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How much power does the network switch use

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Considering that the switch is usually open all day, some people may worry about how much electricity they consume and whether their electricity bills will soar. So, how much power does the network switch use? What does this mean in terms of operating costs?

Considering that the switch is usually open all day, some people may worry about how much electricity they consume and whether their electricity bills will soar. So, how much power does the network switch use? What does this mean in terms of operating costs?


Switches actually don't consume much power, which may be surprising considering their functions. This depends on the manufacturer, model and number of ports available and in use, but you can usually expect the switch to operate with 15 to 30 watts of power.


In this article, we will learn how network switches work, how much power they need to consume, and how much money they need to pay to run network switches.


How does the network switch work?


It is good to know how much power network switches use, if you first know how they actually work.


Switches are considered to be key components in many home networks, but they are usually essential in business-oriented networks because they allow you to connect multiple devices through a local area network (LAN).


Compared with relying on Wi-Fi, they allow faster and more efficient ways to send and receive information, such as sharing files or accessing resources such as printers.


Network switches are divided into two categories: unmanaged and managed. There are several differences between unmanaged switches and managed switches; They essentially boil down to the skills and knowledge required for easy setup, use and management, as well as the security, features and flexibility available.


In the case of home network, the switch is usually connected to an available LAN port on the router through an Ethernet cable. They actually convert one LAN port to multiple ports, depending on the number of ports in the switch.


What is the power consumption of the network switch?


I have done some research on the power consumption of some switches produced by different manufacturers, and found that they usually use 15 to 30 watts of power.


The difference of 50% seems to be a lot, but there are some factors that will lead to some switches using more or less power; For example, the number of ports in use.


But in reality, considering that TV and game consoles need hundreds of watts of power, 30 watts is not a big number.


Yes, network switches are usually open and connected around the clock, but when you calculate, you will find that they still do not consume too much power, and they do not consume the earth to maintain operation.


What is the operating cost of network switch?


We now know roughly how many watts of power will be used by different network switches, but how does this translate into their operating costs?


Let's do some simple mathematical calculations to see how much it will cost to run a typical network switch and use 30W of power 24 hours a day.


If a switch uses 30W within 24 hours, it will use 0.72 kWh. The average cost of electricity in the United States is about 13.31 cents per kilowatt-hour.


Therefore, our example switch uses 30W and is used 24 hours a day. The cost is 13.31 cents/kWh, and the cost is 0.32 dollars per day.


How much does it cost to run all year? About 116 dollars.


It seems like a lot to use $116 a year, but for many people, considering the benefits of the limited number of ports behind the router, or having to rely on Wi-Fi connection, this is a small price.


You must also consider the cost of the switch itself, but these are quite affordable, especially if you want a basic unmanaged switch to expand your LAN.


As you can see, whether you are in the United States, the United Kingdom or Canada, the cost of running this conversion every year is not very different, but the cost of Australia is more than twice that of other countries.


However, please remember that this is the cost per Australian dollar; In the United States, one Australian dollar can be exchanged for about US $0.70. Nevertheless, in a year, due to the high cost of electricity, the switches operating in Australia do cost more.


The power consumption of network switches depends on the following factors:

Manufacturer

Model

Managed and unmanaged

Personal or commercial use

Number of ports


Some very powerful fully managed switches used in large enterprise environments can use more than 400W of power, but for you and your home network, you can expect to use basic non-managed switches, even intelligent management switches, using 15 to 30W of power.


In terms of the cost of a 30W switch running 24 hours a day, what you see in the United States is 116 dollars.


In my opinion, considering that the network switch provides greater flexibility, better control and better performance, it is a home network worthy of investment.

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