@cengland0@xtrunksiex What he said? o
Or just a DC-to-AC power inverter to run off of a car engine- they sell fairly high output ones all over the place.
I think ours is 1000 watts, and it was inexpensive.
e.g., Power Bright 6000-Watt Power Inverter https://www.lowes.com/pd/Power-Bright-6000-Watt-Power-Inverter/3125915
<img src=“” alt=“Product Image 1”/>
This heavy duty inverter plugs directly to a 12 Volt DC battery to power large appliances, air conditioners, heavy duty power tools and many other electronics in your vehicle!
6000-watt DC to AC power inverter provides 50 Amps
Anodized aluminum case provides durability
LED display - input voltage/output wattage
Built-in cooling fan
Internal 30 Amp spade-type fuses
Four - 3 prong 120 volt AC outlets
Overload indicator
Power on/off switch
@PhysAssist I like the inverter idea but how long can you stay on a car battery before it dies (I don’t know how much power an oxygen concentrator requires)? I would bet 6 hours to 8 hours but that’s just a guess.
Since this is a life critical device, you definitely need something that could last a week in case the power doesn’t come back on right away. I think one of those portable generators and a 5 gallon container of gas should last a long time and would be easier to use. Many people wouldn’t know how to recharge a car battery once it dies – I couldn’t picture Mrs. cengland0 figuring that out. You’d need to get a specific charger for that. If you have any UPS devices in the house, they use the same sealed lead acid as your car, just smaller, and those batteries need replacement every 4 years or so. Just too much maintenance to worry about.
I’m lucky because I’m within walking distance of a Alzheimer’s rehab center and they have been designated as “critical” when the power goes out. Since I’m on the same electrical grid as them, if a tornado or hurricane comes by, this grid is one of the highest priority ones to get back online. One of my friends who lives in the rural part of the county, they went without power for two months after our last hurricane. Glad I don’t live way out there.
@cengland0@PhysAssist@xtrunksiex
Be sure your equipment can run on Modified Sine Wave (MSW) AC power; otherwise, be safe and get Pure Sine Wave inverter. The Power Bright model shown above is MSW.
From what I’m reading, the concentrator would require anywhere from 120 Watts for a small model, to 280 for a typical home unit, or as much 600 Watts for somebody more heavily dependent upon Oxygen.
@cengland0 You just have to run the car enough to keep the battery charged.
Also, it’s typically only higher end electronics that are persnickety about whether it’s sine wave or MSW, but then it can be an issue.
@cengland0@PhysAssist wow, I wasn’t expecting anyone to care! Appreciate the ideas. Unfortunately, on a very high oxygen level, so I think we’d kill a car battery pretty quick. Also, I’d be nervous about the amount of cables necessary to keep the concentrator inside (no garage.) We really need to bite the bullet and buy a generator that could keep up, they’re just so expensive. Get on that, meh!
I have a couple generators so everything can run except for the whole-house air conditioner. I have a small window unit for long term emergencies just in case. You can die in Florida without A/C.
No CPAP.
If it is extended, I can theoretically go out to the car and plug into the power-port there, but I’d hate to get out there if it ends up being for an hour, or so.
Fortunately, the power here in Seattle is pretty reliable!
We were sitting outside with the neighbors one hot summer night during a power outage wishing for lights and air conditioning when my son headed inside the dark house. He couldn’t see that I had closed the glass sliding door and slammed into it. On the upside, our wishes came true, there were lights and AC at the ER while his hand was stitched up. Oh, trying to see and clean the injury by light of a candle is not recommended.
@callow That is supposed to be safety glass- tempered to break into tiny cubes, not hand slicing shards…
Trying stop the bleeding from those is nigh impossible, 'cuz the new glass edges slice so cleanly that the vessels don’t even know they’ve been injured, thus they don’t spasm to slow blood loss.
@jerk_nugget I need to read that, it sounds like my life story! @PhysAssist It was a very old door, now replaced. I didn’t want to apply pressure until I could see there were no large pieces of glass stuck in his hand.
I’m glad the hand with the bottle of Gatorade had more momentum than his face which he hit pretty hard but didn’t cut.
@callow@jerk_nugget Unfortunately there are a lot of those old doors still in use, as we find out in the ER all to often.
I wondered about how it was that his hand that got cut- I always seem to hit them face first.
Glad he’s OK.
