Backup Power for Medical Devices

Do these two things before buying anything

Call your equipment supplier. Medical device suppliers deal with this constantly. Many sell or recommend a battery matched to your exact machine, with the right DC cable, and some provide one as part of the service. That conversation is more valuable than anything we can tell you, because they know your device's real consumption.

Register with your utility. Most US utilities maintain a medical priority or life-support registry. Being on it can affect restoration order and means the utility knows to contact you about planned outages. It is free, it takes one call, and a surprising number of people who qualify have never done it.

The CPAP case, where the electrical detail actually matters

A CPAP is a modest load — tens of watts — which makes it an excellent battery candidate. But there is a specific technical point that makes a large difference, and most general advice misses it.

Most CPAP machines run on DC internally and accept a DC input. If you power one from a general AC power station, the battery's inverter converts DC to AC, and the CPAP's own supply converts it back to DC — two conversions, each losing energy. Run it from a DC battery with the correct cable and you skip both.

The size of the difference shows in the published claims. A purpose-built CPAP battery at 297.6 Wh claims 2+ nights of use; a general-purpose 292 Wh power station is a similar capacity but spends part of it on conversion. The purpose-built unit's advantage is real and it comes from this.

So the practical advice is straightforward: on battery power, turn the humidifier and the heated tube off. It is less comfortable and it roughly doubles or triples how many nights you get. Confirm with your supplier that running without them is appropriate for you.

Check compatibility carefully. EASYLONGER's listing names ResMed S9, AirSense 10/11, AirCurve 10/11 and AirMini, Philips DreamStation, and also Sefam S.Box, Resvent iBreeze, Apex iCH and Löwenstein Prisma. Find your machine on the list, or ask your supplier, before ordering.

The short answer

Picks for a CPAP

#	Product	Best for	Score	Price
1	EASYLONGER ES960 CPAP Battery If the backup power question is specifically about a CPAP, a purpose-built DC battery outlasts a general power station of the same capacity — buy this rather than a bigger box.	CPAP specifically	7.5/10★★★★★	$269.99
2	Jackery Explorer 300 Buy this for devices and medical equipment, not appliances — and at 7.5 lb and 4,000 cycles, it is the easiest preparedness purchase on the site.	Phones, laptops, a CPAP	7.3/10★★★★★	$259.00
3	Bluetti Elite 30 V2 The small power station with genuinely useful output, as long as you understand 288 Wh means that output lasts minutes, not hours.	Highest output of the small units	7.0/10★★★★★	$249.99

#ad Prices as of October 5, 2026; they may have changed since. Scores are our editorial judgment from published specifications, not test results — how we pick. How we are funded.

Refrigerated medication

Insulin and other refrigerated medications are a small, steady cooling load — which is to say, the same problem as a refrigerator but smaller. The published refrigerator figures are 400-700 running watts with a 2,200 watt surge, and a dedicated small fridge is less.

A 1-2 kWh battery with a 3,000 watt surge rating covers a refrigerator for a day or more on our arithmetic. Units with UPS switchover under 10 ms are particularly suited here, because the compressor never stops and the temperature never rises at all. Several of the power stations we list publish that specification.

Ask your pharmacist about your specific medication's temperature tolerance — some have more latitude than people assume, and knowing the real limit changes how much backup you need.

Oxygen concentrators and higher-draw equipment

A home oxygen concentrator is a substantially larger load than a CPAP, and a portable concentrator is different again from a stationary one. We are not going to publish a wattage figure, because we have no cited source for one and this is equipment people depend on.

What to do: read the nameplate on your unit for volts and amps, multiply for running watts, and take that figure to your supplier and to the load calculator as a custom load. Then size a battery from watt-hours divided by that draw, with 10-15% taken off for inverter losses — and size generously, because this is not a load where running out is acceptable.

For equipment at this level, a generator is often the right answer rather than a battery, precisely because it runs as long as it has fuel. If so, read carbon monoxide safety carefully — the stakes of getting placement wrong are higher in a household with someone already medically vulnerable.

For larger or longer-duration needs

Longest fridge runtime per watt-hour

Anker SOLIX S2000

$679.99·View on Amazon43% off

Expandable whole-circuit backup

Jackery HomePower 2000 Plus v2

$1,069.00·View on Amazon11% off

Quiet backup at a sane price

Champion 4,500W RV Ready Inverter

$674.10·View on Amazon10% off

Two low-idle-draw batteries suitable for staying plugged in permanently, and a quiet inverter generator for when the duration exceeds any battery.