With loadshedding occurring more frequently, there is an added pressure to stay connected.

There are various options for surviving loadshedding without having to acquire additional equipment. These include keeping your laptop, phone, power banks and data dongle charged, rescheduling meetings, and working offline during loadshedding. View our recommendations to beat loadshedding.

For those who wish to retain connectivity via a fixed line connection and/or run a desktop, backup power supplies are available in three main categories:

  • A small 12V only solution to power a router and Optical Network Terminal (ONT)
    • Cost: R900 - R1300
    • Benefits: Permanently powered, silent, no switch over needed.
    • Available options include: Vuma-IOT (tested) and Wi-box (not tested).
  • An online or line interactive UPS, allowing safe shutdown of a desktop machine, but unable to run for a full loadshedding cycle.
    • 600-950 VA or more is suggested. One option (untested, but positively reviewed, is the RCT 2000VA Line Interactive UPS.
    • Cost: R2000 – R2500
  • A long runtime inverter/charger UPS
    • Cost: R4500 - R6000 depending on battery capacity selected. 
    • Features: Powers a typical desktop for 3 hours or more but creates some noise when on battery or charging from the inverter cooling fan.
    • Available options include: Vuma-Axil CW 1.2 kVA with 45 or 72 or 105 AH battery (tested)

Prices and availability vary significantly.  Several options are available for online purchase.  For the Vuma options above, contact Vuma IT directly for more information regarding the various options available as well as for quotations and purchases:

Steve Maher

Email: steve.maher@vumait.co.za

Tel: (021) 447 3175

Cell: 082 444 8279

For additional recommendations on loadshedding equipment, check out this article from Fibre Tiger:

https://www.fibretiger.co.za/article/internet-load-shedding-options-buy-this-not-that