Business Idea: A UPS that emails me

July 21st, 2008

As somebody who owns tons of computers I also own tons of battery backups. As one of their many features, my battery backup can save some files and shutdown my computer for me as soon s the power goes it. It’s really neat… but I want more.

I’m envisioning a battery backup that alerts me when my power is out. It can simply use my email program to fire off an email to me, or send me a twitter, or text message, or whatever - or it can be more advanced and not require a computer at all.

One could build in an ethernet port and a simply linux operating system with sendmail and boom - it can alert me without a computer.

This would be very useful for businesses. When I worked at Wendys in college our power went out a few times and we lost thousands of dollars of food that spoiled overnight. If we had a system to alert us to the power outage we could have driven the food to another store before it spoiled.

I know some alarm companies do this, but they generally only call 1 person. An email list would be more efficient here.

Another use is for old people who have medical equipment. My friend Chuck often leaves his grandmother at home - and she’s on a breathing machine. I’m sure he’d buy one of these too.

Does this product exist already? If not, why doesn’t it?

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