Portable battery power for a BIPAP

Altair · 10-30-2009, 08:09 PM

My wife uses a ResMed VPAPIII ST-A for her breathing. She is on it 24/7. I am concerned about having backup power since we occasionally have electrical power failures during storms etc. Would appreciate any suggestions or experiences any of you have. Thanks.

Also, I am wondering about the purchase of some smaller and lighter equipment that she could use when we travel to the doctor's office etc. Our ResMed is pretty cumbersome for anywhere but at home. Ideas, please. Thank you.

BarryG · 10-30-2009, 08:21 PM

Altair, I am not on bipap (yet) but we just purchased a generator for our house. We don't have many power failures but we were worried about not having any way to get water as we are on an acreage and have a well pump. I really struggle if I dont have a tap with running water to wash the gunk out of my mouth so I wanted to make sure the we had a back up. Because the well pump is 240V and 6A we decided on a 4000 watt unit but you could probably get a 1000 or 2000 watt Honda or Yamaha generator that are very portable, very quiet and could provide lots of power to run a bipap for hours.
I am not sure how long a battery backup would work for, what is the wattage or amperage draw of the bipap?

joelc · 10-30-2009, 08:29 PM

They run on 12 volts DC so I got a small 12 volt deep cycle battery with a plastic carrying case and it would power that particular vpap for 14 hours.

Unfortunately I don't think there is a better solution. That is one major advantage to a ventilator. They are designed to be small, light and portable.