@piofthings David Whale (micro:bit wizard) Andy Stanford-Clark Peter Green Virgin Media 🐐 I thought about keeping my Hassio instance up but then realised all the smart devices are going to be down!

@piofthings David Whale (micro:bit wizard) Andy Stanford-Clark Peter Green Virgin Media 🐐 I'm still 50/50 on if a UPS for my modem + Router + AP would be good. I can see the phone networks falling over with all the phones falling back to 4G and the towers getting overloaded.

@[email protected] @piofthings David Whale (micro:bit wizard) Andy Stanford-Clark Peter Green Virgin Media 🐐 Someone said that FTTP would be good as powered from the exchange. Would it be fair to assume that exchanges will be exempted from the power outage to support comms for critical business (such as hospitals)?

@piofthings @[email protected] David Whale (micro:bit wizard) Andy Stanford-Clark Peter Green Virgin Media 🐐 I'm just now measuring actual current draws for my router and mesh wifi units to see if a step-up 5V-12V adapter attached to a 2A 5V USB power bank will deliver enough output current (max 0.8A) to power these babies over a short term power outage (3hrs).

@piofthings @[email protected] David Whale (micro:bit wizard) Andy Stanford-Clark Peter Green Virgin Media 🐐 I lead a simpler life than that at home, but I still need to consider 3 boys without internet in the dark for 3 hours a risk that may need mitigating.

@piofthings @[email protected] David Whale (micro:bit wizard) Andy Stanford-Clark Peter Green Virgin Media 🐐 If I can protect internet with USB power banks and procure a 280Wh portable power station solution we could have a family Netflix session off a single TV during the outage if the portable power station is not otherwise required (TV draws 130W so a 2hr movie is doable).

@piofthings @[email protected] David Whale (micro:bit wizard) Andy Stanford-Clark Peter Green Virgin Media 🐐 Just testing the settings on my TV... 130W was with full backlight on!!!

Watchable down to 30% backlight, at which point it draws only 70W. That's 4 hours of TV (Netflix, if internet preserved) on a 280Wh portable power bank.

Fine at 50% TBH (90W / 3hrs or viewing pleasure)

@piofthings @[email protected] David Whale (micro:bit wizard) Andy Stanford-Clark Peter Green Virgin Media 🐐 This raises a generally interesting point for anyone wanting to optimise their energy costs.

At 5hrs of TV per day (UK avg) you can probably save £5/year per TV per 10% backlight that you can reduce your settings by. This is for a 7-8yr old 46 inch TV BTW. YMMV by size and age.