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

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Do you have battery back-up for your home fibre broadband: Is it worthwhile?

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87 posts

Master Geek

#2205423 26-Mar-2019 23:13

I almost asked for a cheap generator for Christmas from Family last year, but settled with a solar panel and regulator to charge my small selection of 12volt lead acid gel cells I keep around in my workshop charged. 12 volts covers emergency lighting,routers and radios quite well, and with a cheap car laptop adapter covers laptop and netbook recharging well too.

At another property we have, I'll be putting in a UPS quite soon since we have shifted to VDSL and VOIP. It is a remote semi-rural location with poor cellular coverage, unique security needs, and a long call out time from emergency services. A working landline at all times is a necessity. I'll probably keep an external 3G magnetic coupling antenna around there too just in case.

richms

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#2205424 26-Mar-2019 23:14

inversion and switching power supplies are pretty damn efficiant now, so doing that means you can use the approved power supply by the vendors, and keep all isolation between devices as they should be. Connecting multiple things to a DC supply with no isolation between them is a recipe for groundloops and other problems.

Richard rich.ms

michaelmurfy

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#2205431 27-Mar-2019 00:22

I have a UPS powering my network cupboard - just a small APC Back-UPS CS 650. It powers everything for around ~20mins and shuts down my server safely in the event of a prolonged power outage.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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Wellingtondave

159 posts

Master Geek

#2205439 27-Mar-2019 01:35

I'm going to address this in terms of importance. My view.

1. Major disaster. Talk to your local Civil Defence coordinator, they have licensed / C.B radio (but coordinated) in an emergency. Nothing else is going to work.

2. Some disaster. Provision enough battery backup capacity to charge cell phones for a short emergency (and you probably won't be able to get through to 111 if you need it).

3. Localised [suburb level] power outage, just want the Internet as a convenience - up to you as to the amount of time you want. I have 4-8 hours without doing anything like running extension cords.

sbiddle

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#2205452 27-Mar-2019 07:09

The Fuelcube seems to be a very expensive solution to the problem, and is expensive because it's a) a lithium battery and b) converting DC to AC (and then you're converting back to DC to power the ONT). If you really want to do that you can buy a UPS for a fraction of the cost of the Fuelcube.

The constant vigil is a much simpler and much cheaper solution that quite simply just works.

Wheelbarrow01

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Chorus

#2205605 27-Mar-2019 12:41

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.

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

Talkiet

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#2205638 27-Mar-2019 13:25

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.

Was going to write exactly this... It's what I did.

Buy a decent small UPS with a dead battery and then buy a new battery for it. Many smaller APC UPSes use pretty generic SLA batteries.

I have my ONT / RGW / Switch / Wifi / Home automation controller / Video cameras and NVR all on a small UPS.

But I'm Mr Overkill. I'd be relatively happy running without a UPS. I also have a 2.2kw generator I can pull out if there's an extended power issue.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

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tripper1000

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#2205661 27-Mar-2019 13:43

Hey, there could be an elephant in the corner that no one is talking about:

Is there any point keeping the ONT running in a wider area power outage - what backup does the upstream fibre gear have - if any at all? Hopefully one of the Chorus guys can clear up:

If it has no back-up, or only a few hours, then it is pointless setting the ONT up with expensive battery backup.

I remember from the Chch earth quakes that most of the cell sites have only limited battery backup (hours, not days) and the telco's had to deploy portable generators to keep them on line (which dumb-ass selfish people were stealing), then set about refuelling them regularly to keep them on line.

timmmay

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#2205667 27-Mar-2019 13:53

Fiber works fine in a power cut - I know as I've had multiple power cuts and my internet has kept workking. The cabinets around the suburbs are passive, they're powered by substations. The substations have UPS and generators, so they can last a while in a power cut.

It's useful for example to have internet to get information about the power cut.

You have to power your router and ONT. The Sentry Lite does that.

mclean

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#2205699 27-Mar-2019 15:01

Most small UPS's are line-interactive, which means they don't do a double-conversion in normal operation - the load only goes through the invertor when the AC supply is lost. That's why they run so cool. Also with a UPS you should be getting voltage regulation and surge and noise suppression.

Whenever there's a power glitch I find the clack of the UPS very reassuring.

sbiddle

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#2205701 27-Mar-2019 15:03

tripper1000:

Hey, there could be an elephant in the corner that no one is talking about:

Is there any point keeping the ONT running in a wider area power outage - what backup does the upstream fibre gear have - if any at all? Hopefully one of the Chorus guys can clear up:

If it has no back-up, or only a few hours, then it is pointless setting the ONT up with expensive battery backup.

I remember from the Chch earth quakes that most of the cell sites have only limited battery backup (hours, not days) and the telco's had to deploy portable generators to keep them on line (which dumb-ass selfish people were stealing), then set about refuelling them regularly to keep them on line.

Equipment at the Chorus exchanges are all have battery backup and generator.

Chorusnz

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Chorus

#2205767 27-Mar-2019 16:53

@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.

dc2daylight

87 posts

Master Geek

#2205773 27-Mar-2019 17:06

timmmay:

Fiber works fine in a power cut - I know as I've had multiple power cuts and my internet has kept workking. The cabinets around the suburbs are passive, they're powered by substations. The substations have UPS and generators, so they can last a while in a power cut.

It's actually really handy to know this, and makes me feel happier about running servers at home if needed for a project or whatever else. I suppose it's safe to assume that this doesn't apply to all substations and cabinets as a rule though?

Also if we need 48volts DC and the copper loop never got cut or disconnected from the MDF we can siphon power from a substation for weeks. j/k

frednz

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#2205782 27-Mar-2019 17:30

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.

Thanks for your post. So the key thing is being able to power your ONT and router during a power cut, which you can do using one of the backup systems referred to in this thread.

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?

Of course, there's another problem for those who might be using Spark's internet sports feed to watch, for example, the Rugby World Cup later this year. That is, your large television screen will also go down during the power cut. So perhaps you need to have your battery powered tablet / mobile phone ready to go to receive internet broadcasts in the event of a power failure.

Or perhaps you know of a way of keeping your 65 inch TV going during a power cut as well?

mclean

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#2205791 27-Mar-2019 18:07

frednz: ….Or perhaps you know of a way of keeping your 65 inch TV going during a power cut as well?

You'll need the beer fridge and the toastie grill as well. A 5 kVA genset should do it nicely.

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