Business backup request
For companies, shops, cafes, events, field teams and any setup where downtime has a direct cost. Power failures during trading hours are not just inconvenient — they stop revenue immediately. Here is how to size the right backup and what to tell us.
Why business backup is different from home backup
- Downtime has a measurable cost. A cafe losing card payments for 30 minutes during lunch loses €150–€400 in revenue. An office without internet loses billable hours. The cost of the backup pays for itself in one avoided incident.
- Loads are more complex. Businesses often combine continuous loads (router, POS, lighting) with high-peak machines (coffee, induction, compressors) that require careful surge planning and often need to be treated separately.
- Reliability requirements are higher. A home backup that fails once is an inconvenience. A business backup that fails during service is a crisis. Sizing with a margin and testing before deployment is non-negotiable.
- Multiple zones are often needed. A single large station is not always better than two or three smaller stations placed at critical points — payments, refrigeration and internet can be independent zones with independent backup.
- Regulatory and insurance context. Some businesses require documented backup plans for food safety compliance (refrigeration continuity) or IT continuity. A correctly sized and tested solution supports this documentation.
Sizing by business type
| Business type | Essential loads | Typical continuous watts | Recommended station | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cafe / coffee bar | POS, router, LED lighting, display fridge | 300–600W | F2000 / F3800 | Coffee machine (1,000–3,000W) needs separate wattage confirmation |
| Restaurant / kitchen | POS, router, display fridge, lighting | 400–800W | F3800 | Ovens, fryers and induction need individual review; treat as separate load |
| Retail shop | POS, router, card terminal, LED lighting | 150–400W | F2000 | Refrigerated display cases add 200–500W average; confirm compressor type |
| Office (5–15 people) | Router, switch, laptops, monitors, priority desks | 300–700W | F2000 / F3800 | Desktop PCs (200–400W each) and laser printers (800–1,500W peak) change sizing significantly |
| Food truck | POS, router, LED, fridge/cooler, water pump | 300–600W | F2000 / F3800 | Cooking loads (1,000–3,000W+) should be handled by a separate generator or confirmed individually |
| Event / outdoor market | Ticketing, payment points, router, LED lighting | 200–600W per zone | F2000 per zone | Multiple independent stations are often better than one large central unit |
| Photography / video production | Camera chargers, drone, laptop, monitors, LED lights | 200–600W | C1000 / F2000 | Lighting is usually the variable that determines the tier; confirm simultaneous light count |
| Broadcasting / streaming | Router, encoder, monitors, cameras, laptop | 200–500W | F2000 | Critical loads must not share a circuit with lighting or audio equipment with high startup peaks |
| Mobile service / van | Tools, laptop, lighting, router/hotspot | 300–1,200W | F2000 / F3800 | Power tools and compressors need peak wattage confirmed before sizing |
| Medical / clinical | Medical devices, lighting, router, fridge | 200–600W | F2000 | Pure sine wave required; confirm device compatibility and autonomy requirements |
Business load planning: essential vs non-essential
The single most important decision in business backup is separating what must stay on from what can wait. Trying to back up everything usually means backing up nothing well.
| Load category | Typical watts | Backup priority | Planning note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Router / firewall | 10–40W | Critical — always include | Internet loss stops most business operations immediately |
| POS / card terminal | 20–80W | Critical — always include | Card payments = revenue; cash backup helps but card is primary |
| Ordering / display screens | 30–100W each | High | Customer-facing; losing these creates service disruption |
| LED lighting (counter/service area) | 40–200W | High | Can often be reduced to emergency level; LED is very efficient |
| Display fridge / drinks cooler | 120–350W average | High | Compressor cycles; startup surge 2–3× running watts |
| Walk-in cold room | 500–2,000W | Depends on stock value | High investment load; needs dedicated proposal and surge confirmation |
| Coffee machine (espresso) | 1,000–3,500W | Secondary — confirm separately | High startup peak; isolate from essential circuit or confirm full wattage |
| Oven / induction / fryer | 1,500–6,000W | Low for essential backup | These are usually excluded from essential backup; treated as separate project |
| Ventilation / extraction | 200–800W | Situation-dependent | Required by regulation in some kitchens during operation; confirm requirement |
| Security system / alarms | 20–80W | High | Usually already has UPS; confirm if extension needed |
| CCTV / NVR | 30–150W | Medium | Low draw; easy to include in essential circuit |
The real cost of business downtime
- Cafe (average €800/day revenue, 6h service): a 1-hour outage during peak service loses approximately €130 in direct revenue, plus food safety risk if refrigeration is off for extended periods.
