Toward Disaster-Resilient Ventilation : Considerations for a New Power Supply Approach (Preliminary Report)

Abstract

In the event of a major disaster, home ventilator users are difficult to evacuate and are at high risk due to power outages. The current countermeasure, a dedicated internal/external battery (hereinafter referred to as “battery”), has a runtime of approximately a few hours, making it difficult to cope with prolonged power outages. The recommended power source for ventilators is a commercial AC power supply from a standard wall outlet, and there are also restrictions under the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act regarding the use of alternative power sources. In this study, we verified the direct current (DC) output of a portable power supply and a power supply method using a dedicated DC cable. As a result, long-term operation was possible with low power loss and low power consumption compared to alternating current (AC) output. This method is useful as a practical countermeasure for power outages in the event of a disaster, and its implementation and dissemination are expected in the future.