I work for my Dad 's hvac company and we are pricing out a job with 40 thermostats that can talk...

[G+_610GARAGE]

I work for my Dad's hvac company and we are pricing out a job with 40 thermostats that can talk to a server over IP. My brother wants to get a couple consumer grade, 16 port network switches. I am worried that consumer level network switches will crumble with 40 devices on the network. I want to get two higher end 24 port network switches like the Dell 2824. Am I being paranoid, or could a network of that size be too much for consumer grade network switches.

 

I should note that this network will only be for the thermostats. So traffic isn't a problem. I also don't think that the thermostats talk to each other, just a server, so each switch would probably only need to worry about storing the mac address of the server and its group of thermostats.

[G+_Barry Brown]

Assuming these thermostats won't be pumping out gigabits of data per second, consumer switches will easily handle the load. 40 devices is nothing. They can handle hundreds or thousands of devices.

 

More important is the conditions under which they'll be operating. Unattended? Lots of heat? Or lots of cold?

 

Get switches that are going to be reliable in the long run. HP switches have lifetime warranties. I have a 16-port unmanaged "desktop" switch in my garage where temps go down to freezing in winter and hit 120F in the summer. Three years old and has never been rebooted.

[G+_Brent Burzycki]

I too recommend the HP switches.. but another question is if you need to remotely manage them - I assume not... but most decent switches are remotely manageable. 

 

That said the HP Procurve 1910-24G Switch is about 225.00 on Amazon.. 

[G+_Ben Reese]

I don't know what the expected life is of a consumer grade switch, but I don't think number of devices or bandwidth limitations will be a problem. I'd really expect low bandwidth requirements so an old reliable hub might be just as good as a new switch... IDK.

[G+_610GARAGE]

Thanks for you input guys. So I guess I am a bit paranoid. :) I don't need remote management, its not even going to be hooked up to the internet. Also it is going to be in conditioned space, so probably a consumer grade switch would be fine.

 

Ben Reese I had the exact same thought with a hub, but I can't put used equipment in. Even if it would be better.

[G+_Ben Reese]

Ah, it's for someone else... That's kinda a tough one then. What happens when one of the thermostats loses connection? Does the server keep track of which is active? The only risk I could think of is if the thermostat loses connection to the server and defaults to 90° or something. I'm they're self-sufficient enough to keep working if that switch fails in 5 years.

[G+_610GARAGE]

Ben Reese If the network fails, the thermostats should just go off their last programing. On the server side, I am not sure what would happen if a thermostat loses connection. I would hope that the software would have a popup that would inform the building's hvac service tech that there is a problem.