- Office (10 people, €35/hour average billing rate): a 2-hour internet outage costs €700 in lost billable time. A correctly sized backup running router + 10 laptops for 4 hours costs under €1,500 in equipment — paid back in two incidents.
- Food truck (€500/day at a weekend market): losing card payment capability for half a day costs €250 in lost transactions plus the market fee. A single F2000 covers the entire essential setup for 6–8 hours.
- Event vendor (€1,200/day gross): a ticketing or payment outage at an outdoor event costs reputation and revenue simultaneously. Backup power for the registration desk and payment points costs €800–€1,500 and eliminates the risk entirely.
- General rule: if your business generates more than €300/day, a correctly sized backup solution pays for itself in under 10 incidents. Most European businesses experience 5–15 power interruptions per year.
High-peak machines: what needs manual confirmation
- Coffee machines and espresso equipment: boiler heating elements draw 1,000–3,500W continuously during warm-up, then reduce to a cycling load. The warm-up peak determines the inverter size required. Always request the appliance data plate or technical sheet.
- Commercial refrigeration (walk-in cold rooms, large display cases): compressors in commercial units draw 3–5× their running watts at startup. A 500W average load may have a 2,000W+ startup surge. These need individual sizing.
- Induction hobs and commercial ovens: continuous high-wattage loads that are usually excluded from essential backup. If you want to include them, we size them as a separate circuit with a dedicated station or generator recommendation.
- Ice machines: compressor + water pump combined surge can exceed 2,000W. Always confirm model and wattage before including in a backup plan.
- Power tools and compressors: motor startup surges can reach 4–6× running watts. Workshop and mobile service setups need individual tool wattage confirmed before sizing.
- Safe approach: separate your essential service circuit (payments, internet, lighting, basic cooling) from high-peak machines. The essential circuit can be backed up reliably and cost-effectively; high-peak machines are added only after individual confirmation.
Multi-zone strategy: when one station is not the answer
- The case for multiple smaller stations: a cafe with payment zone, refrigeration zone and kitchen zone has three independent critical points. One large station covering all three creates a single point of failure. Three independent stations mean any single failure leaves the other two running.
- Typical zone split for a cafe:
- Zone 1 (payments + internet): POS + router + card terminals — 100–200W, C1000 covers 8–15h
- Zone 2 (refrigeration): display fridge + drinks cooler — 250–500W average, F2000 covers 4–8h
- Zone 3 (lighting + service): LED counter lighting + ordering screens — 150–300W, C1000 covers 4–8h
- For events: deploying multiple F2000 units at different vendor and registration points is more resilient and easier to manage than running cables from a single central station.
- When one large station is correct: when all critical loads are in the same physical location, a single high-capacity unit (F3800 or expanded) simplifies management and reduces cost per Wh.
Solar for business: when it makes sense
- Fixed locations with roof or car park access: even 2–4 panels (400–800W) on a commercial roof significantly reduce the frequency of recharging from the grid and extend backup autonomy during extended outages.
- Food trucks and mobile services: van roof solar (200–400W) combined with vehicle charging keeps a station topped up between service windows. A correctly sized setup means arriving at each location with a full battery.
- Events in sunny locations: portable solar panels deployed alongside stations eliminate the need for grid hookup for low-to-medium loads. Clean, silent and increasingly expected at green-credential events.
- ROI calculation: a 400W solar array in Portugal produces 1,600–2,200Wh on a good summer day. At €0.22/kWh commercial rate, that is €0.35–€0.48/day in electricity saved — payback on the panels in 3–5 years at commercial rates, faster if avoiding generator fuel.
Technical notes before requesting
- For any machine above 1,000W, provide the appliance data plate wattage or model number. Running watts and startup surge both affect the sizing.
- Confirm whether your priority is the essential service circuit only, or the full operation including cooking and high-load equipment. These are different projects with different budgets.
- Include your service hours: a cafe open 8h/day has different needs than a 24h convenience store. Autonomy requirement drives station size as much as wattage does.
- Business requests with budgets above €3,000 or involving compressors, coffee equipment or industrial loads are automatically flagged for manual review and receive a tailored proposal.
- If you are in Portugal or Spain and the situation is urgent, select "Urgent / business critical" — these receive same-day attention.