Battery backup for a router

Undervalued

Niv said:

Cisco001 said:

I would just hotspot from my work mobile.
Powerbank would be the back up for phone and laptop...

Anyway, Screwfix & currys sell Anker and Ecoflow portable power station if that is what you after.
I assume they are decent brand.

Well, that's part of the question, portable power station implies charge it and then use it. I do not want that I want a UPS, plugged to the mains all the time with the router plugged into that so in the event of a power cut the router stays on. I don't want to have to manually plug it in every time there is a power cut - if I am working on cloud systems they don't always save if you just 'disappear' . Similarly the hotspot idea does not work for the same reason as the wifi will drop.

My router seems to have a 12 volt DC supply. So it would be very easy to "float" it on a 12 volt lead acid (or gel cell) battery which has a mains powered trickle charger. That is how wired intruder and fire alarms have worked for a generation or more. Also how traditional telephone exchanges have been powered back to well before the 2nd world war (except they were 50 volt).

Frozen_up_north

In answer to an earlier question, the 650 and 850 APC units use conventional lead-acid gel batteries. The batteries are widely available, but beware that many similar types have narrow terminals, which are half the width of those used by APC and wouldn’t fit correctly.

Heedtheadvice

That schnieder recommended is good but if you need 12 float charging a gel battery is a good and cheap option, If properly packaged.

CPC also have a good range of them

Routers are generally low power so a 1000VA deep discharge  version would give you an hour or two (depending upon router AC power supply. Handy data on the Amazon site) and until very low power consumption loads ( for equal discharge specs) time will be roughly prorata to power consumption

victor2

I use a small (about 20W) solar panel charging a 12V car battery to power LED light strips and a 12V fan in a children's playhouse in the garden. The charge controller for the battery gives 12V and 5V USB outputs. Could a similar arrangement provide power to the OP's router?
I have a friend who is a car mechanic and often has to replace customers batteries when they are no longer capable of starting the car. They would just go for scrap, so about once a year he gives one to me and it's fine for another 12 months of my operation. 

subjecttocontract

I haven't had a power cut in the UK for at least 25years, so not worth doing anything in my opinion. Worked In Germany, never had a power cut, worked In Spain and had them regularly.

matelodave

We get short duration power cuts at least once a week, sometimes up to five minutes but we've also had couple that have lasted several hours (we live in Cambridgeshire, so not really where you'd expect them).

Its a bit of a irritation but we keep some torches handy together with spare batteries. Candles are also avaiable if all else fails.

I've made my own 12v UPS with a module from AliExpress and a couple of 18650 cells which will keep the router going for nearly two hours. Our Optical Network Terminal also has a back-up battery using NiMh cells (supplied by BT when FTTP was installed nearly six years ago), so we are OK using laptops for an hour or so. We dont let the phones go flat but we also have a power bank, just in case.

mark_cycling00

I get about 4-6 cuts every winter. When child was baby I bought a jackery battery that can supply about 2kWh of power. They're always on 50% off offers. Allows for essentials to keep baby fed, watered, lit and have internet for many hours. Has loads of power outputs. Previously it was candles and basically nothing else. No food or tellie tubbies does not make a happy baby!

Ideally I'd be able to power the pump in the boiler but it's hardwired etc.

Also got it cos I want to be prepped for a cyber attack on the power network. 

I haven't used it much but I feel much much better having it. It will stay at 100% charge for months although you're probably not supposed to keep it at 100% all the time

Also you can take it on day trips or long journeys and probably boil a kettle to make tea or noodles, have decent lights when camping etc.

Other brands exist, I wouldn't say Jackery are better than others 

Welshspacechick

I work from home and have an Anker power bank for my laptop in case of a power cut, with regard the router /WiFi my employer put a 5g SIM card in my laptop and if the WiFi cuts out it just switches over to that and is fairly seamless. Before that I would hot spot off my phone data. Hope this helps. 

QrizB

Undervalued said:

My router seems to have a 12 volt DC supply. So it would be very easy to "float" it on a 12 volt lead acid (or gel cell) battery which has a mains powered trickle charger.

Worth noting that the "official" BT backup for their smart hub seems to be exactly that; a box containing a 12V 7Ah lead-acid battery, a float charger, a power cable to suit the hub and some basic monitoring electronics.

See examples on eBay:
https://ebay.us/m/aTBusX

Niv

Thanks for the added thoughts all. Some interesting options out there.

I get approx. 20 power cuts a year, so this isn't a 'just in case' thought in my case. I also thought it was important that its uninterrupted as 'fairly seamless' etc reads like there is a break.. which defeats the point, I work on some cloud based systems that you may expect to save as you go but ... nope not all do I have found, so if I get a random power cut (well router disruption) I can lose work which is the core of what I am trying to avoid. I may reassess that though to try and determine how big an impact that has as a PowerStation or some of the other options you guys have come up with, as it would at least allow me to get back online 'promptly'. I don't like dropping out of video calls either.