UPS Options

For those of us that wish to remain voice connected during a power failure, it is usually a matter of opting for a UPS unit that will keep the ONT, Router and Wireless phone (connected to a port on the router) powered up for a while, the longer the "lights are on" the more expensive the UPS unit appears to be.

So in 2023, what are the best choices of UPS units to go for? My preference would be for a unit that has 3 or 4 13A sockets to make installing the units as straightforward as possible..

Thoughts from the community would be most welcomed.

Install solar panels with battery storage ... not the cheapest but has plenty of benefits including keeping all your network going for a hundred hours.

Your best bet is looking for a back up system that has 12v and 5v outputs as small UPS waste most of the power on the inverter.

Thanks Dan

Agree with both those comments.

I have a solar inverter with 7.1kWh of batteries and it's awesome for backup: but beware that many solar installations *won't* provide backup, because for safety reasons they shut down when the grid loses power. You either need a changeover switch to isolate the whole house and then energise the inverter in standalone mode; or you need an inverter with a second always-on output that goes to a separate consumer unit for an emergency ring. The latter is what I have.

It's not a cheap solution - but at current electricity rates I expect the whole system to have paid for itself in about 7 years. Of course you have to have a suitable roof aspect too; no good if your house is under a canopy of trees, or you live in a ground-floor flat.

Today, if I were doing just a standalone UPS for ONT/router, I'd go for a DC one. I did used to have APC BackUPS devices: one failed after a couple of years, and the replacement I gave away when I no longer needed it.

I also agree with Dan.

I've spent some time in the past pondering the merits of the various options on offer and have come to the same conclusion as he and many others have. The units providing mains voltage output are really designed to allow sufficient time for safely shutting down relatively high power equipments such as desktop computers; they are not really configured to provide the longer duration, low power needed for modems, ONTs, routers, switches, ATAs, phones, etc. However, more suitable units are available.

As it happens, I have one of each, an APC unit with 6 3-pin protected outlets supplying my desktop, and NAS. The other is a Talentcell Mini UPS with 4 12V DC, 1 9V DC and 2 USBA 5V/2A outputs. This latter unit powers the ONT and Synology router using the 12V cables supplied with the unit, plus a Grandstream HT801 ATA using my own USB cables. The ATA feeds a basic analogue phone to maintain contact with the outside world during power cuts.

The last time I disconnected the mini ups to run a discharge, recharge cycle*, I forgot to reconnect it until some 8 hours later when my wife started complaining that her ipad wouldn't connect to the internet. So it definitely does the biz!

(Search Amazon for 'talentcell', other makes are available ... )

(* - not obligatory by any means, I just prefer to exercise the battery from time to time.)

My small comms room already has a dedicated ring final and I cannot see loading going over 500w or even at the extreme 800w with additional PoE devices.

The intention is to get that ring relocated so it uses the permanent on output from the inverter.

Living in an area where mobile coverage is pretty non-existent and recently getting connected to full fibre, I bought an Anker 521 power station. It isn't a UPS, rather we'll plug the ONT and router in to it in the event of a power cut and it should keep them going for a while. When the fibre was installed we moved the landline number to AAISP VoIP and have softphone apps on out mobiles so no need to keep a home phone powered up.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-Portable-Station-Gene...

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

For those of us that wish to remain voice connected during a power failure, it is usually a matter of opting for a UPS unit that will keep the ONT, Router and Wireless phone (connected to a port on the router) powered up for a while, the longer the "lights are on" the more expensive the UPS unit appears to be.

So in 2023, what are the best choices of UPS units to go for? My preference would be for a unit that has 3 or 4 13A sockets to make installing the units as straightforward as possible..

Thoughts from the community would be most welcomed.

Have a read of this..
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/guides/how-to-stay-on...

Note that some kit is designed as a 'UPS' (always on) some are not so do check.. also a UPS with 1000VA isn't going to last twice as long as one with 500VA given specific output wattage.. There's DC UPS (covered on that page) which are probably great for shorter outages and tiny also and you don't lose in converting to AC. Power stations are great for portable power but check recharge times and always on functionality..

Note as others have said, a UPS is not necessarily what you want, with this in mind maybe something like a Ecoflow river 2 will give you hours of backup. A short extension with multiple sockets make it easy to plug in whatever you want, also useful right now if you have cordless phones.

Advanced warning of planned power cut here - well so it says from UK Power Networks in their letter. However they got the date completely mudded up - it says Wednesday 19th May 2023 - which isn't a correct date....

So I called the helpline and after a pause, some umming and feverish re-checking the incident notes (and clearly some embarrassmen)t the lady on the line admitted the letters were printed in error and the correct date is Wednesday 19th April 2023. So tomorrow, not next month. Oops!!!

There might be some unhappy people about here if the power is indeed out from 9am to 1pm!!

I better post to a note to "lost cats and weirdos" aka Nextdoor to let the neighbours know.