Mini UPS for BT Router

[this is my username]

Elderly MiL has a fall alarm which runs through her BT router. The alarm unit has its own battery, but the router doesn't. She lives in a village which has regular power cuts. All compounded at the moment by the recent removal of the local cell tower with the replacement planned for months in the future.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a small UPS / battery backup for a BT router? There are loads out there and its hard to know which are good and which are junk!

Thanks

[Mr Pointy]

APC are usually a reliable brand:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Uninterrupted-Power-Suppl...

[TikTak]

APC are most peoples go to. You can get them in "chunky" extension cord style so it'll just be plug and play.

Like this for example - https://upscentre.co.uk/onlinestore/product/apc-ba...

Worth considering that if the "village" is having the power cut there is a possibility that keeping the router online might not maintain the connection if the local exchange or cabinets are also down.

[Harpoon]

I have an APC BE850 to keep my VDSL modem & firewall alive. Went for one of these as it has a mute button for the alarm as I don't want it beeping in the middle of the night if the power drops for a few seconds.

https://www.se.com/uk/en/product/BE850G2-UK/apc-ba...

Might also be worth speaking to BT as they may a offer BBU for free with your MIL having an alarm.

[Lucas Ayde]

Many of the AC battery banks either have a dedicated UPS mode (usually the higher capacity ones) or are a de-facto UPS being able to charge and power simultaneously.

[QuartzDad]

Harpoon said:

I have an APC BE850 to keep my VDSL modem & firewall alive. Went for one of these as it has a mute button for the alarm as I don't want it beeping in the middle of the night if the power drops for a few seconds.

We've also got this one, it's five years old now on the original battery. Kept the router running for 6+ hours when 3 of us were working from home a couple of months ago and the power went.

[shtu]

BT provide specific 12-volt UPSes to vulnerable customers, and it sounds like you may qualify for one.

I bought a BT one myself as we have more power cuts than average. If you take theat route, be aware there are two -very similar- models, so be careful which one you buy. One is for the ONT (if you have one), one is for the router.

You can also buy generic 12 volt (and other voltage) ones.

In general, these are far better than 240 volt ones, as the runtime is much longer, and it's also a fair chunk more efficient as you're not wasting power to step down to charge batteries, step up again to 240 volt, and back down again via the power brick.

Edited by shtu on Monday 8th June 11:50

[Condi]

You can get smaller ones which are designed for routers or small NAS units.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yuuki-Power-Battery-10400...

It depends how long the power outages are, if it's just regularly 15/20 mins then a small one will be fine, if you need it to last hours then you're better with a bigger unit.

[Mr Pointy]

I've just looked at that APC UPS & the minimum draw is listed as 55W but my router only pulls 18W & that's the PSU rating, not the actual device draw. Has anyone tried running just a modem/router from them?

OP: also note the run time - even with just the minimum load you will only get a little over an hour of run time so don't skimp on the size.

[this is my username]

Thanks everyone - your comments helped me find the "official" BT battery backup supply, and I have acquired an unused one of eBay. £30 seemed like a bargain compared to spending hours on the phone with BT, and with any like it will require minimal tech-support from me :-)

[Murph7355]

this is my username said:

Thanks everyone - your comments helped me find the "official" BT battery backup supply, and I have acquired an unused one of eBay. £30 seemed like a bargain compared to spending hours on the phone with BT, and with any like it will require minimal tech-support from me :-)

Make sure to check how long it will actually run the router for.

Also, does it have alerting? Might be useful to know when the power's off.

(I started out with a small APC unit...then moved rurally and have a large APC unit. Good kit).

[MesoForm]

this is my username said:

Thanks everyone - your comments helped me find the "official" BT battery backup supply, and I have acquired an unused one of eBay. £30 seemed like a bargain compared to spending hours on the phone with BT, and with any like it will require minimal tech-support from me :-)

If it doesn't work let me know as I've just moved into a house where the previous owner left theirs. It was plugged in when we got here so I'm assuming it was working OK!

[S6PNJ]

Condi said:

You can get smaller ones which are designed for routers or small NAS units.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yuuki-Power-Battery-10400...

It depends how long the power outages are, if it's just regularly 15/20 mins then a small one will be fine, if you need it to last hours then you're better with a bigger unit.

I didn't particularly realise you could get ones like these, though I have my own 'heath robinson' ones. I've just done a look on AliExpress and the exact same unit is here - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008721968287.h... but cheaper - this is the 18000mAh unit. The promo video even has the same music to it!