Power Consumption

Let us now check on how much power the AS-302T needs in sleep, idle, and during heavy throughput.

We use a GW Instek GPM-8212 power analyzer for all power consumption measurements.

Sleep, Idle and Load

Power consumption was very low in all modes, irregardless of the installed disks. The huge difference in power consumption is the main advantage of a NAS over a normal PC with FreeNAS software: a PC with a highly efficient PSU will still need at least twice as much power to operate, which adds up to a lot of wasted energy, since a NAS usually operates 24/7. That said, power consumed is not the only reason to buy a NAS—reliability, support, and featured software packages definitely are as well.

Power Consumption in Standby Mode

Vampire power or phantom load is the amount of power a device consumes when switched off but still plugged into the power grid. It should, according to the ErP Lot 6 2013 directive, be below 0.5 W.



With ErP mode enabled, the NAS easily meets the ErP Lot 6 2013 requirements.

Power Consumption Comparison Graphs