Green consumer ethernet switch? D-Link DGS-2208

I just replaced an old Netgear GS105 5 port Gig-E switch with a D-Link DGS-2208 from newegg (on sale for $45 plus a $10 rebate this month). The D-Link touts itself as a "green" ethernet switch which just begs to be measured... So I pulled out the kill-a-watt to measure it.

On the D-Link box is a label stating, "Up to 80% Power savings(*)," with fine print of, "Maximum power savings when compared to a D-Link conventional switch. Uses up to 80% electricity when connected devices are powered down and up to 40% less energy when connected devices are used 10 hours and powered down 14 hours over a 24-hour period, when connected via 20 meter Ethernet cables."

Thats some pretty sad fine print so I lowered my expectations...

But measuring showed otherwise. With nothing plugged into the switch it was too low to register any power draw at all and showed up as 0 watts. With 5 active devices plugged in (a mix of gigabit and 100mbit) it went up to 4 watts. Unplug one device and it went down to 3 watts.

Compared that to my 4+ year old Netgear GS105 with its much larger power brick that drew 8 watts with 5 devices plugged in or 4 watts with no devices plugged in and the D-Link measures up to its claim. Nice.

But is it really anything special? I'd need samplings of other current model switches to find out. The real savings comes from the D-Links ability to save power for switch ports with no link. A live port is going to consume some level of power no matter what as required to maintain ethernet signaling.

For an added bonus the D-Link's 5V 2A wall wart is much smaller than the old netgear's huge 12 1A one and is oriented such that you can plug it into a power strip without covering adjacent outlets. Always a nice touch (tough i'd prefer not to have a wall wart or brick at all).