Medical devices and outage planning, house side

The power went out last storm and the machine in the bedroom, or the fridge with the pens, is what you actually worried about. This is the house side of that problem: which outlet, how many watts, how many hours, and what has to be written on a generator or battery quote. It is not a diagnosis, not a device recommendation, and not a substitute for your clinician or your equipment supplier. FDA’s home-use booklet is the worksheet they already published for this, and Ready.gov is the outage checklist that sits next to it.

FDA: Home Use Devices, power outages (PDF)

Ready.gov: power outages

If you are still choosing a machine for the house, start with battery vs standby generator. Stay here when a device you already have has to keep running when the utility does not.

What does “house side” even mean?

The clinical plan is your doctor’s. Backup oxygen cylinders, extra batteries that ship with the device, and whether you can skip a night on CPAP are questions for the supplier and the clinician, not for a home-systems article. The house plan is everything around that: the outlet, the circuit, the transfer switch, the runtime math, carbon monoxide if you run a generator, and a written trigger for when you leave.

FDA’s disaster tips say to notify the electric company and the fire department that you have a device that needs power, to read the instructions or call the distributor about batteries or a generator, and to check settings when power returns because many devices reset to a default.

FDA: medical devices and natural disasters

Ready.gov says to talk to your medical provider about a plan for power-dependent devices and refrigerated medicines, and to have alternate plans for refrigerating medicines. They also say generators go outdoors, at least 20 feet from windows, with carbon monoxide detectors on every level.

That is the split. We will stay on watts, circuits, and the bid.

How do I turn the sticker into hours?

Find the nameplate on the device or the power brick. You want watts. If you only see volts and amps, multiply them: 120 volts times 0.5 amps is 60 watts. Hours of use times watts is watt-hours (Wh). Divide by 1,000 to get kilowatt-hours (kWh), which is how batteries are sold.

A 60-watt load for eight hours is 480 Wh, or about 0.5 kWh. A 350-watt load that runs all day is 8.4 kWh. Those two jobs do not fit on the same “small power station” brochure. The first one might. The second one is a generator conversation or a large battery plus a way to recharge it.

Do not size from a blog table for “typical CPAP” or “typical concentrator.” Humidifiers, heated tubes, and higher flow settings change the number. Measure yours, or use the highest watts in the manual, then add a margin so you are not planning to the last percent.

Write three columns on a card you can find in the dark: device, watts, hours you need. Put the fridge that holds medicine on the same card. Ready.gov says a closed refrigerator stays cold about four hours, and a full freezer about 48 hours. After that you are on ice packs, a cooler, or a different location, and they say to throw out refrigerated medication after more than a day without power unless the label says otherwise. Ask the pharmacist before the storm, not during it.

Ready.gov: power outages

Which circuit should this live on?

If you already have a critical-load panel, the device belongs on a circuit that panel actually feeds. A bedroom outlet on the main panel does nothing when the transfer switch only carries the garage and the fridge. Walk the house with the electrician and point at the plug. Get the circuit number in writing.

If you do not have a subpanel yet, do not solve this with a cord in the dryer outlet. The inlet box and a listed transfer method are the legal path for a portable generator. An interlock or an automatic switch is the path for a standby. The device does not care which, as long as the watts fit and the exhaust is outside.

A well is a separate motor problem. If the house needs water for the device, or for anyone in the house, the well pump on backup starting watts have to be on the same quote.

What should three real-looking setups mean?

Setup A, one night of a small load. Device under about 100 watts for a sleep window, plus a phone. A device-maker battery pack that the supplier actually rates for that model, or a small inverter that the manual allows. This is not a three-day ice storm and it is not a concentrator that runs around the clock. Harvard Health quotes Dr. Scott Goldberg, at Brigham and Women’s, saying people dependent on an electric device should have charged external battery power good for at least 48 hours, or a generator, and should check whether the utility has a medical backup program.

Harvard Health: how to protect your health in a power outage

Setup B, essentials battery. A 13.5 kWh-class home battery on a critical-load panel. EnergySage puts that install around $15,647 before incentives. Fridge, internet, lights, and a modest medical load can fit if you shed everything else. A 350-watt all-day concentrator is most of that pack in a day, so you still need a recharge path or a generator behind it.

EnergySage: solar battery cost

Setup C, standby generator on the circuits that matter. HomeGuide’s whole-house standby band is $6,000 to $11,000 installed for a typical job, more when the run is long. Fuel is the runtime, so natural gas or a propane tank you can actually refill during a regional outage. The quote has to name the device watts and the starting watts of anything else on the same switch, not “whole house” as a vibe.

HomeGuide: whole house generator cost

If Setup A is what you bought and the last outage lasted 36 hours, you already know it was the wrong size. Move the conversation to B or C before the next storm, not during it.

What has to be on the backup quote?

1. The device watts, from the nameplate or the manual, not “CPAP” as a category.
2. Hours you need on night one, night two, and after 72 hours, because Ready.gov’s kit thinking is days, not minutes.
3. Which circuit, which panel, and whether the transfer method is automatic or you have to be home to throw it.
4. Starting watts for motors on the same panel (well, sump, furnace blower, fridge compressor).
5. Fuel or recharge: natural gas line, propane gallons, or solar that still produces when the grid is down.
6. Placement and carbon monoxide: generator outdoors, at least 20 feet from openings, detectors with battery backup on every level, as Ready.gov writes it.
7. What happens when the device loses power and comes back, because FDA says settings often reset.

Ask the electrician to put the device on a dedicated receptacle if the bedroom share is already a hair dryer and a space heater. Shared circuits trip at the worst time.

How does this go wrong?

You size a power station from a “CPAP” graphic and then turn the humidifier on, and the pack dies at 2 a.m.

The concentrator is on a bedroom outlet that is not on the critical-load panel, so the expensive battery runs the hallway lights and not the machine.

A portable generator sits in the garage “just for tonight” with the door cracked. FDA and Ready.gov both treat that as carbon monoxide, not as a workaround.

You skip the utility’s medical baseline or life-support registry because the form looked like marketing. Call them anyway. Programs differ, and they do not replace a house plan, but they are how some utilities prioritize restoration.

The quote says “whole home” and does not list the device. Whole home is a sales size. Your list is the job.

You plan to “just go to a hotel” and then the region is full, the elevator is out, or the device is not allowed in the car the way you thought. Write the leave-the-house trigger in hours remaining, not in hope.

How do I decide this week?

1. Copy watts and hours off every electric device and the medicine fridge onto one card, and keep the manuals in the same folder FDA asks you to build.
2. Call the utility and the fire department and tell them a device in this house needs power, then ask what registry or medical baseline they actually run.
3. Ask the equipment supplier what they rate for batteries, cylinders, or a generator, and write down what they will not cover.
4. Map the outlet to a circuit and to whatever backup you already own, using the critical-load list so you are not guessing in the dark.
5. If the load is a sleep-window machine under about 100 watts, price a supplier-rated pack for 48 hours and a way to recharge it.
6. If the load runs all day or the last outage went past one night, get a standby or battery quote that names those watts, and put generator exhaust and CO detectors in the same conversation.
7. Write the hour at which you leave if remaining runtime will not cover the next night, and tell one neighbor that number.