How To Keep Working From Home During Load Shedding

Working From Home Online in South Africa – How To Get Setup

With the onset of Covid-19, the home has become our new office and classroom and, with the additional burden of load shedding and load rotation, the importance of our reliance on uninterrupted connectivity has become vital.

Over the past couple of months, it has become clear that remote working from home and even home-schooling will become an integral part of our lives in the future. It has become clear to many companies that a certain quota of their employees are able to work effectively from home, and that this could have cost-saving implications for businesses.

Although home-schooling has been mostly utilised by children living in remote areas or because they benefitted more from it, the current pandemic has forced most classes to be held online. Tertiary institutions were also forced to offer their classes online. Once tests and assessments began, it was with a dread of load shedding returning and interfering with the education process and the student’s results.

South Africa’s unreliable power infrastructure has lead to many other significant challenges surrounding the ability to remain productive while working from home. Fortunately, there are several options available to mitigate load shedding.

Will a UPS help me work from home during load shedding?

Apart from purchasing a generator, an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), which provides emergency power to your computer or router during load shedding is vital. When the power goes down, the UPS will automatically switch over to provide additional hours of power. In addition, it will also provide your valuable IT equipment with protection from electrical surges during power outages.

What is the best UPS for me?

UPS units are available in various specifications depending on how much power is required. Westech, a highly experienced IT support company in South Africa, offers several UPS options as well as IT software, IT hardware, IT networking, IT security and IT support.

How do I choose a UPS?

There are several important questions that you will need to answer before you buy a UPS:

1. What IT equipment will you need your UPS to protect?
2. Is your home on single or three-phase power?
3. Will the UPS be free-standing or rack-mounted?
4. Is there any other functionality that you will require from your UPS (automatic monitoring and email notifications, selective shutdown, existing network integration, etc.)?
5. What other UPS accessories will you require (energy storage, generator, power distribution units, etc.)?

These choices and decisions can be very confusing. The right UPS is an investment to maintain productivity and protect your IT hardware. If you are uncomfortable with making a UPS purchase decision on your own, contact Westech who will familiarise you with all the basics of what a UPS can do for you and provide you with options suitable for your unique application. Westech has a range of home office UPS units priced from R1950, to help you prepare for the unexpected.

Contact us to find out how we can help you to succeed working from home online.