The Standard dish averages 75–100 W Official spec: From a Starlink specification sheet or help article. Checked Oct 5, 2026 with the router, so a UPS with about 300 Wh of battery runs it roughly 2 h 13 min. Put the router and anything after it on the UPS too, and choose pure-sine output.
Sizing
UPS boxes are labeled in VA and watts (how much load they can carry), not in battery watt-hours. Look up the battery Wh (or volts × amp-hours of its batteries) in the spec sheet.
| UPS battery (Wh) | At 100 W (busy) | At 20 W (idle) |
|---|---|---|
| 300 Wh | 2 h 13 min | 11 h 6 min |
| 600 Wh | 4 h 26 min | 22 h 11 min |
| 1,000 Wh | 7 h 24 min | 36 h 59 min |
| 1,500 Wh | 11 h 6 min | 2.3 days |
Hypothetical battery sizes; planning assumptions on methods. Idle: 20 W Official spec: From a Starlink specification sheet or help article. Checked Oct 5, 2026.
Why it still drops
- Something in the chain isn’t on the UPS: the router, a mesh node, a switch, the modem of a backup line.
- Stepped sine wave on battery: many cheaper UPS units output a stepped approximation; some power supplies don’t like it. Pure sine is safer.
- Overloaded outlets: other gear on the same UPS shortens runtime.
- Old UPS batteries hold far less than new.
The owner will measure their own home Standard dish and router on a UPS with a plug-in meter: idle, in use, and a pulled-plug switchover. Results go on the bench page; nothing has been measured yet.
When this is the wrong choice
- A UPS is the wrong buy for long outages: for hours or days, a power station or LiFePO4 battery gives far more Wh per dollar; see outage options.
Questions people ask
What size UPS do I need for Starlink?
Size by watt-hours, not VA. The Standard dish averages up to 100 W including the router. A typical small UPS battery holds a few hundred Wh at most, so expect minutes to an hour or two; for longer outages, a power station or LiFePO4 battery is better value.
Why does my Starlink router still drop on a UPS?
Common causes: the router or a separate switch isn’t on the UPS; the UPS outputs a stepped (simulated) sine wave on battery that a power supply dislikes; or the UPS switchover is too slow. Put every box in the chain on the UPS and prefer a pure-sine model.
Sources
- Standard 4 X Specifications (PDF) · checked Oct 5, 2026
- How much power does my Starlink need? · checked Oct 5, 2026