Power consumption for a AC88 router

[Bamsefar]

I have a HomeSeer HS3 home automation controller in my home for controlling all lamps and media system. Just for fun I decided to put a Fibaro Wall Plug before the powersupply to my ASUS AC88 router, and just for the power consumption measure. Now this might not be 100% perfect way to do this, so use this more as an indication

 

[Ronald Schwerer]

I assume the vertical scale is watts?
Do you have anything plugged-in to the USB ports?

 

[Bamsefar]

Yes it is watt.
Yes I have a 128GB USB2 memory stick.

 

[Ronald Schwerer]

Yes it is watt.
Yes I have a 128GB USB2 memory stick.

I wonder if those spikes correspond with USB access. But that difference of almost 15 watts seems more than a USB2 stick would need. Especially since you are measuring load on the AC side. I was thinking it might be something like a USB powered portable HD on USB3 port.

 

[System Error Message]

it still is a bit high, in the past with the atheros based chipsets power consumption was below 10W, few watts average. Thats why i've stuck to using the ISP provided tp link router as a wifi AP and sat my asus aside.

 

[L&LD]

A USB port can't give 15W to a USB stick. That is just the cpu cores spooling up under load plus any additional juice needed by the radio's.

 

[Bamsefar]

As a comparison I have a Intel NUC8i3BEH with a Samsung M2 NVMe 512GB SSD plus a 2TB Samsung 840 SSD - this smal server (it is the HomeSeer HS3 server with Logitech Media Squeezebox Server and a few other bits and binaries) only consumes about 6 W. And the fiber to ethernet converter (ISP is fiber, and since no router seems to support fiber...) is about 2.6-2.7 W. So yes I think the Asus Router consumes rather much for what it is.

 

[L&LD]

As a comparison I have a Intel NUC8i3BEH with a Samsung M2 NVMe 512GB SSD plus a 2TB Samsung 840 SSD - this smal server (it is the HomeSeer HS3 server with Logitech Media Squeezebox Server and a few other bits and binaries) only consumes about 6 W. And the fiber to ethernet converter (ISP is fiber, and since no router seems to support fiber...) is about 2.6-2.7 W. So yes I think the Asus Router consumes rather much for what it is.

The cpu in your NUC is a 28W part and the two ssd's together would use more than 6W when pushed hard. The idle consumption of 6W is great, but it will easily go above the Asus router when delivering the same work.

 

[Bamsefar]

Yes of course, however most of the time when no one is home and the router should have close to nothing to do (idle) it still consumes way more.

Here is the chart of power consumption for the NUC server:

EDIT: Changed to the same time fram so it makes a bit more "power"

 

[Bamsefar]

Sorry that makes it even worse I think. Let's start over with comparing my server vs AC88 power consumption:

AC88 Router power consumption:
Min 8.8W
Max 31.4W
Average 15.4W

Intel NUC8i3BEH server power consumption:
Min 5.4W
Max 38.6
Average 6.1

Now, from the graphs we can of course see that the server uses more power at peaks, and a lot more peaks. However in idle, or low power consumption "mode", it is far less - that is why the average is a bit lower. And it is a bit more behind the graphs, I think I have different sample speed on the two devices, so again, let's not take this as 100% perfect, rather the other way around, at least until I have time to go over all in a better way. Even so, I did not expect the router to consume this much power.

 

[L&LD]

Yes of course, however most of the time when no one is home and the router should have close to nothing to do (idle) it still consumes way more.

Here is the chart of power consumption for the NUC server:

View attachment 16309

EDIT: Chnaged to the same time fram so it makes a bit more "power"

Seems to be using more than twice the Asus'?

 

[RMerlin]

Also don't forget the power usage on those 8 Ethernet ports, especially while there is traffic. I assume that server only has one single Ethernet port.

For latency-reasons, routers are typically not optimized toward lowering power usage, but toward providing faster response.

At 28 nM, the BCM4709C0 CPU in the RT-AC88U ain't exactly top technology in terms of power usage. The BCM4906 and BCM4908 used by the RT-AC86U and RT-AX88U should be more power efficient.

 

[Bamsefar]

My Intel NUC8i3BEH is one ethernet port only - yes.

I only use 4 of the ethernet ports on my AC88 (workstation, NUC server, printer and LMS Squeezebox Touch) so yes there might be traffic going on since i stream radio over to my SB Touch box all the time I am home.

I had a look at the AC86 actually since that box has a smaller powerbrick (1.75A vs the RT-88AC/AX with a 2.37A), but for the moment I can not justify the cost - maybe next generation or something. I would also like to note that my rt-88ac just seems to work for the moment, and well dont fix what aint broken and all that

 

[Bamsefar]

This is some simplified data if anyone is interesting in excel or something:

Server ASUS RT-AC88U
Value Duration Value Duration
6,00 05:03:57 15,50 09:15:04
6,10 04:53:10 15,40 06:59:59
5,60 02:30:26 15,70 04:52:59
6,40 01:47:20 15,60 02:31:42
5,70 01:47:17 15,80 02:04:39
6,20 01:42:13 16,10 01:09:10
6,30 01:33:27 15,30 01:08:43
6,50 01:23:55 14,60 01:00:00
5,90 01:07:05 16,20 01:00:00
5,80 01:03:47 15,90 01:00:00
6,60 00:10:30 17,00 01:00:00
6,90 00:06:25 16,00 00:59:59
13,30 00:05:57 14,00 00:34:29
5,50 00:05:51 14,70 00:34:19
6,70 00:03:34 17,40 00:24:32
7,00 00:02:38 14,20 00:11:55
6,80 00:02:06 14,10 00:11:30
11,10 00:01:14 15,00 00:09:19
11,00 00:01:03 14,80 00:09:12
10,70 00:00:54 14,90 00:05:33
10,60 00:00:50
10,90 00:00:50
7,10 00:00:49
11,20 00:00:43
10,50 00:00:39
10,80 00:00:39
10,40 00:00:38
7,20 00:00:28
24,90 00:00:25
7,40 00:00:19
7,30 00:00:17
11,50 00:00:16
7,60 00:00:15
11,40 00:00:15
11,70 00:00:15
11,30 00:00:14
12,90 00:00:14
12,80 00:00:12
12,40 00:00:11
10,00 00:00:10
10,10 00:00:10

Anyway I see this, the ASUS router consumes alot more power than the server.