Power outage [when wearing full face mask]

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Power goes out and the CPAP keeps on runnin' for at least 4 nights even with heated humogrification. 9 nights if I get up and turn the humogriffication feeture off. Doen' need to do nuttin cept sleep through it. (for the cost of a Yerti, I can point you to equipment to make a great CPAP uninterruptible power supply. Pretty much at the same electrical capacity. Much greater capacity (actually productive run time) if you plan on plugging in to the Yerti's AC outlet.

OMMOHY

[Snoopy.pa30]

OMMOHY,
I would love to get the details on your UPS.

I am also about to head out camping with my Scout group, so am looking for a mobile solution as well.

As I have the Resmed AirSennse 10, it looks like I will have to purchase their 12-24V transformer. From my searching here so far, I have not found anyone that has "reverse engineered" the connector details for the Resmed, so us back woods engineers could just connect a couple of batteries in series. Still looking...

Being up in Canada, my local shop wants to charge ~$200 CDN (ok, so that is about $150 US). I may have to order from US and hope it arrives before I go camping...

Again, would love to see your UPS details.

Thanks.
Snoopy

[stanleydean]

A time or two I have gone to the bathroom and fell asleep so quickly after getting back in bed that the hose did not get re-connected for maybe an hour or so. I agree, you should not be concerned about this. Along another line of thought, I sort of wish I had a backup power source now because hurricane Irma is about two hours from my location and headed my way. However, if it gets too bad I probably will not sleep therefore no apnea events and no snoring. 

I don't know if there would be a reasonably priced UPS unit with capacity to run your CPAP for a few hours, that might be one solution. Since I also use an O2 concentrator when sleeping backup for both may not be practical.

Stan

[archangle]

What happens if the power goes off and you're wearing a full-face mask (covering nose and mouth)? You suffocate?

Yes, the anti-asphyxiation valve should save you.  

Experiment - Mask up and start your machine, then unplug the machine, and see what happens.  You may find it a little difficult to breathe, but you shouldn't suffocate.  If you have a spouse, have them unplug you some night and see what happens.  (With instructions to plug you back in or wake you up before you die.)

Even if the anti-asphyxiation valve doesn't open, you'll probably wake up, but it's not a 100% sure thing.   It's different than, for instance, having a pillow held over your head or being strangled because you are still inhaling and exhaling.  The problem is that you're mainly breathing your oxygen depleted exhaled air.

I don't know if O2 would drop enough to kill you, since there is a little fresh air that comes in in various ways.   Obviously, it's a little difficult to do the experiment on actual humans, but the medical community must be worried about it since they put the anti-asphyxiation valve in there.   Sounds like a good case for some animal testing.

[archangle]

A time or two I have gone to the bathroom and fell asleep so quickly after getting back in bed that the hose did not get re-connected for maybe an hour or so. I agree, you should not be concerned about this....

Stan

If you disconnected the hose at the mask, this isn't a very good test.   You'll be breathing relatively fresh air because there's only a little "dead air space" in your mask.  When you inhale, you'll quickly inhale all the stale air and the last half of your inhaled breath will be all fresh air. 

With the hose and non running CPAP machine attached, you won't inhale enough air in one breath for the fresh air on the other end of the hose to make it into your lungs.  (assuming no anti-asphyxia valve.)