Uninterrupted router & wifi

[Wadeski]

Where we live is pretty rural, and as a result power cuts are pretty common. The big (e.g. 3 - 24hr) ones are something you work around with generators etc, but now that my wife and I are working from home on Zoom a lot, its the little ones (less than 1 second!) that flicker the lights and cause the router and base station to reboot that are really interruptive during the day.

Is there an inexpensive way to smooth out the power supply to my internet equipment? Its only the very, very short ones I am interested in solving for.

[Scrump]

You need an Uniterruptible Power Supply (UPS).
See here for examples:
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/c/power-supplies-tran...

[seveb]

Would recommend something like this for basic home use.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/APC-Back-UPS-BE700G-UK-Un...

This will power your router/wifi device for a long time (hours) and has sufficient capacity to charge a phone as well.

[Wadeski]

Thats great, thanks. How do I calculate what wattage I need? the only equipment that will be connected is an ONT box (fibre optic version of a modem) and a Google Nest wifi hub.

[tribbles]

Have a look at the power supplies (if you can without unplugging them!) They will have an ampage (such as "3A"). This is the most current that they will consume, and is normally well over what they'll actually use. Let's say 5A.

Then, work out how long you want it to last - if it's 6 hours, then you'll need 30Ah.

Wattage for 5A would be 5 x 230, or 1150W.

However, for your router and Nest, it'll be closer to 1A. Edit: **well** under 1A.

Eta: the RBC17 battery (which I think is the replacement) for the APC linked above is 9Ah - although that's @12V (or 108Wh). If you had 1A draw, then that would last 108/230 hours, or 28 minutes (assuming 100% efficiency).

230 = mains voltage, btw.

Edited by tribbles on Monday 2nd November 18:38

[outnumbered]

If it's just to keep the network equipment working over brownouts, you'll be fine with the smallest one you can get.

[Gman20]

seveb said:

Would recommend something like this for basic home use.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/APC-Back-UPS-BE700G-UK-Un...

This will power your router/wifi device for a long time (hours) and has sufficient capacity to charge a phone as well.

I have this one, the es 700 with my router switch and modem connected, its completely overkill but seeing as the 400 models are only a few £ cheaper its worth getting one that will last for hours.

[Wadeski]

Yep I ended getting a 600w one, it was only $10 more than the entry level model. Should arrive tomorrow, looking forwards to testing it out!

[Gren]

seveb said:

Would recommend something like this for basic home use.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/APC-Back-UPS-BE700G-UK-Un...

This will power your router/wifi device for a long time (hours) and has sufficient capacity to charge a phone as well.

I've got this one with my modem, router, switch and Hive stuff coming off it. My old Hive hub would never reconnect as it takes a Virgin hub around 5 minutes to properly reboot by which time the hive had timed out and given up.

I now have my desktop and monitor coming off it as well. Gives me about 10 minutes if its all on - enough time to finish up what I'm doing. A whole lot longer if its only the networking stuff