Business Wi-Fi sizer

Tell us the floor area, the building and how many devices connect, and get the access points, PoE switch and UPS from our catalog, each with the spec it was sized on.

Every room and bay that needs Wi-Fi
Building
Devices on the Wi-Fi at the busiest time

Count devices, not people. Most staff carry a phone and use a laptop. Leave a box blank for none.

Answer the four questions and you get a parts list: access points, the PoE switch that powers them and the UPS that keeps the switch up, each with the spec it was sized on.

How we sized this

The access point count is the larger of two estimates. Coverage divides your floor area by a rule of thumb for the building:

  • Office with drywall: about 2,000 sq ft per access point
  • Retail floor: about 2,500 sq ft per access point
  • Warehouse or shop with high ceilings: about 2,500 sq ft per access point
  • Metal building: about 1,500 sq ft per access point

Capacity divides the devices connected at once by 30 per access point. Both are planning figures, and How many Wi-Fi access points a shop, office or warehouse needs explains where they come from.

The switch needs a PoE port for every access point plus about 20% spare, and a PoE budget with at least 20% left after adding up each access point's maximum draw. The UPS carries the switch's full-load draw at no more than 75% of its watt rating. The same rules, with VLANs and runtime, are in How to size a PoE switch and the UPS behind it.

Watts, ports and runtime come from each manufacturer's spec page, linked under every line. Where a spec doesn't give a figure, the line says so and uses the PoE standard's maximum instead. A site survey beats any estimate for large or unusual buildings, and we can survey when we quote the install.