I have been working on the design of our new home network. We are moving next month and I’m taking the move as an opportunity to update our network. Because our part of the world suffers occasional power outages, I’ve decided to try to harden our house against power loss. When the power goes off, we have several UPS units to keep our PC’s and network alive for a while. The problem is that the power lines and cable Internet are on the same poles. When one goes off, we lose the other.
We have a 30 amp generator that is sufficient to keep our basic power needs going during a power outage. Since Mrs. Lion works from home and needs Internet to do her job, I want to keep the Internet even if the cable provider fails. Also, we get all of our TV on the Internet. We want to keep our streaming services as well.
Our cable company offered a two-year contract for $30 a month. We get 200 Mb service for that money. T-Mobile offers a 5g Internet service for $50 a month. The cell service tends to stay up during power outages. Ideally, we should have both Internet sources available without having to plug and unplug them. It turns out that there are multi-homing routers that manage multiple Internet connections simultaneously. Best of all, a really good one costs only $50.
Of course, buying a router is only the first step. We also need a WiFi access point. Most consumer routers also include the WiFi access point. The more specialized multi-homing products don’t include the radios. Fortunately, it doesn’t break the bank to buy a standalone access point. The new house will have two separate Internet suppliers. This configuration should give us broadband even if the power goes off.
Last night, I realized that I may have planned myself into a corner. Once we go on our emergency power, how will we know when the utility power comes back on? Our generator interlock uses the main panel for the house. That means we won’t see anything change when the utility power returns. I fretted about that. Would we have to go outside and see if the neighbors have power? Are there streetlights that will come on?
It turns out that we can get an alarm that will go off when power is restored. It’s an easy hookup in our power panel. When we are on generator power, we arm that alarm. When utility power returns, a 100DB alarm sounds. Cool beans!
When the power goes out we will have heat and hot water. Our refrigerator, freezers, general lighting, computers, and TV, including streaming programs will be available. Best of all, Mrs. Lion won’t have to run extension cords all over the house. All she has to do is drag the generator out of the garage and plug it into an inlet we are installing outside of the house. Once the generator is running, she simply turns off the main utility power and turns on the generator circuit breaker on the panel. Voila! Power is on all over the house. We can’t use the stove or microwave, but we will have light, heat, and entertainment.
We are lucky that LED lights that use small amounts of power, are installed everywhere in our house. Our TV’s are OLED models that are also light power users. We replaced a plasma TV that used 250 watts with a larger screen OLED that only draws 40 watts.
I know that all this has nothing to do with sex or spanking. It’s an important issue for us. Even though we don’t lose power very often, when we do, our lives are impacted. With more of us working from home, strategies like this can be important. Back to sex tomorrow!
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