home router battery backup

Wed Jan 12 19:25:14 UTC 2022

> On Jan 12, 2022, at 10:37 AM, Aaron C. de Bruyn via NANOG <nanog at nanog.org> wrote:
> 
> On Wed, Jan 12, 2022 at 10:18 AM Andy Ringsmuth <andy at andyring.com> wrote:
> Given that most people barely even know what their home router is, I suspect the percentage would be somewhere south of 1 percent. Outside of my home, I honestly cannot recall EVER seeing someone’s home using a battery backup for their internet infrastructure.
> 
> Same here.  The only people I've seen that have battery backups for their home routers are fellow geeks.  I even bought one and shipped it to my ~70-year-old mother...and she just doesn't want to install it.  "Too complicated".
>  
> I personally do, but of course I (and probably everyone on this list) am by no means representative of the population at large in this particular area.
> 
> Same.  My home office has 3 Cyberpower 2500 VA double-conversion UPS units backed by Champion transfer switches.  Power goes out, and ~45 seconds later I'm running on generator power.
> My local ISP runs out of power well before I do.  Thankfully there's Starlink.
> 
> Short of an asteroid hitting my office, it's highly unlikely I'll ever be offline. ;)

In my case (California, home of SCE and PG&E), we have been notified by our electrical grid operators that power can go down at any time, for any reason, and any duration. I have just moved, so I am speaking in a historical context and future plans, but we have solar electricity as well and have a battery in the home that in effect backs up part of the house. We don't back up the Internet service, because frankly if power is down in the grid I'm not sure my favorite router is all that important, in addition to the considerations already mentioned. But power can and does go down - even without asteroids.