Home programs and weather outages

Hey Marty, about your generator…what brand/model are you using and what technical modifications were needed to the house? Simple hookup? Complex hookup?

Bear wrote:

But don’t forget - a UPS is NOT like a generator. IT will smooth dips & spikes and it will run for a short while if the power drops out completely. But if this is the case, and it’s going to be off for a while, not just a switching problem, you’re going to want to return the blood & come off anyway, so all you save is a bit of ‘elbow grease’ in not having to manually crank the re-infuse.

We were told the longest running UPS can run as long as 8 hrs. and is about $300. Is this not correct?

From what I understand, how long a UPS will last depends on the electrical requirements of whatever is plugged into the UPS. One thing to think about is that if the UPS internal battery runs down and you have a power outage that lasts too long, you won’t be able to recharge the UPS to use the next day. Therefore, a generator may be a better option if you want to prepare for longer lasting power outages.

We have only spoken to a person or two, but our understanding so far (and it may not be correct), is that a generator, as opposed to a UPS, for the purpose of backing up the NxStage machine, would be the difference between a few hundred and a few thousand $$$.

Our conern is that we have power outages of anywhere from a few minutes to a few hrs. pretty often in our area. It usually is not a 2 day occurence, however. If a really bad hurricane came, we would elect to just bail out and go somewhere safe to ride it out. We just want to establish if there is a reasonably priced UPS (under $300) that will properly back up the machine. We have heard a UPS can provide backup for as long as 8 hrs, so this is what we are trying to confirm.

We are taught that if the power goes out for more than a few seconds, to hand wind the blood back and come off. Of course if the power has been out for a while and you werent aware, you will have to dump the blood circut. The machine alarms when the power goes off, but its not as annoying an alarm as the actual machine.

In my area there has been a few power outages now and then but that has not caused me to run out and buy a generator…if I get one in most cases it will just sit there un-unused! I can miss up to 2 days and that’s what I have reserved if I ever lost power for a day…but really this is something very rare in my area…

Hey

We had a power out that went on for 4 days. (PA) We called “Peco” and were told to go hosiptal . That there was only 49 people on our line so we were not on the top of the list. I’m on nxstage , so I just packed it in the car went to my sister, did my tx there. After the power came back on I talked to the man up the street and he has a gen. that is hooked up to his main box. When you lose power it not just tx, here it everything. the bathroom (water pump in ground) stove , lights, fridge, freezer. I don’t want to lose my food and try not haveing a bathroom. We had to fill buckets from local lake to use bathroom , and that gets old. My electrician will be here this weekend 8/6/06 and he and I will talk on what is best for our house.

:smiley:

The generator is a Briggs and Stratton. We bought the generator through a contractor who installs them for grocery stores. The contractor did the installation for us. There is no modification to the home it is wired into your main electric box. However you do have to run a gas line to the generator which the contractor did. The generator itself sits outside in back of the house. It comes on once a week for a self-test to be sure it is working. It did cost a couple of thousand. Our decision to purchase one was not based on dialysis alone. We considered the need for heat and air conditioning; we considered food spoilage, and we considered being able to continue on with our lives in a normal fashion should there be a power outage. As a plus it is nice to have a TV, computer and be able to do laundry, have lights, and continue on during a power outage instead of waiting for the power to be returned. We don’t have alot of power outages in our area but just once for about 6 hrs convinced us it was time to start thinking about a generator. I also find the problems they have with the National Grid a little concerning. I don’t trust that we won’t at some time find it going down and affecting our area.