Low power options for off grid Wi-Fi routers

Graham Parkinson

Planning for the luxury of eventual off grid wi-fi now that we are starting to get somewhere with the basics.

We can get public internet via a high gain Ubiquiti Air Max antenna/receiver (receiver in the antenna uses 3W via power over ethernet) but will need to distribute the ethernet connection from this receiver about with a low power wi-fi router.

Any experience on what the lowest power consumption wi-fi routers there are out there now that would cover a 1500 sq ft place?

Goal is to use this setup to also connect a Combox for remote solar system monitoring.

-  SolarIslander

Graham Parkinson

Just found the nice link below to a spreadsheet type page of wi-fi router power consumption. Values range from 0.8 W and up:

http://www.tpcdb.com/list.php?type=11

The lowest values of 0.8 Watts was for a USB powered travel router, likely not going to cover much area.

Graham Parkinson

The Apple Airport Express looks like a good combination of coverage vs power draw but other sites say that the current model draws 10-12 Watts despite a lower rating of about 3 Watts for the older MC414 model in the link above.