10Gbps routers consume more power than a Fridge!

[KeYoKe]

From Dongknows' test data.

U7 Pro XGS -- about 15W average
https://dongknows.com/ubiquiti-u7-pro-xgs-review/

Finally, with no internal fan, the U7 Pro XGS ran completely silent during my trial; however, it remained quite hot, similar to the U7 Pro Max. I generally couldn’t rest my finger on its underside for more than 10 seconds.

10 seconds? That is too lenient. 3 seconds is enough to cook your fingers for supper

 

[KeYoKe]

Some data from Ubiquiti for the Dimension and Power Consumption Data (exclude PoE output if they have PoE function).

Need to get the Ubiquiti gear users to provide the typical power consumption data as the website only provides max power consumption data.

I will also try to collect some data from the Internet.

1) UCG, one of the most popular wired gateway
https://store.ui.com/us/en/category...ctions/cloud-gateway-fiber/products/ucg-fiber
Dimensions: 212.8 x 127.6 x 30 mm (8.3 x 5 x 0.5 ")
Max. Power Consumption: 29.4W (Excluding PoE output)

2) U7 Pro XGS
Dimensions: Ø215 x 32.5 mm (Ø8.5 x 1.3")
Max. Power Consumption: 29W

3) U7 Pro XG
Dimensions: Ø206 x 32.5 mm (Ø8.1 x 1.3")
Max. Power Consumption: 22W

4) U7 Pro Max
Dimensions: Ø206 x 46 mm (Ø8.1 x 1.8")
Max. Power Consumption: 25W

5) U7 Pro
Dimensions: Ø206 x 46 mm (Ø8.1 x 1.8")
Max. Power Consumption: 21W

6) U7 LR
Dimensions: Ø175.7 x 43 mm (Ø6.9 x 1.7")
Max. Power Consumption: 14W

7) U7 Lite
Dimensions: Ø171.5 x 33 mm (Ø6.8 x 1.3")
Max. Power Consumption: 13W

8) U6 Pro
Dimensions: Ø197 x 35 mm (Ø7.8 x 1.4")
Max. Power Consumption: 13W

9) U6+
Dimensions: Ø160 x 33 mm (Ø6.3 x 1.3")
Max. Power Consumption: 9W

Let me add on.

TP-Link EAP670 idles at 8w
TP-Link EAP773 idles at 12 to 13W
TP-Link EAP787 idles at 15W

U7 Pro XGS idles at 13W

 

[bert64]

From the first post:



Despite the high power consumption of the Asus and TP-Link flagship WiFi 7 routers, I seldom read about overheating issues, unlike Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi 7 APs.

I guess in the end size does matter.
https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/threads/wifi-8-is-coming.7081496/page-3

The unifi units tend to have no ventilation holes, and they are also usually ceiling mounted - heat rises and has nowhere to go because the ceiling is right above it.
The side effects of overheating vary massively however. Some devices will crash, others will thermal throttle and just experience reduced performance which you probably won't notice unless you put the device under heavy load.
Also the ambient temperature matters a lot, performance will be better when you have your ac running which is also more likely when you're in the room making active use of the equipment.

 

[KeYoKe]

The unifi units tend to have no ventilation holes, and they are also usually ceiling mounted - heat rises and has nowhere to go because the ceiling is right above it.
The side effects of overheating vary massively however. Some devices will crash, others will thermal throttle and just experience reduced performance which you probably won't notice unless you put the device under heavy load.
Also the ambient temperature matters a lot, performance will be better when you have your ac running which is also more likely when you're in the room making active use of the equipment.

The r&d team for ubiquiti definitely design their APs to be used in AC environment or even other countries where it is not so humid and hot.

They sacrifice heat dissipation for the look of their device. I do admit their design all looks good though

 

[kashix]

10 seconds? That is too lenient. 3 seconds is enough to cook your fingers for supper

May I kindly know how do you know this?
I lasted 2-3 seconds

 

[Henry Ng]

May I kindly know how do you know this?
I lasted 2-3 seconds

Must see which router.

 

[xiaofan]

Must see which router.

Best answer of the week?

 

[jasonho]

Best answer of the week?

The best of the best.

 

[Mecisteus]

Fun fact.

We rarely hear fire news started by a router in residential homes.

It means don't need to worry much as routers are designed to handle hot temperature.

As for the power consumption, I think its not unexpected. But I believe 99% of consumers don't need that kind of top speed yet.

