Hey. So my power went out, and now I realise that I could do with a small UPS that might power my network devices (modem, router, switch, and AP) for a period of time… I don’t know, how long can you run networking equipment off a UPS?
Im not so concerned about computers etc. I can run a laptop, and the internet its self runs on lines that are self powered.
Id be considering the ability to keep powered as I mentioned a few devices (some ubiquiti stuff, all failrly standard power, no rack based stuff.
modem
router
switch (this does have PoE for the AP, but the AP is the only thing powered)
AP
What do I need to look for? are there go to brands?
I have a cyber power brand UPS on my network equipment. 1000va, pure sine. It’ll run the gear for hours, I also have my home theater system plugged in, so I can watch tv during on outage, because, why not right
Nah, it doesn’t seem often, and I think there short (ive only been here 6 months), it was short tonight, not worth a generator as a battery would last plenty.
Yeah, but id need to hook up a generator to a battery anyway to cover the time it takes to have it automatically turn on. Everything has maintenance. but were not talking hours of downtime, were talking seconds to minutes (assuming a tree doesn’t take a power line down), but im just looking to cover those short downtimes where I expect the power to come back on either immediately or within 5-10 minutes without needing to wait for all my networking to boot back up.
I have 4g here, but its the uninterruptible part im interested in, the internet line wont go down unless theirs a networking fault, they have backup power at the exchange. So its literally my network that’s suspetable to power outages.
True, but batteries keep things running without interruption so we have time to save our work and stuff. Our CyberPower 1500PFC LCD has a USB port that goes to our main Synology DS1618+ NAS, which has built-in support for both reading info from the UPS as well as providing a UPS service to the other NASes.
Your modem/router/switch/AP will draw a tiny amount of power. A UPS will power them like there’s no load on it at all. But due to inefficiencies, that won’t be as long as it could be… For example, an Eaton 5SC-500VA estimates 100min of runtime on a battery with zero load. You’ll waste quite a bit of electricity keeping a UPS running all the time, for the rare occasions you need it, and need to replace the batteries every 3-5 years. If not for your PoE switch, you might be able to use a 5/12V “DC UPS” to power all that equipment more efficiently and longer for less money and power wasted. They are basically battery packs like you might use to charge your cell phone.
Consider cheaper, more efficient alternatives, like putting your cell phone into hotspot mode to provide internet during an outage. Or keeping a UPS around but shut-off, then only hooking it up during outages when you need some communications.
Not off the top of my head. I’ll need to have a look tomorrow.
In reality probably not long. There’s three main issues, short changes in power that might trip everything for a second, outages they may last anywhere from 5 seconds to 10 or 15 minutes, and outages caused by damage to the power lines that could leave me without power for hours (potentially up to 36 hours or more if it’s bad).
The last situation i don’t care about for the moment. What I’m more interested in is preventing power loss to my networking equipment more specifically for the short outages that may occur. Anything longer and that gives me time anyway to switch to 4g.
Theres UPS units that can have more batteries added, too, that my dad looked into, but the cost is too high really to get to where we could run for even a whole hour with both our PCs. And that’s not even doing rendering. So he decided reading is better. If it was gonna be days, we’d load stuff into the car and go someplace that had power so he could work.
We have those roll-up solar charger/battery things for phones/tablets, too.
UPS are sadly overpriced imo (I have no idea what the BOM is tho so I guess I could be off, but prices seem crazy to me) Guessing its just the business tax
That’s a good consideration. I know that batteries are pretty available here. I’d need to look at what replacement costs would be, it doesn’t look to expensive with a quick search.
A NAS may be something i consider, but at the moment half my stuff isn’t hooked up. The PC I’m less concerned about as i tend to do most work on a laptop and they have their own ups built in only loss would be the external monitor potentially.
I’m noticing this. Bet you those first party battery replacements are a 300% markup
only loss would be the external monitor potentially.