TP-Link 8-Port Gigabit Desktop Switch with 8-Port PoE+

In terms of the technical side of things, it’s fine, no problems whatsoever and does what it should. I had the 5-port before and that was great too. The only downside is the mounting to the wall because it’s such a pain. You have to put 2 screws in the wall and somehow slide this thing on. Getting it flush to the wall is another problem thereafter. If it was easier or there was a wall mount kit, it would get the 5 stars.

I originally kitted the house out with full Netgear PoE switches, such as 724s and 108s, and they ran the house beautifully for 5+ years. However, two 8-port switches and one 24-port non-green switches use about 60 watts, and even more if using PoE for cameras etc. That’s the equivalent of leaving a lightbulb on day and night, which adds up over 5+ years. It adds double now that our energy utilities are scalping us on bills.

So, I switched to these low-power switches. They basically just went in as drop-in replacements. No configuration required. Their ports auto-configured and everything just carried on working. I’ve gone from 60+Watts to about 8 watts. I’ve also put one of the switches on a timer because there’s never anyone in one of the rooms from 11pm to 8am. I tried that with the older switches and they tended to get their knickers in a twist if you did it too often.

So, on average over 24 hours the networking kit is now about 6-8 Watts instead of 50+Watts. So, doing the maths…
~50 Watts saved per hour, for 24 hours for 365 days a year is 50x24x365 = 438kWh per year. At 50p per kWh, that’s 219 saved over the year, more than paying for the new kit in just 4 months in fact. In the 5 years I expect to run it, that’s almost a grand if the price per kWh doesn’t drop!!!!

Very easy to install, very quick, very sleek and smart, and works flawlessly while saving a lot of money.