UPS for Home

[jaedgar]

Hi all,

Does anyone use UPS's for their network?

Looking for power for PC (Blue Iris), 2 x PoE network switches supplying 5 cameras, hubitat of course.

Not sure on sizing and requirements?

[mik3]

Yep, I do. I have for a long time.

Something like APC has a sizing forum you can fill out. It will advise you.

[broberg]

Would be nice with a small ups for the hub if it as sensitive to power failures as a raspberry pi..

i.e a ups that the HE has support for and when connected can do a safe shutdown on power failure.

(I do have a ups for my server rack, but my HE is not near the server, so a small, powerbank-size, ups would be nice.)

Hubitat should sell this

[StephenH]

If something like this were compatible, it would be great.

www.amazon.com/dp/B07JKBM2C8/

However, I would need it to power both a C4 and C5 Hubitat.

Edit: The USB side would work great for the C5 Hubitat but the C4 needs 5V also and the mini-UPS listed above only has options for 9V or 12V on the output jack. It also only lists 1A for output and the AC adapter for the C4 has an output of 2A so it would have to be something like this, but not this item unless one has only a single C5 Hubitat.

Edit: This one looks to be more suitable:
https://www.amazon.com/APC-Back-UPS-Connect-Charging-BGE50ML/dp/B00NTQYUA8/

[Angus_M]

DIY- Battery Backup Hubitat- under TEN bucks-NO soldering

EDIT 03/2022- There have been multiple reports of this same board being redesigned , such that there is now a momentary drop of power when switching from wall power to battery, rendering it useless as a UPS. My original boards are working fine 2+ years later, but that original board revision might not be obtainable. And like everything else, the price of lithium cells has skyrocketed(from 4-> ~9$) Essentially killing my initial sub 10 dollar solution. Using hubitat as my security system, I n…

Saw this recently and it looks very interesting. Seems it will power the Hubitat for at least 5 hours!

[bertabcd1234]

@StephenH

It also only lists 1A for output and the AC adapter for the C4 has an output of 2A

But the hub draws under 1A during regular use, according to Bruce on the last episode of Hubitat Live and also consistent with a 5W adapter PoE adapter they recommended when the C5 was new (the C4 is nearly the same inside, sans radios, so this should be equally applicable). So...that part, at least, shouldn't be a problem.

[signal15]

I just power my Hubitat with a POE power splitter that has a micro USB plug. All of my network gear is on a big UPS, so that keeps the Hubitat powered.

[ChrisUthe]

We've got 3 1500VA battery backups in the house. One does cable modem/core switch/router/NAS, one does WiFi AP's, switch and HE, one does my desktop computer.

The UPS for the NAS reports to HE about it's power source, so I can do actions when it changes.

[StephenH]

Thanks. I did not know that. So the AC adapter for the C4 is more powerful than needed for regular use.

We are getting ready to make a trip. I just moved the Hubitats from my main APC UPS to an alternate UPS that is only occasionally used for a second computer. If we have an extended power outage again, it should last quite a while. During the last prolonged outlet (car hit a telephone pole with transformer, knocking out power to the neighborhood for several hours), the USPS ran out of power, leading to a dirty shutdown and database corruption. I ended up having to do a factory reset and re-pair all the devices on my C4 Hubitat. The C5 which has all my Iris V1 devices did not experience the corruption, probably because most of those devices don't need to communicate with the hub as regularly (a couple of motion sensors and several contact sensors). Still though, it was many hours of frustration until I did the factory reset. Just a reset and database restore did not work. I don't want to have to do that again.

[an39511]

If you are looking for a more efficient way to keep your hub, router, modem going get yourself a decent sized USB power brick that has an extra power port that you can set to 12v. Almost all routers and modems use 12 volts DC and the Hubitat is obviously USB. If you need more than one 12 volt connection pickup a Y-adapter. This will allow you, depending on the size of the power brick, far more run time than an inefficient UPS that takes the mains voltage and drops it down to charge batteries only to have to step it back up to high power only to run a wall wart that drops the power back down to 12 volts. I have a 50,000mAh power pack that powers my hubitat, router, cable modem and a failover cellular connection for 3-4 hours. If I power just the hubitat and faliover modem it will run for days..

[epj3]

I have a 1000VA UPS for my HTPC (which most of the time is off or in standby) and network + smart home stuff.

With the following devices connected, I get 90+ minutes of run time. Really, I could probably move some things around and remove the unmanaged switch and lutron hub off the UPS.

• Ubiquiti USG
• 8 port (60W) PoE switch powering a Cloud key gen2 + nanoHD AP + one PoE camera
• Unmanaged 16 port switch
• Hubitat
• Lutron smart bridge pro
• Fios ONT (newer version, small black box)

[jaedgar]

Thanks everyone - really helpful!

Will use that sizing calculator to try and work out how big it needs to be

[dhrowe]

So you buy a laptop / usb charger backup from Amazon. Plug it into the wall then what do you plug into the C4 or C5? - have one of each.

Tks

[an39511]

There are dozens of USB battery packs of all different sizes. For a few dollars all you need to do is plug the hub into one of these and it will run for a very long time. My setup powers the HE hub, a small Ethernet switch and a cellular modem. The USB battery pack is always plugged in and charging while the other devices are plugged into it. If power fails it keeps everything running. This method is less expensive than a traditional UPS and will run a lot longer. My setup requires a battery pack that outputs 12v as well as USB power but if all you want to do is power the HE hub, any USB battery pack will do.