Friday, August 28, 2009

Equipment and Power



Along with being a quad comes a lot of equipment that needs to be plugged in. I think I have at least seven power outlets in my room, not including two power strips. The first picture is of one of the power strips in my room. Each plug goes to some piece of equipment that I need and use. Whether it be my ventilator, my bed, or my suction machine, it's all important. Therefore, so is electricity.

I depend solely on electricity to stay alive because I'm on a ventilator. If there was no power, my ventilator would only run for 30 minutes or so on an internal battery before it would shut off. However, it is able to be plugged into an external battery. The batteries that I use are lithium batteries and can last about 3 to 4 hours. I plug my wheelchair vent into the external batteries when using it. It allows me to go places without having to be plugged in to an outlet.

The second picture above is of my battery shelf. It consists of backup batteries, battery chargers, and an oxygen tank on the bottom shelf.

When I use the ventilator in my room, it is plugged in to an outlet. One thing I have to worry about being on a ventilator is not having power. If the power did go out, I have a back up generator that's big enough to run the electricity in my room. It takes about 7 seconds to kick in after the power goes out. This allows me to stay plugged in in my room and not have to use external power to run my ventilator. Having a generator makes it a little less stressful when the power goes out.

Jenni

6 comments:

Matthew Smith said...

"A little less stressful" - that's kind of the understatement of the century, isn't it?

Is the generator reserved for the vent, or does it power other things in your room such as recharging the wheelchair batteries and powering the computer?

A few years ago I was working for this plant hire company and was delivering workmen's gear around shops in Surrey and Hampshire (the two counties to the south-west of London), and small generators were among the things I used to deliver. The guys who worked at one of the big depots called the generators "jennies".

Anonymous said...

wow same here... haha dependent on power and electricity to live.. let's preserve on.. i got alot of stuff in my room too and with tubes to me.. btw u din reply my email

jialiang

Jenni said...

Matthew-it is able to power anything that gets plugged in to my room. My nickname that my family calls me is generator. That's pretty funny.

Jia Liang-we share some of the same equipment. Sorry I haven't e-mailed yet. It's on its way.

Anonymous said...

ya... my ventilator is the same as yours.. just read ur email and replied to it

jialiang

Matthew Smith said...

I see; I thought you might have a rule that the generator was reserved for the vent, rather than whether it could be used for anything else, because you need them a whole lot less than the vent.

So, if there's a power cut and it's a dark evening, I guess you have a lot of guests as you're the only one in the house with light?

Matthew Smith said...

Hi Jenni,

I just thought you might like to hear about this:

Disabled sailor achieves record

This is the same Hilary Lister I mentioned in the comments a few entries back. She arrived back in the port of Dover around 6pm (UK time) this evening.