When the power goes out, your smart home doesn't just pause—it breaks. Lights freeze, thermostats go silent, and security sensors stop working because the hidden network holding everything together loses power. This episode walks you through the exact math for figuring out how long your backup battery will keep your smart home hubs running, from Zigbee coordinators to Wi-Fi routers to Z-Wave controllers. Whether you're building a new automated home or finally getting serious about backup power, you'll learn how to measure what your devices actually use and match that to the right battery size.

• Manufacturer specs lie about power usage. The wattage printed on the box is often wrong. A hub rated at 5 watts might actually use 2.3 watts most of the time but spike to 7 watts when adding new devices. Plug each device into a power meter for ...