@Zeusandhera
Agreed…I lost power for a few days earlier this year…house got into the 40’s. If I had a reptile of fish tank at the time, they would have been in trouble.
@FrostByte I have spent 12+ hours freezing while carrying 5 gallon buckets out of my B-I-L’s basement to fight that fight- we both vowed Never again!
/giphy flooded basement
@mike808 Been there, done that- but as every hospital OI have ever worked in- 7 to date, has an emergency generator that is tested every month at a minimum, and goes on automatically in 2-3 seconds after power loss, AND OR’s have separate battery back-up that keeps power from even blipping- no muss no fuss
@dotyj Which makes the worst part for me- generator noise!
Although as our gennie will be running out by the barn and nowhere near our house, mine isn’t too bad.
But other people’s gennie noise- I hate that.
@PhysAssist 'Tis true, my generator is noisy but it’s not as noisy as my lawn mower oddly enough. Still, I like keeping my fridge running, my ham gear running, my network running and be able to charge my powerchair.
I’ve not had to use my generator for more than four hours at a time and would never run it before 8:00am or after 9:00pm to be kind to the neighbors.
I have a switch panel in the house to switch between mains and generator so I don’t kill anyone. Only mains or generator can be selected, not both.
I have a generator. It’s not a whole house one though. During the last power outage due to a hurricane it worked out pretty well.
I didn’t have a window AC but a friend lent me one since they still had power. That was essential. We were so miserable the first few days without it.
I’m currently on well water, so it’s super frustrating when the power goes out. My diaphragm tank is pretty small so I can only get maybe 5-10 gallons of usable water before the pump needs to turn on. My street is supposed to get city water later this year, so that won’t be an issue anymore. (Hopefully.) I have an adapter cord I rigged up so I could use the pump on the generator, but I have to unplug most other things, so water usage needs to be planned. My neighbor lent me one of those big igloo drink coolers with the spout so I could use it for washing hands and what not and not waste my clean bottled drinking water.
When we lived in the middle of nowhere until recently, we were pretty self sufficient. I got caught in the big tornado outbreak of 2011 and had no power for 9 days and lacked nothing (hubby was on the road). I could have still taken care of and fed an army if there were one around. Now, having moved to a city… I’m toast if that happened. Gotta get a generator soon.
@lseeber Prolly going to be illegal to run a generator in city limits, or is that even a thing?
I guess it depends on the city.
In any event, an inverter like the one I referenced above is a way to be prepared without adding another engine to maintain. Running off of a small 4-cylinder car like our Honda Fit is still prolly not all that efficient, but it isn’t awful, and it’s a lot less $ and maint. than a full-fledged generator
@PhysAssist hmmm… well… hadn’t never heard that but I guess living in the middle of nowhere for so long most of those that I know that have one are in the county. Guess I’ll have to look into that. I do think I have some inverters of dif sizes. Hubby trucked for his 2nd childhood and all that stuff is still lying around somewhere.
Just had a 5 hour one on Saturday. I have a generator that handles some of the critical things. Water (We have a well),sump, Refrigerator, some lights and Internet. No TV, ac, electric stove, washer/ dryer, dishwasher or oven or most lights. Not bad this time of year but summer and winter not so much fun. During Sandy we were out a week.
A couple of your options (silence, reading light) were non-starters for me, but ALL the others COULD, depending on certain factors, BE the top one:
Duration of outage: < 3-4 hrs, option 4 is N/A
Timeframe of outage:
winter: option 5 is N/A
summer: option 5 is TOP (spouse w/MS)
nite w/no fav shows: option 1 is N/A
daytime: option 2 is TOP (telecommuting job)
Warm batteries…
Insulin going bad in the fridge
@guyfromhawthorn That would definitely suck.
No oxygen concentrator for my COPD suffering dependent. There’s only so many backup tanks…
@xtrunksiex OMG, that sounds so critical for life that you need a backup plan. Maybe a small generator?
@cengland0 @xtrunksiex What he said? o
Or just a DC-to-AC power inverter to run off of a car engine- they sell fairly high output ones all over the place.
I think ours is 1000 watts, and it was inexpensive.
e.g., Power Bright 6000-Watt Power Inverter
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Power-Bright-6000-Watt-Power-Inverter/3125915
<img src=“” alt=“Product Image 1”/>
This heavy duty inverter plugs directly to a 12 Volt DC battery to power large appliances, air conditioners, heavy duty power tools and many other electronics in your vehicle!
