I am a new trach/vent patient (as of 6/2/04), and I have a question. I use a LTV 950 from Pulmonetics, and I am looking for a dry or gel cell battery to use during commercial flights. Knowing nothing about batteries, do any of you have any recommendations for good dry or gel cell batteries with at least a 16 hour life?
It is only reccomended to use Pulmonetic batteries.
<Charlievents>
Posted
Hello Joseph:
Have you seen Pulmonetics small travel batteries (very small - the size of a paperback book? They last 3 hours each & I borrowed them from Pulmonetics to go to Japan in June 2004. For the story and pictures (See http://www.pulmonetic.com/quality_of_life/audrey_king.aspx?202624375
Thank you so much, Aurdey! I just recently stumbled on to the page about the lithium ion battery from Pulmonetic. I e-mailed them for more information, but I've not received a reply. I am going to call my equipment provider soon to see if I can borrow two batteries.
May I have your e-mail address? (Mine is jbtodd2@gmail.com .) I would love for us to correspond. As a new vent patient who is interested in living on a vent, not being on a vent, I think I could learn a lot from you.
Write to me anytime. P.S. "Charlie" is my cat - hence "charlievents!!"
<preferred homecare>
Posted
you can use a battery from MK Called U-1 part number MU-1 SLD G their phone # is 1-800-372-9253
<Dave Tolle (RRT, RCP) ret>
Posted
Portable ventilators are designed to be able to meet some high workoads if needed. Users with more normal lungs use less power than those with stiff lungs or higher minute volumes. Each vent will have a DC circuit breaker rated in amps. That value is the highest DC current draw allowed for that unit before the safety breaker trips. On some vents you can measure the DC amp used in a particular patients case by placing an ameter (multimeter, digital or analogue) in line while a battery is in use. The power draw will vary being nominal during exhalation and maximal at peak pressure. With a little math you will derive the average amp draw for that utilization. Deep cycle batteries are all rated in amp hours. Divide the average amp requirement of the patient into the amp hour rating of the battery and you'll get hours of available use time on a fully charged battery. This will give some guidelines for battery use periods,etc.... There should always be a wide safety margin of power or additional DC sources available if need requires. Also solar panels put out DC power and can be used to recharge batteries or directly supply DC power to ventilators as long as the power output ratings are within user needs and maximum safety (actually what you do is put batteries in-line with them to act as big capacitors).
