Let’s face it. Even if you are already signed up with the best Retail Electricity Provider, your power may go out. It might be a half-second blip, or it might be several hours, but there is always a chance. Hurricane season increases the likelihood of these events.
Most of us should be familiar with using surge protectors to safeguard our expensive and critical electronics. Do you also have a battery backup solution?
Every power blip threatens to bring down the Wi-Fi, which will interrupt your business call if you are working remotely, or kick the kids off an online game (which might not be a bad thing). Anything you don’t want losing power, for a few seconds or even a few hours, can be kept going with the proper battery backup.
A battery backup, commonly known as an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) unit, ensures that connected electronics do not experience an outage when the main electricity source goes out. There are a few ways an UPS may accomplish this, but all you need to know is that a UPS has an internal battery which stays fully charged until an outage, at which point it keeps the connected devices running for a period of time.
UPS units come in several varieties, and knowing what solution is best for you can help save you money and frustration. Usage considerations range from home office to datacenter, with plenty of reasonably priced options for the average consumer.
Here are a few questions to get started:
Equipped with this information, you are ready to look for a solution.
For a network cabinet or small home office, a smaller UPS should suffice. These can be found at the $50-100 range, often less during a sale. If you want to attach more devices or add several hours of uptime, you can expect to spend $200-500.
For reference, in my home we have our network gear (modem, router, Wi-Fi hotspot) backed up with a 450 VA UPS. Our internet never goes out during intermittent outages and will stay online for several hours if needed, giving us plenty of time to send work emails, monitor the weather, and stay in contact with coworkers, friends, and family.
My home office has a 1350 VA UPS, which powers a work desktop, a dedicated server, and a few smaller peripherals. In the event of an extended outage, I have plenty of warning to cleanly wrap up projects and back up my work to the cloud before powering everything down.
A final important consideration, in case of prolonged outages, it is always a good idea to have a small, portable backup to charge your phone. These are designed to fit in your pocket or purse and come in handy any time you are away from an outlet and need to charge your phone. Just make sure to keep this battery charged, as it will gradually lose charge when not plugged into an outlet! You can also find solar powered variants of these chargers.
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