Brownouts - From a Business Perspective

[hk blues]

3 minutes ago, jimeve said:

Battery itself would cost about P6,000 and same for an inverter, but you could run fans, tv, satellite box etc for a limited time.

A little pricey then if you are only looking to power a modem. Granted, you can run other stuff at the same time but they are low priority for me given the very infrequent nature of outages we have.

[Arizona Kid]

Sometimes we get the 1 or 2 second power drops. Powers off powers on. Computer needs to be restarted. Can't be good for the hard drive. Anyone have back up batteries for this type of situation?

[Howard]

1 hour ago, hk blues said:

I do online teaching so need reliable power for my router. You could do what I do - connect a cellphone powerbank to your modems with a 5v to 12v transformer cable sold on Lazada - it has the necessary connections and is made exactly for that purpose. We don't have many outages but they happen from time to time and my back-up system has never let me down. It can power the modem for much longer than your PCs will last so no concerns.

I just use my phone LTE and turn on the hotspot on the iPhone. I'll have wifi for as long as the phone battery and power bank(JBL Charge 3 speaker) last. But like you said my problem is usually the laptop. Bottom line, scheduled brownouts are no problem, and as long as I remembered to get a load on my phone and my laptop is fully charged unscheduled ones aren't so bad either.

[jimeve]

37 minutes ago, Arizona Kid said:

Sometimes we get the 1 or 2 second power drops. Powers off powers on. Computer needs to be restarted. Can't be good for the hard drive. Anyone have back up batteries for this type of situation?

You need an UPS for that, Uninterruptible power supply. 

[Arizona Kid]

8 minutes ago, jimeve said:

You need an UPS for that, Uninterruptible power supply. 

Is that a common thing?

[jimeve]

Just now, Arizona Kid said:

Is that a common thing?

For a desktop yes. laptops you don't need one they have their own power supply. have a look on Lazada.

[hk blues]

2 hours ago, Howard said:

I just use my phone LTE and turn on the hotspot on the iPhone. I'll have wifi for as long as the phone battery and power bank(JBL Charge 3 speaker) last. But like you said my problem is usually the laptop. Bottom line, scheduled brownouts are no problem, and as long as I remembered to get a load on my phone and my laptop is fully charged unscheduled ones aren't so bad either.

I could use the phone for some of my work, but a lot of the lessons I teach are using a bespoke video system which only works on a PC.

[OnMyWay]

My friend with the resto told me today that the power did not come back until 8:30 pm and he spent p6000 on diesel for the generator.  He has to send his staff with 5 gallon cans to the gas station to get the diesel.

[Howard]

2 hours ago, hk blues said:

I could use the phone for some of my work, but a lot of the lessons I teach are using a bespoke video system which only works on a PC.

You still are using the PC. When you turn on the WiFi hotspot on your phone you are creating a wireless network that you connect to with your PC... there will be a network name and password.... just search for wireless networks on your PC choose the network(ex:IPhone) put in the password and boom you are using the LTE from your phone. Just like connecting to a modem. Try it, you’ll like it! It also comes in handy when you change residences so you can do classes while waiting for your service to get reconnected.

[GeoffH]

13 hours ago, Arizona Kid said:

Is that a common thing?

Very common for computers where there is data entry that can be corrupted by a power outage.

I used to install APC (American Power Company) ups boxes by preference, they're well made, come in a variety of battery capacities and control types and there is easy availabilty of replacement batteries when (after 2 or 3 years) you have to replace the battery with a new one.

For home use you can extend the battery use past the 'recommended replace battery' date easily which adds another year or so.

Repacing the battery is easy too, just slide the cover off, unplug 2 connectors, put the new battery part way in, plug in the 2 connecters, slide it in the rest of the way and close up the box.

You just run your normal power lead from the wall socket to the UPS and the UPS has power sockets on it which you plug your computer into.

There are other brands that have reasonable reputations (GE, Toshiba are 2) but I don't know a lot about them/

 

I think they're available on Lazada but I can't check right now because I'm still in Aussie organizing the sale of an investment property here and will be for a few more months :(

Edited January 18, 2020 by GeoffH