Skip to main content
Every powered device at a site draws its watts from the same place: the office switch. Cameras, RFID readers and access points all pull from one 400W budget, and every edge switch you add pulls its own load plus its overhead through a single uplink port. Build the site below before you order the hardware.

​
Why We Plan to 85%

The last 15% of a switch’s budget is deliberately left free.
  • Cold-boot inrush. After a power cut the whole site powers on at once, and devices transiently draw well above the steady-state wattage on their datasheet.
  • Cable losses. Datasheet wattages are what the device consumes. The switch has to supply more than that over a long outdoor cable run. It is the same reason 802.3bt is rated “60 W supplied, 51 W delivered”.
  • Future additions. Headroom means the next camera someone adds does not force a redesign of the whole build.

​
Limits

A site runs at most six USW-Flex edge switches. There are eight PoE++ ports physically, but eight fully-loaded units would draw more than the office switch’s entire budget.