6000-watt DC to AC power inverter provides 50 Amps
Anodized aluminum case provides durability
LED display - input voltage/output wattage
Built-in cooling fan
Internal 30 Amp spade-type fuses
Four - 3 prong 120 volt AC outlets
Overload indicator
Power on/off switch
@PhysAssist I like the inverter idea but how long can you stay on a car battery before it dies (I don’t know how much power an oxygen concentrator requires)? I would bet 6 hours to 8 hours but that’s just a guess.
Since this is a life critical device, you definitely need something that could last a week in case the power doesn’t come back on right away. I think one of those portable generators and a 5 gallon container of gas should last a long time and would be easier to use. Many people wouldn’t know how to recharge a car battery once it dies – I couldn’t picture Mrs. cengland0 figuring that out. You’d need to get a specific charger for that. If you have any UPS devices in the house, they use the same sealed lead acid as your car, just smaller, and those batteries need replacement every 4 years or so. Just too much maintenance to worry about.
I’m lucky because I’m within walking distance of a Alzheimer’s rehab center and they have been designated as “critical” when the power goes out. Since I’m on the same electrical grid as them, if a tornado or hurricane comes by, this grid is one of the highest priority ones to get back online. One of my friends who lives in the rural part of the county, they went without power for two months after our last hurricane. Glad I don’t live way out there.
@cengland0 @PhysAssist @xtrunksiex
Be sure your equipment can run on Modified Sine Wave (MSW) AC power; otherwise, be safe and get Pure Sine Wave inverter. The Power Bright model shown above is MSW.
From what I’m reading, the concentrator would require anywhere from 120 Watts for a small model, to 280 for a typical home unit, or as much 600 Watts for somebody more heavily dependent upon Oxygen.
@cengland0 You just have to run the car enough to keep the battery charged.
Also, it’s typically only higher end electronics that are persnickety about whether it’s sine wave or MSW, but then it can be an issue.
@cengland0 @PhysAssist wow, I wasn’t expecting anyone to care! Appreciate the ideas. Unfortunately, on a very high oxygen level, so I think we’d kill a car battery pretty quick. Also, I’d be nervous about the amount of cables necessary to keep the concentrator inside (no garage.) We really need to bite the bullet and buy a generator that could keep up, they’re just so expensive. Get on that, meh!
I have a couple generators so everything can run except for the whole-house air conditioner. I have a small window unit for long term emergencies just in case. You can die in Florida without A/C.
No hot water from your tankless water heater.
Worst is having to watch television in the dark.
Without air conditioning, Texas cannot exist.
@hchavers Yes!!!
@hchavers
Air Conditioning: invented 1902
Texas: invented 1903, probably
No CPAP.
If it is extended, I can theoretically go out to the car and plug into the power-port there, but I’d hate to get out there if it ends up being for an hour, or so.
Fortunately, the power here in Seattle is pretty reliable!
@ratman See my reply to @xtrunksex above.
@PhysAssist thanks, but it doesn’t happen often enough to go through any expense, plus i don’t need an inverter, as the device runs on DC.
We were sitting outside with the neighbors one hot summer night during a power outage wishing for lights and air conditioning when my son headed inside the dark house. He couldn’t see that I had closed the glass sliding door and slammed into it. On the upside, our wishes came true, there were lights and AC at the ER while his hand was stitched up. Oh, trying to see and clean the injury by light of a candle is not recommended.
@callow the monkeys paw wish!
@callow That is supposed to be safety glass- tempered to break into tiny cubes, not hand slicing shards…
Trying stop the bleeding from those is nigh impossible, 'cuz the new glass edges slice so cleanly that the vessels don’t even know they’ve been injured, thus they don’t spasm to slow blood loss.
@jerk_nugget I need to read that, it sounds like my life story!
@PhysAssist It was a very old door, now replaced. I didn’t want to apply pressure until I could see there were no large pieces of glass stuck in his hand.
I’m glad the hand with the bottle of Gatorade had more momentum than his face which he hit pretty hard but didn’t cut.
@callow @jerk_nugget Unfortunately there are a lot of those old doors still in use, as we find out in the ER all to often.
I wondered about how it was that his hand that got cut- I always seem to hit them face first.
Glad he’s OK.
depending on the time of year, ALL OF THE ABOVE.
The opposite of the air conditioning one. No heat in the winter!
