How to Wire & Power your IP Security Cameras

PoE or Power Over Ethernet means the electricity to power the device can be supplied through the network cable which will also be used to transfer the data or the camera’s footage.

Not all of these wires are used for data transfer.  There are extra wires in here and we can use these to send electricity to the camera.  These wires are tiny but can still transfer power up to 100 meters or 328 feet.  Keep this distance in mind when planning the distance from your power supply to the cameras if using PoE.

IEEE 802.3af is a PoE standard used by most security cameras.  It’s a low wattage standard and only uses up to 12.5-13 watts.  If you want to use PoE, make sure your camera and PoE power source indicate this standard.

Using PoE is the preferred method to powering your cameras and that’s why no power adapter is included with most cameras.  There is a 12v connection here on the cameras if you need to use one, so that option is available.  I used one occasionally for testing a camera at my workstation or if I’m troubleshooting or testing a new feature.  Most of these cameras only consume up to 7 watts.  If you want an adapter, you’ll have to purchase a 2A-12v adapter separately.  I’ll add a link to some in my blog along with links to all the products shown here.

Pro:  The main advantage to using an adapter is convenience.  It’s a quick and easy solution to powering up a camera when getting it first setup or if you are debugging it.  The power adapter is also great if you are in a pinch.  It might be easier to plug in the camera with an adapter instead of wasting time and spending money on devices to inject power into the network cable.

Con: The disadvantages here are pretty obvious in that you need to plug in the adapter somewhere and the closest outlet may not be near enough and you have to deal with an additional wire, the first being the data cable.  Also, if you are installing network cables in your walls, you don’t want to install more wires for powering the cameras.

In some cases, there are cameras which consume greater than 7 watts.  25 watts to be exact.  This is above the safe limit of the little 23-24 gauge wires in your network cable.  In this case you cannot use PoE and will have to power the camera with an external source.  When I got this 18X zoom camera here, it included a power adapter to power the large motors.  When installing this camera, you will need to run a data line and a power line.  I recommend with an 12v extension cord as you must likely will not have a power outlet near the install location.

Pro: These cameras are awesome and having to figure out the only con of extra wiring is well worth what this camera offers.

These are available in various formats, but this is the simplest and cheaper option.  These are like 5 bucks.  Basically, you are using your network cable as an extension cord.  The injector does exactly that, it injects the cable with electricity and once it gets to the other end, you cannot just plug this into the camera; you have to use a splitter to extract the electricity and then plug it into the 12v input.  There’s lots of power in here and it needs to be regulated and these splitters are no 802.3af compliant.  You can get injectors which are compliant, and you don’t need to separate out the electricity before at the camera end of the cable, but these are more expensive.  I’ll add a link for these in the blog as well.

You can take this method a step further and add a power supply unit.  It’s a power box which contains wiring where you can plug in multiple power cords at once, except you don’t need the bulky adapter, you simply need the wires with a 12v end.  The power supply box is plugged into one outlet and all your cameras have electricity.

Pro: Price

Con: You could end up with a lot of messy wires around your power source and there will be a splitter at each camera which is more hardware to tuck away and protect from the weather.

This is the most common and popular method to powering security cameras.  As you know, a switch is a network splitter.  The unmanaged part means, there is no configuration you can do on the switch, it’s simply a splitter.  Some or all of the split lines from a PoE Unmanaged switch can power your cameras.  Just plug your IP camera into the switch and plug the switch into your network.  As simple as that.

The pros are obvious, and the cons are the price, however it’s not as bad as it was since they have dropped in price over the past few years and you can get a good 16 channel switch for about $150 US.

This is the same thing as we just discussed, but a managed switch offers more flexibility.  Most people don’t need the ability to set up VLANs or monitor power usage or control traffic.  These to have come down in price and are no much more than the unmanaged version.  I got this one used from a classified site for $120.  It has 48 ports and has tones of options on its web user interface.

These are great devices if you are a techie person and can configure and maintain them.

An NVR or a Network Video Recorder is a device used to see your live footage, configure your cameras and playback video.  It’s an all-in-one solution and no PC is required.  These recorders have PoE ports for plugging in your cameras.

The biggest plus for these systems is their tidiness.  Only one power outlet is used to power the recorder and all the cameras.  I also like how you can monitor wattage on the cameras’ port like a managed switch.

The only con I don’t like about NVRs is that you cannot move them into a different location.  They have to be located where all the wires for your cameras terminate, if you rely on it for its PoE abilities.  If you were recording footage using BlueIris on a PC, you could put the computer anywhere on your network, as long as your PoE is supplying power to the cameras, it doesn’t matter if your computer is locked in a server rack or hidden under your drawers in the closet.