In reply to a post by candlerb:

Netgear GS110TPv3 is a nice compact switch for small deployments: metal case, fanless, 8 PoE+ outputs, but max total 55W so will probably power 4 or 5 APs allowing for cable losses. (U6+ spec says 9 watts)

It has web management, optional cloud management, and a CLI you can enable.

Blimey. At an approx 220Watts that's 1500Kwh a year ! £375. I have 3 APs, 2 servers and 6 cameras drawing 150 Watts and I have solar to at least compensate some of the cost!

Was actually replying to this post !

The U7s have some excellent performance but there are quite a few comments on power consumption, heating and fans.

For most home or small business users are they really necessary? The U6 range are more stable, lower poer and cheaper - most homes would be fine with those.

Sure no state secret these WiFi 7 AP's get pretty warm, but then again every Unifi AP (and many others) get warm. I haven't noticed the fan, so don't know what the comment is about. The power draw for a U7 Pro Max is 11.2 watts according to the switch, with a maximum of 13.8 watts recorded. For a Nano HD the avg. draw is 4.8 watts with a maximum of 9 watts. I've only got a single U6+ connected at the moment, and that is drawing 4.3 watts

As these are now operating on clean 6 GHz spectrum with some honking huge 160 MHz wide channels, on measured throughputs the U7 Pro will do about three time the throughput of the Nano HD's.

Depends really what throughputs you need. If you have Gigabit (or higher) FTTP then these will pass that no problem with the right client. If you don't want / need the throughput then sure get a U6+ or similar

Edited by Pheasant (Tue 29-Oct-24 23:20:17)

I think early iterations of Wi-Fi chipsets start off less optimised for power consumption.
The same happened across different vendors with ac and ax except some early models needed say 25W (or at least while booting up).
In other cases vendors tell you about features or options that will be disabled if you try to run it on 15W PoE.

As to 6GHz am still waiting to see if we open up the rest of the band like other regions have done. The consultation was talking about a sharing policy (allowing Mobile operators) and we already have enough to deal with limited non-DFS bands compared other regions.

Also we already shifted TV down via the 700MHz clearance to licence to Mobile.

Edited by prlzx (Wed 30-Oct-24 14:40:32)

In reply to a post by MHC:

The U7s have some excellent performance but there are quite a few comments on power consumption, heating and fans.

For most home or small business users are they really necessary? The U6 range are more stable, lower poer and cheaper - most homes would be fine with those.

Just been watching the B.Friday promos kick out...

There's some decent UI stuff out there. Just spied that NetXL have U7 Pro Max's under £200 (before VAT admittedly).

U7 Pro's are £153 inc. and the U6 Pro is £132 inc.

Not wonderful savings though ... My next items are a further AP although not sure which but wall mount with WiFi6* and another camera and no.

* WiFi 7 APs seem very power hungry and I have a target to reduce power consumption here. A 20W device would use around 180 units/year for example so put a few of those in and my power bill rises dramatically - during the summer solar panels provide 100% some weeks!