Discover a clever way to use a portable power station with a UPS for a flexible, long-lasting backup power solution for your home network.

It All Started with a Simple Rule

I have a cardinal rule for my basement: keep things off the floor.

It’s a simple rule, born from the universal fear of water heaters letting go or a freak storm overwhelming a sump pump. So, when I was rearranging my home server rack recently, my main goal was just that—get my gear up and organized.

In the middle of the shuffle, I tried something on a whim. I grabbed my portable power station, a Bluetti AC70, and slid it onto an empty rack-mount shelf. It fit perfectly. Like, perfectly. It was one of those small, satisfying moments of accidental organization.

But what started as a simple tidying-up exercise quickly turned into a much smarter power backup strategy for my whole house.

More Than Just a Big Battery

For years, I’ve relied on uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) to keep my home network and servers safe from blackouts. A UPS is basically a big, heavy battery that kicks in the instant the power goes out. It gives your sensitive electronics a few minutes of juice so they can shut down gracefully instead of crashing.

My main servers are connected to a beefy, traditional UPS. When the power fails, it keeps them running for about a minute and then tells them to shut down. That’s all I need. I don’t need my file server running for hours during a blackout.

But my internet connection? That’s a different story.

Losing power is one thing, but losing internet feels like being stranded on a digital island. I want to be able to check outage maps, get updates, and let family know we’re okay. So, keeping my modem and router online is the real priority.

This is where the portable power station changed everything.

A Smarter, Tiered Power Plan

Here’s the setup I stumbled into, and it works beautifully:

• Layer 1: The Servers. The big, old-school UPS handles the power-hungry servers. Its only job is to provide a safe, orderly shutdown.
• Layer 2: The Internet. The portable power station, sitting neatly on its new shelf, now powers the critical stuff: the modem and router. Because these devices use very little power, the Bluetti can keep them running for about three hours.

This two-layer system is great, but there was one problem to solve. My Bluetti is a fantastic portable power pack, but it isn’t a “smart” UPS. It can’t talk to my other systems or tell them to shut down.

So, I kept a small, basic APC UPS in the loop. This little guy is now the designated “canary in the coal mine.” It’s plugged in with the Bluetti, and its only job is to signal my network when the main power has actually failed. The Bluetti handles the long-haul power, and the small UPS handles the communication.

It’s the best of both worlds.

The Real Win: Flexibility

Here’s the best part of this whole setup.

A traditional UPS is a one-trick pony. It’s heavy, it’s bolted into the rack (or sits awkwardly on the floor), and it does one job. You’re not going to haul your server UPS out to the garage to run a power tool.

But a portable power station? Its main job is to be, well, portable.

If I need power for a weekend camping trip, I can just unplug it from the rack and toss it in the car. If I’m working on a project in the backyard, it comes with me. It’s my go-to power source for everything, but its day job is keeping my internet alive during a blackout.

It’s a simple idea, but it solved multiple problems at once. My gear is off the floor, my internet stays on for hours during an outage, and I have a powerful battery I can take anywhere. All because I decided to see if it would fit on a shelf. Sometimes the best solutions are the ones you just stumble upon.