 

[Wataru]

My fridge (Folio MR-S45N) draws 150W most of the time. Where are you getting this number that has a router drawing more power than a fridge?

 

[merriman]

Some data from Ubiquiti for the Dimension and Power Consumption Data (exclude PoE output if they have PoE function).

Need to get the Ubiquiti gear users to provide the typical power consumption data as the website only provides max power consumption data.

I will also try to collect some data from the Internet.

1) UCG, one of the most popular wired gateway
https://store.ui.com/us/en/category...ctions/cloud-gateway-fiber/products/ucg-fiber
Dimensions: 212.8 x 127.6 x 30 mm (8.3 x 5 x 0.5 ")
Max. Power Consumption: 29.4W (Excluding PoE output)

2) U7 Pro XGS
Dimensions: Ø215 x 32.5 mm (Ø8.5 x 1.3")
Max. Power Consumption: 29W

3) U7 Pro XG
Dimensions: Ø206 x 32.5 mm (Ø8.1 x 1.3")
Max. Power Consumption: 22W

4) U7 Pro Max
Dimensions: Ø206 x 46 mm (Ø8.1 x 1.8")
Max. Power Consumption: 25W

5) U7 Pro
Dimensions: Ø206 x 46 mm (Ø8.1 x 1.8")
Max. Power Consumption: 21W

6) U7 LR
Dimensions: Ø175.7 x 43 mm (Ø6.9 x 1.7")
Max. Power Consumption: 14W

7) U7 Lite
Dimensions: Ø171.5 x 33 mm (Ø6.8 x 1.3")
Max. Power Consumption: 13W

8) U6 Pro
Dimensions: Ø197 x 35 mm (Ø7.8 x 1.4")
Max. Power Consumption: 13W

9) U6+
Dimensions: Ø160 x 33 mm (Ø6.3 x 1.3")
Max. Power Consumption: 9W

U6 Lite access point: ~5W idle

Add on data, N5105 board with 3x SATA SSD rubbing Truenas: ~23W idle

Unifi access point power draw data taken from Unifi Network management center.

DIY nas power draw taken from smart plug readings.

 

[limcc]

Latest Wifi routers are consuming more power but to claim they use more than the fridge is exaggerating. It is true fridge do not use the max rated power all the time.

I once tried to check if the Ecoflow Delta--a portable power station with 1.2KWh battery can power the Mitsubishi MR-LX68EM--a 630L fridge for a day. The delta was 87% at 0040hrs and 42% at 0935hrs, the fridge consume 45% of the battery capacity. Assuming the delta only has DC to AC conversion efficiency of 80%@960W, the fridge had consumed 432W over 9 hours or 48Wh on average or about 1.15KWh in a day, 420KWh a year.

All fridge has a label stating its max power consumption, usually for defrost--contrary to most belief, compressor in the fridge do not used the most power. For my Mitsubishi fridge, its 170W for defrost. Just as fridge rated power is only at max, so as the wifi router rated power. My Asus AC-88U has a power input rating of 19V/2.37A but has a power adapter rated at 19V/3.42A, so ~65W adapter isn't something new. Without a watt meter, I can only guess for now, but likely the router wouldn't draw more than 20W on average as a main wifi router, the mesh node would draw even less. Since most HDB user are using 1 main + 1 node usually, the power consumption should be less than 40W. Also, 10Gbe is obviously more power hungry but how much does it really draw? Check review website like ServeThe Home, *hint* each 10Gbe port is way less than 10W.

 

[xiaofan]

Assuming the delta only has DC to AC conversion efficiency of 80%@960W, the fridge had consumed 432W over 9 hours or 48Wh on average or about 1.15KWh in a day, 420KWh a year.

Actually TS is comparing a fridge with three Deco BE95 nodes. So your data show that three Deco BE95 nodes can consume more power than the fridge.

The following data are compiled by TS from DongKnows tests. So your fridge is roughly the same as a typical two nodes high end TP-Link EasyMesh or Deco Mesh setup.

TP-Link BE800 23.5W​

TP-Link GE800 24.4W​

Deco BE85 20.2W​

Deco BE95 22.3W.​

 

[limcc]

Actually TS is comparing a fridge with three Deco BE95 nodes. So your data show that three Deco BE95 nodes can consume more power than the fridge.

The following data are compiled by TS from DongKnows tests. So your fridge is roughly the same as a typical two nodes high end TP-Link EasyMesh or Deco Mesh setup.

