nanog mailing list archives

Re: home router battery backup


From: Michael Thomas <mike () mtcc com>
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2022 11:41:40 -0800


On 1/12/22 11:25 AM, Fred Baker wrote:

On Jan 12, 2022, at 10:37 AM, Aaron C. de Bruyn via NANOG <nanog () nanog org> wrote:

On Wed, Jan 12, 2022 at 10:18 AM Andy Ringsmuth <andy () andyring com> wrote:
Given that most people barely even know what their home router is, I suspect the percentage would be somewhere south of 
1 percent. Outside of my home, I honestly cannot recall EVER seeing someone’s home using a battery backup for their 
internet infrastructure.

Same here.  The only people I've seen that have battery backups for their home routers are fellow geeks.  I even bought one and 
shipped it to my ~70-year-old mother...and she just doesn't want to install it.  "Too complicated".
I personally do, but of course I (and probably everyone on this list) am by no means representative of the population at large in this particular area.

Same.  My home office has 3 Cyberpower 2500 VA double-conversion UPS units backed by Champion transfer switches.  Power goes 
out, and ~45 seconds later I'm running on generator power.
My local ISP runs out of power well before I do.  Thankfully there's Starlink.

Short of an asteroid hitting my office, it's highly unlikely I'll ever be offline. ;)
In my case (California, home of SCE and PG&E), we have been notified by our electrical grid operators that power can go down at 
any time, for any reason, and any duration. I have just moved, so I am speaking in a historical context and future plans, but we have 
solar electricity as well and have a battery in the home that in effect backs up part of the house. We don't back up the 
Internet service, because frankly if power is down in the grid I'm not sure my favorite router is all that important, in 
addition to the considerations already mentioned. But power can and does go down - even without asteroids.

We just installed a battery too, but it will probably only last ~1 day and much less than that in winter. We're in the process of looking at a generator that interfaces directly with the inverter so that it handles the grid, the battery, the solar and the generator along with the transfer switch. It's gone from being the occasional nuisance in the winter to all year long these days. Our power outage over the holidays lasted 12 days. This isn't just a rural problem anymore in California, it's a pretty much everywhere problem now.

Mike


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