 a.m. in the morning...
>
> THE ELECTRICAL POWER GOES OUT. Oh-jeez

I guess it's as good a time as any for this.
Whatever is left of Hurricane Sandy at the time is supposedly going to pass us by. Barely. One county over to the east. And who am I to tell that broad that she's not allowed to change flight path?

> You keep waking up every 5 minutes after a bunch of "snortles",
>snores & gasps... and you realize that it's a lost cause - you
>can't get any real sleep until the power comes back on
>and your air-pushing friend whizzes back to life.

That troubles me too.

> Your alarm clock goes off at 6:00 (it had a battery backup)

Or you wind it up.

>and you realize that you didn't get any sleep since 3:05, and the
>power is still out. The temperature in the house has slid from 70
>degrees down to about 62 and you feel a cold chill as you remove >the covers.

And my wife tells me to get my cold hands off of her.

>You get up, go outside, look around, the sun is not yet out, and you
>realize that all the city lights are OFF. Ah, so this is what living in
>uglyqwertyui0pthe country is like! Very pretty. Maybe this won't
> be so bad.

Without electricity I also can't activate the electric starter on the snowblower. I'm really S.O.L.

>You drive back home... and make a soothing cup of coffee using the
>tea kettle and gas stove,

CHEAT! CHEAT! CHEAT! CHEAT!

>The day wears on with no power. No power by 9:00 pm either, and
>your house temp is now 55. You start to think about your
>CPAP. "Oh, no... I need that machine to get a good night's sleep
>
" you think to yourself, "Why oh why didn't I get that 12-volt
>connector and a deep cycle battery!
"

I thought I read something like you're not supposed to power up the CPAP with a battery or a generator or something like that. Am I mistaken? Or desperate times require desperate measures?



In the morning, the temperature in the living room has gone down to 51 degrees - your outside thermometer reads 22. You pull out your handheld radio to figure out what's going on, but you realize that it takes 4 AA batteries and all you have is 3 AAA batteries. You kick yourself again for your poor planning.

> A neighbor knocks on your door. He asks if everyone is okay in the
>house, and asks if you need to come over to his house - he has a
>wood fireplace and a supply of firewood, and it's keeping his living
>room at a nice comfy 72 degrees.

Damn you and your neighbours. Where do you find nice people like that?


> officials are saying that it may be days or weeks before they can
> bring the entire electrical grid back up again.

Sounds like a good time to check in to the hospital. That mass outage half a decade ago, I don't think I checked with the hospital, but when a tornado swept through our city in 1985, the hospital was the only place in town with auxilliary power. Check in there. Even if to plug in at the emergency ward and hijack a chair.

>How are you going to get a good night's sleep if the power stays off
>for a week?

We haven't been this unfortunate but that would be my first theory.
The worst they could do is throw me out.

>This is going to get real old, real fast.

Ah, everything old is new again.
I have no alternate plan. Try to fall asleep and hope my wife is up to giving me the heimlich manouver if I wake up choking again. (She hates it when that happens).
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RE: WARNING to CPAP Users: PREPARE for the Unexpected - When the power goes out
(10-29-2012, 08:01 PM)Sleepster Wrote: When Ike hit here in 2008 we had several deaths from people putting their gasoline-powered generators in their homes!

Yeah... wow... that's insane... that's asking for all sorts of trouble... fire risk plus carbon monoxide poisoning. Ouch. Confused
SuperSleeper
Apnea Board Administrator
www.ApneaBoard.com


INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.


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RE: WARNING to CPAP Users: PREPARE for the Unexpected - When the power goes out
(10-29-2012, 08:26 PM)Ugly Wrote: >You are proud of yourself - you've been using CPAP as a member of
>the secret society of "hoseheads"...

That used to be reserved for us Canadians.

>and you realize that you didn't get any sleep since 3:05, and the
>power is still out. The temperature in the house has slid from 70
>degrees down to about 62 and you feel a cold chill as you remove >the covers.

And my wife tells me to get my cold hands off of her.

Ha!!! You crack me up, Ugly. DielaughingLaugh-a-lot
SuperSleeper
Apnea Board Administrator
www.ApneaBoard.com


INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.


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Ohmy 
RE: WARNING to CPAP Users: PREPARE for the Unexpected - When the power goes out
I did my sleep study this past Sunday night, I found out today that the doctor is putting me on cpap. I do not know how severe my sleep apnea is but wanted to get some advice. My husband and I are avid hunters and we also participate in living history events where electricity is not available. Suggestions on what I should request or require my machine to have????
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