Preparing for the toughest winter. The best budget gadgets that save lives during blackouts

A voltage relay is an indispensable device that protects electrical appliances from voltage surges. These surges can be dangerous for your appliances. High voltage leads to burnout of appliances, and too low (for example, 170V-190V) harms appliances with electric motors (refrigerators, washing machines), damaging the winding.

The relay is installed quite simply, the main thing is to know the basic knowledge of physics for the 8th grade. If you skipped these lessons, you can ask a familiar electrician to connect the correct wires in the correct sequence. The procedure takes only half an hour, and the cost of the relay will not exceed one and a half thousand hryvnias. A ridiculous price for a device that can save expensive equipment from burning out.

Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) are ideal for ensuring seamless internet during outages. The advantage of a UPS over a power bank is that you don't have to manually reconnect your router and terminal, especially when your devices are in hard-to-reach places.

Instead, a UPS for routers automatically and most importantly instantly provides power as soon as the power goes out, the router doesn’t even have time to reboot. This ensures uninterrupted Internet operation for 6-8 hours. As soon as the power comes back on, the device automatically switches power to the outlet, while at the same time restoring its own battery charge.

For optimal operation of routers, it is worth choosing UPS models with 12 V connectors. For the Internet to work without electricity, it is important to have a fiber optic connection. Price: from 1000 to 2000 UAH

UPSs for personal computers work on the same principle as those for modems. The only drawback is that the charge is only enough to maintain operation and safely turn off the PC.

How to choose power: Sum up the power of the system unit, monitor, and peripherals. For an office PC, a 500 W UPS is enough, for a gaming computer - 1000 W or more. Be sure to add a margin of 20-30%.

The cost depends on the battery capacity and whether the UPS produces a correct sine wave. A conventional 1000 W UPS will cost around 7,000-10,000 hryvnias.

We are all used to our beloved smartphones, and we are also used to having to charge them at least once a day. In the case of blackouts, when other devices do not work, but the smartphone still works as an access point, the battery level decreases before our eyes. And when the Internet also disappears, the only way to get information from the outside world becomes telephony.

For this, ordinary push-button phones will come in handy. You can get an old Nokia from your student days, which will hold a charge for a good three days, or buy modern mobile push-button phones. They do not have a full-size screen that would “eat up” most of the charge. Instead, modern push-button phones already have convenient charging connectors, so if necessary, they can be charged using a power bank.

Price: 1500–5000 hryvnias.

A thermos is a must-have during blackouts, as it allows you to keep boiling water on hand for 8–10 hours without having to boil water ten times. In cold weather, being able to brew a cup of tea or coffee will not only boost your productivity, but also improve your morale.

Good thermoses can keep warm for up to 12 hours or more. The dev.ua editorial team had a case where tea brewed in a thermos remained hot the next day, despite the fact that the thermos had been left in the car all night in winter.

There are also food thermoses that can keep food hot for lunch or dinner.

Price: depending on the volume, 1000 hryvnias or more, we recommend taking at least 2 liters.

During blackouts, when homes are flooded with batteries, power banks, and charging stations, as well as power surges and shelling, having a fire extinguisher is critically important. Also, remember the many news stories about generators burning on the balconies of high-rise buildings, which even firefighters could not reach the source of the fire.

Experts from the State Emergency Service advise having a small carbon dioxide fire extinguisher in your apartment. The advantages of this type are:

• It does not leave dust, unlike powder, after which you need to clean the entire room.
• Cooling and easy to use.
• It can be used to extinguish wiring.

Powder fire extinguishers are suitable for effectively extinguishing flammable objects: carpets, curtains, furniture, clothing, and more.

A fire extinguisher is something you never want to use, but knowing it's nearby definitely won't hurt.

Price: 1200–2500 hryvnias.

Autonomous lighting sources are one of the most necessary devices during a blackout. This is something that should always be at hand when it gets dark early and the light can disappear at any moment.

We will not dwell on them in detail, during the Great War everyone had several types of both pocket and more massive flashlights. To create comfort and background light, you can use LED garlands on batteries or USB. Camping flashlights can have a pleasant diffused light, a carabiner and a magnet, which is convenient for placing on a table or metal surface. The main thing here is to check the condition of the batteries in a timely manner.

The latter should always be kept in reserve, many gadgets use different types of batteries and everyone has encountered a situation where there are not enough AA or AAA batteries, and some devices, such as temperature sensors, generally use flat round "tablets", of which there are also dozens of types and sizes.

Just remember to properly dispose of used batteries afterwards.