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Power cuts.

brendajorsler
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Registered: ‎05-12-2014

Power cuts.

I have a lot of power cuts and am due for some in the next couple of weeks to renew cables.  Is there a way that I can run my router using a battery.  I have my laptop with spare batteries.

If not is there something that I can buy from PlusNet or elsewhere hat I can use ?  I do not have a mobile phone.

 

Thanks

11 REPLIES 11
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Power cuts.

Yes, @brendajorsler you can, what you need is an Uninterruptible Power Supply aka a UPS.

Baldrick1
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Re: Power cuts.

@Anonymous 

I looked at these and did not recommend one to the OP because, apart from the cost, I was unsure as to how long they would keep a router powered after a planned power cut. Figures like 700VA are all very well, but for how long? It's VAh and Wh that matters. This can be low if you only want to sustain the supply for long enough to shut a computer down in a controlled manner, but what is needed to keep a router alive using the standard power socket is a relatively high VA rating to feed the switching power supply, but a battery capacity of around 10Wh for the router plus the power needs of the UPS for each hour of operation  It doesn't sound that arduous but I have no idea what battery capacity these devices have.

Do you have any experience of using one of these devices for this sort of application?

Obviously the best solution would be to unplug the router power supply and feed the router directly fron a battery backed LV dc power supply but as far as I'm aware there's nothing available off the shelf that's compatible.

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Power cuts.

You raise some very good points there @Baldrick1, which I why I didn’t single any specific device and provided the link I did. As for experience all I can say is that in my cabinet I have 3 UPSs 2 * Kenable and a Tripplite as a backup!

The Kenables are both 800VA and they run the entire contents of cabinet if the power fails, the contents being:

1 X Roof Cooling Fan
1 X Apple AirPort
2 X Modems
2 X TP-Link Switches
2 X Routers
1 X Synology NAS
1 X Synology Expansion
1 X QNAP NAS
1 x Dell D720 

However, some of the devices are configured to use an APC Powerchute VM Server so all of the greedy stuff is shutdown after 30s of failure. The only things left running are the Switches, AirPort, Routers and Modems.

But I always (have to) turn these off manually when it’s evident that the power’s not returning as it’s pointless for me to keep them running as my network relies on PowerLine adapters so I can’t say how long they’d last on their own.

Having said that I’m fairly sure that a small router / modem would easily run for hours on an 1000VA unit.

brendajorsler
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Re: Power cuts.

Many thanks for the suggestions.  I used to do caravanning and used a 'leisure' battery to give power to a laptop and fridge.  Not sure if I could get something like that for the router.  It can't need a lot of power ?

Baldrick1
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Re: Power cuts.

It needs only around 10 watts so a small inverter should do the job. It's certainly less than a laptop.

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pint
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Re: Power cuts.

wrinkelyom
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Re: Power cuts.

The 2740 router is 12volt at 1500mA so you could run it directly off a 12 volt car battery

or a small battery to ac inverter

brendajorsler
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Re: Power cuts.

That sounds more like I was trying to power a nuclear reactor rather than a router !!

brendajorsler
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Re: Power cuts.

That seems to only have a USB output.  My router has a 3 pin normal plug on it.

brendajorsler
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Re: Power cuts.

That is very similar to what I used in my campervan.  I had my vehicle 12 volt battery connected to an inverter.  The inverter had a 3 pin socket.  I used to just plug the inverter into the cigarette lighter to get battery power.  Would there be a way to connect to connect the battery to the inverter.

Many thanks

 

pint
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Re: Power cuts.

[quote]That seems to only have a USB output.  My router has a 3 pin normal plug on it.[/quote]

The linked to device has a USB output, plus a 12 volt output the router power lead goes into the input on the white mini UPS, and then another lead links it to the routers 12 volt input