Medical equipment at home: what runs in a power cut?

Only equipment with its own battery keeps running in a power cut, and only for as long as that battery lasts. The rest stops the moment the grid fails. A house backup battery on a separate back-up board keeps the concentrator, the cycler, the mattress, the fridge and the internet running automatically. Agree the medical side with your doctor and the supplier of each device first.

Your father sleeps with an oxygen concentrator. Your partner uses a stairlift, or your child is fed by a pump at night. On a Dutch forum, one member named his reasons for back-up power: medical equipment, a stairlift and a water bed. On Reddit, another wrote that an outage is no disaster, "unless you have something in the house that must always stay on".

The part that is easy to miss: a power cut takes out more than the device itself. The internet box stops, so a VoIP or fibre phone goes silent. A personal alarm on mobile data sends its signal for only minutes. And the grid operator does not come to your street first because someone at home depends on a machine.

In a house in Wetteren, the entire home runs on a battery on three-phase. When the public grid fails, everything in the house keeps working.

Which medical equipment at home stops in a power cut?

Every device that runs on mains power stops, unless it has its own battery or sits on a back-up supply. The list is longer than most families think.

A Belgian health site lists aids that cannot be used or charged in a power cut. It names the aerosol device, the alternating mattress, the suction device, the home dialysis machine and the high-low bed. It also names the patient lift, the personal alarm, the feeding pump, the stairlift, the oxygen concentrator, the wheelchair and the scooter.

Sources for the table: the aid list and the care tips come from gezondheid.be. Oxygen comes from the medicines agency, dialysis from NIDDK, the stairlift from Handicare.

Does the grid operator give priority to a home with medical equipment?

The outage advice of Belgian grid operators has no priority scheme for homes with medical equipment. Fluvius says: "Do you use medical equipment that cannot do without power? Then call 112."

Fluvius lets you receive a text message or e-mail at the start and the end of a power cut, via Mijn Fluvius. If you untick text and e-mail, you only get a letter for planned interruptions. In Wallonia, ORES asks you to report an unplanned cut as fast as possible on 078/78.78.00. Neither outage FAQ mentions a priority list for patients at home.

France does have one. Patients at high vital risk can register, and the grid operator then warns them by letter five days before a planned cut. Even there, the health agency writes that the system "does not guarantee" that these patients are exempt from cuts.

Oxygen concentrator in a power cut: how long does the reserve bottle last?

As long as its volume allows, and a small bottle is often too short. Belgium's medicines agency asks every concentrator user to provide "another oxygen source" for a power cut.

The same recommendation tells you to ask your doctor or the supplier which reserve system you need. A Belgian health site adds that the emergency bottle should bridge about 3 to 4 hours of outage. The small 400-litre bottles usually do not suffice, it warns; the pharmacist can advise.

A concentrator is also a real consumer of electricity. One common model uses on average 280 watts at 3 litres per minute. The health insurance even pays an electricity allowance: 1 euro per day of use for a device that uses a lot of power. For a portable concentrator only, it is 0.50 euro per day.

Home dialysis in a power cut: what does the machine need?

It depends on the type of dialysis. Peritoneal dialysis by hand (CAPD) needs no machine; automated peritoneal dialysis uses a cycler that runs on power.

A cycler fills and empties the belly three to five times during the night, while you sleep. Patients who choose it also learn to do the exchanges by hand, "in case of a power failure", as the American kidney institute NIDDK writes. A home dialysis machine also appears on the Belgian list of aids that cannot be used without power.

The Belgian health site advises home dialysis patients to discuss a power cut with their dialysis centre or doctor in advance. They are the ones who decide what happens to the treatment; a battery only decides whether the machine keeps its power.

Stairlift, electric bed and air mattress: what happens to mobility and care equipment?

A stairlift with batteries usually keeps going for a while; an alternating air mattress goes flat as soon as the power fails. Beds and lifts stay where they are.

Handicare writes that its stairlifts have batteries, so they keep working during a power cut. How many trips you get depends on the model and the charge, so ask the maker. A lift between floors stops, which is why ORES advises avoiding the lift during a planned cut.

For care equipment, the health site gives three practical tips before a planned cut:

• Charge everything that has a battery: feeding pump, scooter, wheelchair, portable concentrator.
• Put an electric bed in the right position before the power goes.
• Lay a mattress under an alternating air mattress, because it goes flat when the power fails.

Those tips work when the cut is announced. A storm or a fault gives no warning, and it often comes at night. Then only equipment on a back-up supply keeps working.

Personal alarm, phone and internet: can you still call for help?

Only as long as the network behind them has power. A VoIP or fibre phone at home stops with the internet box, and a personal alarm keeps sending for minutes to hours.

Proximus explains it plainly: a modem needs electricity, so internet, VoIP and TV stop in a power cut. Its mobile antennas have batteries for at least 2 hours. When they run out, 112 calls go through the antenna of another operator, as long as one is still working.

A home battery keeps your own internet box, Wi-Fi and alarm base station powered. Whether the line behind them still works depends on the network in your area. So also keep a charged mobile phone at hand, and ask the alarm supplier how their system reports a power cut. Want the router and fibre box on back-up too? Read how to keep working from home through a power cut.

Which devices belong on a back-up board, and what does a home battery add?

Put everything on the back-up board that someone's health depends on, plus the fridge, lighting, heating controls and the internet box. The battery then takes over within 20 milliseconds, fast enough that electronics keep running.

We can connect your main systems and equipment separately to the battery. Or the whole house runs on the battery, as in Wetteren. A single-phase house in Sint-Niklaas runs on full back-up. When the grid fails, the solar panels and the battery keep it powered.

Three settings matter more than the battery size:

• A reserve that is never used for savings. Victron's ESS has a minimum state of charge that the battery only goes below when the grid fails.
• An alert on your phone. In Kapellen the owner gets mobile phone alerts, for example when the battery is charging from the grid.
• A plan for days, not hours. For long cuts, a generator can recharge the battery: read whether a generator can recharge your home battery.

How long does it last? A concentrator at 280 watts uses about 6.7 kWh in 24 hours. A 15.4 kWh battery, as in Wetteren or Sint-Niklaas, holds that more than twice over on paper. The fridge, lighting and heating share the same battery, so size on everything on the back-up board.

The medicines agency also asks not to run a concentrator on an extension cord. A back-up board feeds the normal wall sockets, so no cable has to run across the floor to a power station. How such a board is built is explained in how a full no-break house is wired.

When is a home battery not the right answer?

When the equipment keeps someone alive and the medical reserve is not yet in place. Then the supplier's reserve comes first, and a battery comes second.

Other cases where it is not the first step:

• One small device, a few hours a night: ask the supplier about a battery for the device itself first.
• A short, temporary care period: the supplier's reserve and a charged phone may be enough.

Do you run a practice or a care home rather than a home? Then read what must keep running in a care home, medical practice or pharmacy.

How do we set up back-up power for a home with medical equipment?

We start from the list of equipment and your longest outage, not from a battery size. Our team has three certified battery specialists.

1. Step 1: You list every device with its type plate, and what the supplier says about its own battery and reserve.
2. Step 2: We measure your consumption and decide: a separate back-up board, or the whole house on the battery.
3. Step 3: We size the inverter and battery for the back-up board and set the reserve. Where cuts can last days, we add a generator input.
4. Step 4: We install and commission the system. In the free VRM app and portal you see the battery at work, also during a power cut.

Also have pumps in the cellar or a well? Then read which pumps must keep running in a power cut. Or see what our home batteries do when the grid fails.