@Zeusandhera
Agreed…I lost power for a few days earlier this year…house got into the 40’s. If I had a reptile of fish tank at the time, they would have been in trouble.
@Zeusandhera Wood stove for the win! Although soon we’re changing to a high-efficiency coal stove to save our backs and the air quality.
No sump pump.
@FrostByte I have spent 12+ hours freezing while carrying 5 gallon buckets out of my B-I-L’s basement to fight that fight- we both vowed Never again!
/giphy flooded basement
Me: No different than turning off the lights.
Everyone in the operating room:
@mike808 Been there, done that- but as every hospital OI have ever worked in- 7 to date, has an emergency generator that is tested every month at a minimum, and goes on automatically in 2-3 seconds after power loss, AND OR’s have separate battery back-up that keeps power from even blipping- no muss no fuss
Power outages stink when you are either very cold or very hot. I have lived through both and don’t recommend it.
lack of condoms
@Pavlov That’s why so many babies were born 9 months after the great black out.
What worst part? I have a generator big enough to power my house.
@dotyj Which makes the worst part for me- generator noise!
Although as our gennie will be running out by the barn and nowhere near our house, mine isn’t too bad.
But other people’s gennie noise- I hate that.
@PhysAssist 'Tis true, my generator is noisy but it’s not as noisy as my lawn mower oddly enough. Still, I like keeping my fridge running, my ham gear running, my network running and be able to charge my powerchair.
I’ve not had to use my generator for more than four hours at a time and would never run it before 8:00am or after 9:00pm to be kind to the neighbors.
I have a switch panel in the house to switch between mains and generator so I don’t kill anyone. Only mains or generator can be selected, not both.
I have a generator. It’s not a whole house one though. During the last power outage due to a hurricane it worked out pretty well.
I didn’t have a window AC but a friend lent me one since they still had power. That was essential. We were so miserable the first few days without it.
I’m currently on well water, so it’s super frustrating when the power goes out. My diaphragm tank is pretty small so I can only get maybe 5-10 gallons of usable water before the pump needs to turn on. My street is supposed to get city water later this year, so that won’t be an issue anymore. (Hopefully.) I have an adapter cord I rigged up so I could use the pump on the generator, but I have to unplug most other things, so water usage needs to be planned. My neighbor lent me one of those big igloo drink coolers with the spout so I could use it for washing hands and what not and not waste my clean bottled drinking water.
no HVAC
No hot water. No hair dryer.
No water (local utilities off-line).
Warm beer.
@2many2no True dat!
…power outages are kind of romantic…
When we lived in the middle of nowhere until recently, we were pretty self sufficient. I got caught in the big tornado outbreak of 2011 and had no power for 9 days and lacked nothing (hubby was on the road). I could have still taken care of and fed an army if there were one around. Now, having moved to a city… I’m toast if that happened. Gotta get a generator soon.
@lseeber Prolly going to be illegal to run a generator in city limits, or is that even a thing?
I guess it depends on the city.
In any event, an inverter like the one I referenced above is a way to be prepared without adding another engine to maintain. Running off of a small 4-cylinder car like our Honda Fit is still prolly not all that efficient, but it isn’t awful, and it’s a lot less $ and maint. than a full-fledged generator
@PhysAssist hmmm… well… hadn’t never heard that but I guess living in the middle of nowhere for so long most of those that I know that have one are in the county. Guess I’ll have to look into that. I do think I have some inverters of dif sizes. Hubby trucked for his 2nd childhood and all that stuff is still lying around somewhere.
On a well system. Can’t flush toilets.without e!ectricity!
@jacatrow You can only flush once
@jacatrow pretty easy to fix. Get a 50 gallon barrel from rural King. Fill and cap. Get a bucket. 50g/1.6g equals 31.25 flushes.
Just had a 5 hour one on Saturday. I have a generator that handles some of the critical things. Water (We have a well),sump, Refrigerator, some lights and Internet. No TV, ac, electric stove, washer/ dryer, dishwasher or oven or most lights. Not bad this time of year but summer and winter not so much fun. During Sandy we were out a week.
A couple of your options (silence, reading light) were non-starters for me, but ALL the others COULD, depending on certain factors, BE the top one:
Duration of outage: < 3-4 hrs, option 4 is N/A
Timeframe of outage:
winter: option 5 is N/A
summer: option 5 is TOP (spouse w/MS)
nite w/no fav shows: option 1 is N/A
daytime: option 2 is TOP (telecommuting job)