TP-Link BE800 23.5W​

TP-Link GE800 24.4W​

Deco BE85 20.2W​

Deco BE95 22.3W.​

For some reason I can't access DongKnows, it keep asking to disable adblock when I didn't enable it, maybe because Diversion block their ad server DNS.

Maybe DK take the power rating when hes testing the router/nodes? I can't show my router power usage as the watt meter just went kaput.

 

[xiaofan]

For some reason I can't access DongKnows, it keep asking to disable adblock when I didn't enable it, maybe because Diversion block their ad server DNS.

Maybe DK take the power rating when hes testing the router/nodes? I can't show my router power usage as the watt meter just went kaput.

Indeed Dongknows website is now more hostile against ad-blocking. I have the same problem as I use OpenWRT adblock-fast on my main router.

You may have to use VPN. I just use Cloudflare Warp (1.1.1.1 app) when I need to access Dongknows website.

As per Dongknows' reviews, he measured the energy consumption for 24 hours to publish the value. Take note TP-Link does not publish power consumption specifications. So I think he is using real measurement value.

1) TP-Link Deco BE85 spec
https://www.tp-link.com/sg/home-networking/deco/deco-be85/#specifications

2) Deco BE85 Dongknows review
https://dongknows.com/tp-link-deco-be85-wi-fi-7-mesh-system-review/
Power Consumption (per 24 hours) ≈ 485 Wh (router unit)

TS then got the value 485Wh / 24h = 20.2 W.

 

[xiaofan]

Earlier posts in this thread for reference.

You can see that 10G gears can match a fridge, if you have two 10G nodes, plus the XGS-PON ONT/ONR. Once you add more stuff, then indeed the 10G networking setup can easily exceed the average power consumption of a fridge.

Indeed, aircon and internet are really essential for many Singapore household.

One XGS-PON ONT/ONR + One 10Gbps capable Wireless router may still consume a bit less of power than a typical size fridge (say 40W to 50W).

But once you add more mesh nodes or other stuff like a switch or an always-on NAS/Server, then indeed, the home networking gears can consumer much more power than the fridge.

That being said, with the improvement in the chipset (say, using newer semiconductor technology), 10Gbps capable wireless router's power consumption may be reduced as well a long the way.

Measured my entire networking infrastructure and its consuming 75 watts:

1) Starhub XGS-PON ONT
2) UDM Pro (with 1 HDD inside bay), 2 low power 1.35W 10gbe SFP
3) 60W POE adapter powering a UniFi Switch Ultra switch, which in turn is powering 2 access points (1 x U6-PRO, 1x U6-IW) and Switch Flex-XG 10Gbe switch (only POE, with a separate 10gbe link directly to UDMP)
4) N100 mini PC with NVMe + RAM - proxmox running Home Assistant and pi-hole

Note the APs and 10Gbe are consuming 50% of max rated power.

 

[limcc]

I can understand why DK did that, probably will switch to mobile internet if I die die must access his site.

Still I think TS is exaggerating, because a fridge with 250KWh a year is most likely small model with less than 300L of volume, a home that require 3 router/mesh nodes would have bought bigger model. Otherwise one could have use a mini fridge that consume ~100KWh a year and claim it draw less than a network switch. BTW, TomsGuide review of the BE85 stated the node use about 15W.

 

[limcc]

Earlier posts in this thread for reference.

You can see that 10G gears can match a fridge, if you have two 10G nodes, plus the XGS-PON ONT/ONR. Once you add more stuff, then indeed the 10G networking setup can easily exceed the average power consumption of a fridge.

That is a whole different thing all together. The title state--10gbps routers consume more power than a fridge. Probably not wrong but I would say its misleading, for those uninformed and less knowledgeable, they might believe without actually reading the whole thread or do thier research.

Just sharing my opinion, no intention of changing others POV.

 

[xiaofan]

That is a whole different thing all together. The title state--10gbps routers consume more power than a fridge.

Haha, it depends how you interpret "routers" in the title. Take note of the "s".

I think TS is trying to compare a multi-nodes mesh system with a fridge.

When 6GHz capable WiFi devices becomes more and more prevalent, many households may start to need at least two nodes, or even three nodes if the floor plan is a bit difficult (Bomb Shelter in the middle).

 

[xiaofan]

In the end, the following is a very good ball-park estimation to compare networking gears vs fridge.

The idle power of the fridge is usually about 40-50W for a normal sized fridge. If you've got a bigger one it'll be naturally more.

Depending on your choice of 10G equipment, each 10GBaseT port consumes around 2W, each access point consumes about 15W-20W, so depends on how big your network is.