Do you have battery back-up for your home fibre broadband: Is it worthwhile?

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Jase2985

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#2205850 27-Mar-2019 19:34

frednz:

Chorusnz:

@tripper1000

As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, Fiber works fine in a power cut as long as you can power your ONT and router. The local cabinets are passive and the rest of the network elements have backup power meaning that, for a while at least, you can continue to use during a wider power outage.

If you can keep your ONT and router going for, say, 4 hours during a major power cut, do you think that fibre broadband would also be able to keep going for that long?

yes, absolutely, those with just batteries will likely get a generator shipped in for a long power cut, and others have batteries and generators already there so just need topped up with gas. so they will last indefinitely.

you will likely run out of power before they do.

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Aredwood

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#2206011 28-Mar-2019 00:51

I have a 270W solar panel and some large deep cycle 12V batteries. To keep my internet running long term. Also for charging cellphones and running a small inverter if needed.

Also have a 3phase 4KW generator. As in a longer power outage, being able to run the fridge, lights, and temporarily bodging power to the heatpump. And depending on what kind of disaster happens, also being able to run power tools and household water pump.

Having Internet access means that you can use the Facebook Disaster Response feature to mark yourself as Safe. And in turn avoiding unnecessarily clogging up bandwidth that would be needed for emergency services to make and receive phone calls. Or for any injured / trapped people to call for help. Otherwise you would get all of your extended family and friends all trying to contact you, to see if you are ok.

And if you dont use Facebook, you can still use instant messaging or email to tell family/ friends that you are OK. So you wont be using call routing capacity that might be needed for more important tasks.

fe31nz

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#2206013 28-Mar-2019 01:47

Wheelbarrow01:

I have never bothered with UPS. Assuming there is some sort of civil defence emergency happening, I imagine I would be more concerned with ensuring the safety and security of my family than catching up with MAFS on demand lol.

Having said that, my Ford Ranger has a 240 volt power outlet in the back seat, so powering small appliances and charging phones/laptops etc is still possible for as long as I have fuel in the vehicle. I guess I could run an extension cord to my ONT if I was super desperate.

I would check the specifications on the Ranger's 240 volts before assuming it is OK for all devices. There are plenty of inverters that produce crappy AC power (square waves, for example) which will damage many devices.

webwat

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#2207835 30-Mar-2019 20:39

BarTender: I picked up a UPS to run my home gear and the ONT included. There are plenty of them on Trademe normally with a battery that needs to be replaced.
It gives me 4 hours of batter and only needed it once when we had a power cut.
If you have a home server or NAS then it might be worth it. Otherwise I wouldn't bother.

But some of them squeal when the power goes out (which seems to happen at 3am) so better to get one that is quiet during an outage. Also worth noting that both the ONT and router need to be on a UPS, as well as anything essential that might include your ethernet switch -- for example if you have an IP alarm or a VoIP phone in your home office.

Time to find a new industry!

webwat

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#2207837 30-Mar-2019 20:42

Aredwood: I have a 270W solar panel and some large deep cycle 12V batteries. To keep my internet running long term. Also for charging cellphones and running a small inverter if needed.

Also have a 3phase 4KW generator. As in a longer power outage, being able to run the fridge, lights, and temporarily bodging power to the heatpump. And depending on what kind of disaster happens, also being able to run power tools and household water pump.

Having Internet access means that you can use the Facebook Disaster Response feature to mark yourself as Safe. And in turn avoiding unnecessarily clogging up bandwidth that would be needed for emergency services to make and receive phone calls. Or for any injured / trapped people to call for help. Otherwise you would get all of your extended family and friends all trying to contact you, to see if you are ok.

And if you dont use Facebook, you can still use instant messaging or email to tell family/ friends that you are OK. So you wont be using call routing capacity that might be needed for more important tasks.

Looks like the whole suburb should be able to charge phones at your place 😃

Time to find a new industry!

Aredwood

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#2207975 31-Mar-2019 00:06

webwat:
Aredwood: I have a 270W solar panel and some large deep cycle 12V batteries. To keep my internet running long term. Also for charging cellphones and running a small inverter if needed.

Also have a 3phase 4KW generator. As in a longer power outage, being able to run the fridge, lights, and temporarily bodging power to the heatpump. And depending on what kind of disaster happens, also being able to run power tools and household water pump.

Having Internet access means that you can use the Facebook Disaster Response feature to mark yourself as Safe. And in turn avoiding unnecessarily clogging up bandwidth that would be needed for emergency services to make and receive phone calls. Or for any injured / trapped people to call for help. Otherwise you would get all of your extended family and friends all trying to contact you, to see if you are ok.

And if you dont use Facebook, you can still use instant messaging or email to tell family/ friends that you are OK. So you wont be using call routing capacity that might be needed for more important tasks.

Looks like the whole suburb should be able to charge phones at your place 😃

And they would be able to find my house just by following the Wifi signals.

littleheaven

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#2211177 5-Apr-2019 10:53

I have a 5kW solar array on my roof with a 10kW battery attached to the house. This powers my "critical circuit" in a power cut, which includes my living room lights, microwave, fridge, ONT and modem and a couple of power points in the kitchen and living room. It's worked great on the few occasions where the power has gone off. The battery picks up automatically if grid power is interrupted and normally the only way we realise the power has gone out is if the TV suddenly goes off.

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timmmay

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#2211178 5-Apr-2019 10:55

@littleheaven how much did that cost you to get installed? Most solar systems are grid connected so they turn off automatically if the mains goes off.

littleheaven

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#2211182 5-Apr-2019 10:59

It was part of Vector's SunGenie pilot scheme - about 3k to get the panels put on the house and the switchboard upgraded, and $115 a month lease, fixed for 12 years. It's not saving me any money (battery too small to hold all the summer generation and not enough winter generation to be worthwhile) but I like the backup factor. I can even ask Vector to put it into "storm mode" if the weather is likely to be severe. They will top the battery up to 50% and instruct the system not to drop below that level, so if we do have a power outage I have enough power to last for a decent amount of time. There was talk about making that user-driven via the web interface but it never eventuated.

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

Currently using: Custom-built AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Desktop, 2021 iPad Pro 11", iPhone SE 2020, AppleTV4.

Jase2985

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#2211421 5-Apr-2019 16:16

timmmay:

@littleheaven how much did that cost you to get installed? Most solar systems are grid connected so they turn off automatically if the mains goes off.

yes solar systems, battery solar systems are normally different they will let you use your batteries in a power cut, only on specific circuits of the house, and will isolate the grid to protect workers.

there are some newer solar systems that will protect the grid in the even of a power cut and allow your to use your solar power without the grid.

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