What backup power does a care home or medical practice need in a power cut?

Backup power for a care home or medical practice puts the loads that protect people on a self-starting source. Think oxygen, the nurse call, emergency lighting, heating, the medicine fridge. Our guide to emergency power supply for your business compares UPS, generator and battery. Business battery systems also hold a fixed reserve and cut your peak daily.

Running a care home, group practice or pharmacy? Picture six in the evening in January without grid: residents on oxygen, the vaccine fridge, the lift, the internet phone. Nobody knows for sure.

Our full no-break systems run a whole building on a battery, at roughly practice scale. See the homes in Peer (5 kVA, 15.4 kWh), Wetteren and Kortenberg (three-phase, 9 kVA).

What stops working in a care home, and which loads need backup power first?

Almost everything that keeps residents safe. The Walloon 2014 circular to care homes lists no lift, no heating, no lighting and no call system from the rooms. Add no locked access, no kitchen, no water and no telephone.

A power cut in care is not one problem but twenty small ones at once. A generator bought "for emergencies" only helps if someone started it under load before. IT managers know the UPS that passed its self-test the day before, and still failed.

The Flemish checklist for care homes by Zorgnet, approved by the Agentschap Zorg en Gezondheid, goes room by room. It is the best list we know.

The fire detection panel has its own back-up of normally 12 hours, checked every year by law. So says the same checklist on power shortage and the load-shedding plan (version 18.11.2014).

Then sort each load by how fast it needs power again. The Belgian electrical code AREI does the same: the operator gives each load a "function-retention time", based on a risk analysis.

The Walloon continuity plan translates the tasks that must go on "at all times" into electrical consumption. That translation sets the power of your back-up, not the size of the building.

What backup power does a GP or medical practice need?

Mainly phones, computers, the medicine fridge and light, so you keep seeing patients and stay reachable. In a long cut, devices, internet and telephony stop, the Dutch GP association LHV warned in 2025. "This directly affects the continuity of GP care."

Many practices phone over the internet. The line dies with the router and the switch, even if the phone has a battery. Put the router, the switch, the telephone system and one or two computers on the back-up circuit first.

A treatment room adds an examination lamp, a steriliser, an ECG or a nebuliser: small loads. A practice rarely needs more power than a large house, but it needs it without a gap.

How long does a pharmacy or vaccine fridge last in a power outage?

Count on about one hour between 2 and 8 °C, door closed. That is the NHG minimum for a practice fridge (the Dutch GP college), at a room temperature up to 30 °C. The fridge must also alarm when the power fails.

Your own fridge lasts longer or shorter depending on how full it is and how often the door opens. For Belgian pharmacies, the FAGG-AFMPS guide to good pharmacy practice asks for storage that matches each medicine. It also asks for regular temperature checks and suitable equipment for products with special conditions.

Did a vaccine leave its range? Do not throw it away, says the Flemish Departement Zorg. Mark it, set it apart and keep it between 2 and 8 °C. Then report it to Vaccinnet, which tells you if it can still be used.

For a pharmacy, a cut costs the stock in the fridge and the hours you cannot serve, not the electricity. Cash registers, the medicine robot and the prescription software stop too. For bigger cold rooms, read how long a battery keeps a cold room cold.

Is a care home or nursing home required to have a generator in Belgium?

We found no general duty to have a nursing home generator, but essential services must keep running and there must be a plan. The Walloon norms for care homes name no generator. They do require a call system residents can use "at any time", day and night.

The same norms ask at least 22 °C in all resident spaces in normal weather, and medicines stored at 25 °C at most. Buildings with residents upstairs often need a lift, and none of that works without power.

The Walloon circular of November 2014 found that, with few exceptions, care homes lack back-up for their essential needs. It asked each home for a continuity plan, sent to the mayor. In Flanders the Zorgnet checklist asks for a risk analysis and an emergency plan "power cut".

Once you install a back-up source, the AREI applies. A safety source switches on by itself when the normal source fails, with documented maintenance. Hospitals are not covered here.

Generator, UPS or battery: what fits a care home, a practice or a pharmacy?

A practice or pharmacy usually does well with one self-starting battery system. A care home usually needs a generator for the long cut, with a battery or UPS for the seconds before it runs.

A Victron MultiPlus-II takes over in under 20 milliseconds, fast enough for computers, says Victron. A Victron GX controller starts and stops a generator by itself, for example on the battery charge. See combining a generator with a battery.

Critical infrastructure uses the same blocks, as the video of a Victron back-up system for an airport control tower shows. UPS, hybrid inverter or battery inverter? Read which inverter a business needs.

For short, announced cuts, some homes rent. In 2014 the CPAS (public social welfare centre) of Namur gave its five care homes a generator, at about 20,000 euro each, RTBF reported. The Christian health insurer in Namur, with five other homes, rented back-up equipment for a few hours instead.

How big must the backup power be for a practice or a care home?

Add up the power of the loads that must keep running, then multiply by the hours to bridge. Power (kW) sets the inverter or generator; energy (kWh) sets the battery.

Invacare lists an average of 280 watts at 3 litres per minute for its Perfecto2 V oxygen concentrator. Ten residents on it draw about 2.8 kW. The nurse call, a medicine fridge and a network cabinet are small; the lift and the heating are big.

That 15.4 kWh is the battery in Peer and Wetteren; our business battery systems scale to modular installations of 1 MW. For a care home, the honest answer is often a battery for the critical circuits and a generator for the building. A battery for 24 hours of heating and cooking gets very large.

Put the critical loads on a separate distribution board, with the kitchen, laundry and offices off it. The battery stays smaller and lasts longer, and everyone knows what keeps running. The AREI calls that the plan and the list of critical installations.

Can the back-up battery also pay for itself?

Yes, if the control keeps a fixed reserve for the cut and lets the rest work every day. In a Victron system you set a minimum charge in the energy management (ESS). The battery only goes below it when the grid fails.

Above that reserve, the battery stores solar power and cuts your quarter-hour peak. Many care homes have large roofs and use power all day. In the 2022 energy price spike, a care home in Ciney had already ordered 560 solar panels, local broadcaster Matélé reported.

Read how to calculate the capacity tariff for your business and when peak shaving with a battery pays off. A battery indoors in a care building raises fire-safety questions; business battery safety covers the fire service, permits and insurance.