I purchased and inline POE camera setup tool made by Vigitron. We have had ones in the past but this one has a POE voltage and wattage display on the front of it. Do you feel that the manufacturer’s POE draw in their specifications is accurate or is that the maximum draw? I have connected several cameras and the POE draw in watts is usually around half of what the manufacturer states.
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Using An Inline POE Tester
JH
John Honovich
Mar 21, 2019Jeffrey, good question.
We've done this as a formal test, see: IP Camera Power Consumption Guide.
Yes, we found that actual draw is usually notably lower than specified, which is probably a good thing since they should specify for max draw, not average, to avoid outages at peak power usage.
UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
Mar 21, 2019I have used the byte Brothers inline tester and also found that a camera draws significantly less than a datasheet, which will list the max draw.
Typically a camera uses the most during boot up, when a heater/fan kicks in, ptz opetations, and when IR is on.
In many normal operating conditions, all of these items may not be in at one time, lowering the displayed draw.
Also don't forget when calculating PoE budget for a switch, the PSE will consume more Watts than the camera consumes due to the loss over the cable. Thus if a camera states 12.95w, the switch still uses 15.4w.
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