Using a network switch can be a good option for having wired internet throughout your home. They come with more or fewer ports, so you can connect more or fewer devices. There are also differences, such as managed or unmanaged. But how much energy do they consume? What might the approximate cost be if you have such a device connected all day?
We’re going to talk about this in this article. We’ll explain what you should keep in mind and what your device’s energy consumption might be. As you’ll see, not all models consume the same amount of energy, so you could be spending more or less on your electricity bill each month, depending on your situation.
Power consumption of a network switch
First of all, we can say that the power consumption of a network switch is very low. If we’re talking about a basic 5-port device, we can find some models with a power output of less than 3 W. In any case, it will generally be between 3 and 8 W.
If it’s a larger switch, with 24 or 48 ports, then the power consumption will be higher. In this case, we’re talking about a power output that can range from 10 to 100 W or even more, depending on the model. However, the power consumption will generally be similar to that of a router, or slightly higher if it’s a device with many ports or a device with low efficiency.
But how does this translate into real-world power consumption? If we take a simple example, such as the TP-Link LS105G, a fairly popular five-port model, we see that it has a power output of 2.78 W. If you keep it on all day, you’ll simply have to multiply that by 24. That’s 2.78 W x 24 hours. The result is 66.72 Wh per day.
If we extend that figure to the entire month, we simply multiply by 30. We’d be talking, roughly speaking, 2 kWh per month. You’d have to consider your electricity price, whether you always pay the same amount, etc. We could round it up to €0.12 per kWh, which is common these days. You’d therefore be paying around €0.24 per month to keep the grid switch on all day, using this model we’ve used as an example. Over the course of a year, that’s €2.88.
A switch with PoE consumes more
Logically, this is simply an example of an efficient five-port model. Other models can use much more. Network switches with PoE will consume more electricity, since they power other devices. The more you connect, the higher the consumption.
If we take another example, we can look at the Netgear GS116PP unmanaged PoE network switch. It has 16 ports in total. The maximum power is 183 W. As you can see, this is considerably more than the previous example we showed, which was a more efficient and basic five-port model.
This time, daily consumption could even go as low as 4.4 kWh, which is about €0.52. That’s double the previous model’s monthly consumption. But of course, it’s a PoE model, which you might not need. If you simply need Ethernet ports available, a much more efficient model is fine.
