As broadband routers and related devices are usually low-voltage DC devices powered by an AC adaptor, we can often just connect them to a USB battery (the same kind you charge your phone or tablet. Most people can get through a household power outage without much hassle—chances are, by the time you find the spare flashlight batteries and break out the board games, your lights and television will already be back on. When in doubt, just make sure the voltage and terminals (either F1 or F2) listed on the label match the battery that came with your unit. Smart homes allow homeowners to control anything in their house starting from the light switches up to the big appliances like refrigerators and TVs.

Like every model we tested, the BR1500MS2 has a little light (on the back) that turns red if it encounters a problem. I don't get super-long runtimes and in a world where a macbook pro can run for a day I think I deserve better than 2hrs on a giant lead acid battery. Once the battery died, we recorded the time elapsed (run time) and the kilowatt-hours (kWh), from which we calculated the battery’s effective capacity in watt-hours (Wh).

If the modem and home hub are located together, then a mains output backup unit (UPS), would be a better option, especially if you want to power a phone as well. Built-in 10000mAH lithium batterypack with a standard USB port, can be used as a normal power bank as well. With AVR, when power from a wall outlet dips or surges briefly outside of a specified range, a small transformer in the UPS acts like a buffer to compensate without relying on the battery; the UPS switches to battery power only when the transformer can’t handle the variation. Active PoE uses all for pairs for data and supplies 48V to power the active PoE to 12V splitter at the remote end. so this has worked fine, however, this may vary and you may find it’s unstable if your router requires more.

Although this model has two fewer outlets than our budget pick, 10 outlets is plenty for most people—and all the models we tested with more outlets had worse peak power or run times. It’s essential to choose a UPS that aligns with your requirements, giving you sufficient time to save ongoing tasks and shut down your router properly.

Its maximum output is on the lower side (we measured up to 470 W in our testing), but that should be plenty of power for the six battery-backed outlets to support basics such as home Wi-Fi gear. So how much power and how long is fundamental so you can then assess the risk of a power problem and implications (such as personal convenience through to business loss) vs complexity and cost. Even better, software that works on any operating system is future-proof even if you replace some of your equipment, so your UPS can be just as useful years down the line as it is the first day you plug it in.

This reduces wear and tear, especially if you live somewhere with frequent brownouts, and prolongs the overall life of the battery.But because it has automatic voltage regulation (AVR), this UPS doesn’t need to transition from wall-outlet power to battery power as often as models lacking this feature. Larger UPS units with extra power and features can help keep home offices and workstations running during business hours, or at least long enough for you to save your work and safely shut down vulnerable equipment. But if you want to keep your home Wi-Fi network and some other key electronics up and running in the event of an outage, an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) might be a worthwhile investment. That’s not nearly as much protection as our favorite surge protectors offer, and it’s slightly worse than what we saw from our other UPS picks ( our top pick let through 540.