Load shedding for UPS?

[JimS]

Had a power outage this morning after I left for work and wife had left her phone at some friends by mistake the night before so it caused some frustration. We also lost Spectrum internet so that killed email and such so there was no way to communicate. The spectrum outage started later than the power and extended after power was restored so was apparently different issues. She was able to open the door manually to get the car out but it got me to thinking about things. I have our network stuff on a UPS but was thinking I might do some sort of load shedding for only the equipment in use to extend run time. Not usually an issue but would like to be prepared. For example, if the power goes out in the middle of the night there is no need to run all the network equipment then and it might have discharged the battery by the time I get up and want to use it.

Some other thoughts:
A cell phone with hot spot capability could provide network coverage in a pinch.

Have considered a small solar panel and battery. Not a grid inter tie system but just a small setup for powering some things without having to start the emergency generator.

What have others done along these lines?

 

[pete_c]

She was able to open the door manually to get the car out but it got me to thinking about things.

Some garage door openers today are sold with battery backup.

Neighbor set up all of his outdoor lighting with solar panels / batteries....worked well for him...

Found out relating to XFinity and located here in the midwest that if I have an area power outage here then XFinity goes out. I asked XFinity about this and they told me next transport from my distribution has no backup power and opened a ticket two years ago relating to this. I saw the service ticket opened by tech. It's never been done.

Ask your internet provider if they stay up during area power outages.

That said here have a UPS on the telco wall that supplies power to the Arris modem, PFSense Firewall, GPS/PPS NTP server, 2 voip boxes and managed POE switch. IE: if I have a power failure everything works except for the Internet now. The power draw keeps the telco wall running for hours. (literally).

You can add another network interface to your PFSense box. Here using a generic LTE modem which works fine for a failover to Internet. It has an RJ11 port for telephone, 4 ports and WiFi It does work with two VOIP boxes and internet OK. Streaming is so so.

Here is a Home Assistant overview of my UPS's. I am using NUT servers running on RPi's to manage the UPS's these days.

The TV UPS just powers the TV, AVR and Kodi box. Two powered subwoofers are not plugged in to the UPS.

Only have had two power outages here in last 5 years. Both less than 30 minutes. We had an XFinity outage this past week Mon or Tue which lasted some 12 hours. (no TV, no Internet so here firewall failed over to the LTE modem).

 

[keepersg]

We have a whole house generator to deal with this. Good investment given the number of prolonged power outages we've had. Small UPS units protect equipment sensitive to the few seconds before the generator comes on and from the various power glitches that occur when PGE comes back online. Like Pete, I also have an LTE modem as a fail over source for internet connectivity. Actually, works well enough to use streaming services. I felt that level of back up was essential to providing critical services remotely as was often the case during the pandemic.