How do you deal with power outages in a developing country (like India)?

[legendster]

When I started out with my tech adventure about two decades ago I thought I had this shit under control. Back then there were no UPS's so my father hooked me up with an inverter and a car battery, mind you this was back in 1998-ish so this was expensive here in India to acquire an inverter.
Ever since then I've had some form of power backup or the other, if not for everything then at the least my computers. Hey! It's my bread & butter.
But since the last one and a half year, my luck has been sucked dry like the juices of all my UPS' batteries.

And no, UPS is not United Postal Service.

In just the last one month I have lost more projects here than I'd like to admit. I take one project, boom storm hits, and I'm out for about 3 days up to a week sometimes.. I come back, salvage my rep and go for another project and some weird shit happens and I'm taken out again.
I have two UPS backup systems but they do not protect me for more than 30 minutes. The most stupid thing is once my power goes, so does my internet connectivity, as my broadband is connected through an externally powered modem. The cellular data is very poor in my area, I'd be lucky to see a single whatsapp text message get sent in 5 hours!

So are there any suggestions out there? Have any of you got any suggestions on how do I deal with this relentless streak of load sheddings?

PS: I can't leave the area / city / country, so do not tell me to do that.

[legendster]

So no one in this forum actually finds them in the same spot as I?
Am I the only one living in such conditions?? 

[Open Block]

I get power outages but not that often. I don't deal with it, all I can do is wait until it comes back on. But a generator will do the trick.

[legendster]

I get power outages but not that often. I don't deal with it, all I can do is wait until it comes back on. But a generator will do the trick.

A generator is loud, and not that suitable for a residential area.

[bowals]

i have the same problem, although I'm not from india. I have discovered the best you can do is assume that light from power generation companies to be secondary i.e backup. Light from power generation companies are unstable, too intermittent to be depended on so you have to search for your primary source of power. The best source of alternative power is solar/inverter. About 500$ will set you up with enough power for the essential appliances for about 8-12hours a day ( the doctor recommends enough sleep anyways, an excuse to do so). Some data companies have broadband networks that reaches even the most remote of places, searching one out would be an excellent idea and using it, i doubt they would come cheap though but hey,whats the alternative?

[legendster]

....

I have given solar a thought but I am not sure how reliable it would be.
The majority of power problems arise during summer when there are storm clouds almost all the time. And it is primarily during these times when the power goes out.

On the other hand I do have a high speed dsl broadband.. but when the grid goes down, the server station also goes down with it, taking away the connectivity with it.

[ukloonion]

It is difficult in areas where there are power shortages so you need to find a way to work offline which means saving work frequently, and getting a good backup system in case the outage causes disk corruption

[legendster]

It is difficult in areas where there are power shortages so you need to find a way to work offline which means saving work frequently, and getting a good backup system in case the outage causes disk corruption

The only time a power outage affected any storage of mine was a couple years ago when my cellphone's memory got damaged during a power cut as it was plugged into the wall charger.
But I hear you. A backup like a UPS is something that I've always had but I need long term solution.

[ohniceo]

Call your power company. I don't live in a developing country but I am sure you could get something worked out with them if you called. It doesn't hurt to try.

[legendster]

Call your power company. I don't live in a developing country but I am sure you could get something worked out with them if you called. It doesn't hurt to try.

Digging this up because ^ this is the most hilarious response ever! Dude, you realize that I am from India right? I'd have to be a fuckin billionaire for the power company to treat me like a special snowflake.

[peter0425]

Call your power company. I don't live in a developing country but I am sure you could get something worked out with them if you called. It doesn't hurt to try.

Lol, it's probably a state wide power outages, calling them will not be a big help. In the last 90's we also have this kind of power outrages, our gov't really do it's best that time and I'm glad that we don't experience this kind of power outages anymore.

I don't know about the situation in your place @egendster, do you have like big malls which has power generator? I'm thinking that if there's some kind of internet cafe inside that mall and maybe you can rent it out just to finished your project? Of course you have to pay like per hour, depending on the rate, but at least it can alleviate your problems specially if you have deadlines to finished.