Energy consumption in ESP32

Knowing and understanding the electrical consumption of the ESP32 is very important before undertaking a project with it.

In any electronics project, energy consumption is one of the main parameters that significantly influences design and execution.

This is even more important in the case of the ESP32, as it is a SoC designed for IoT applications. They typically operate continuously, or depend on limited energy sources, such as batteries.

The ESP32 is a very powerful SoC with wireless communication options. So, at full power, it consumes a lot of energy. You can drain any battery in hours.

Therefore, it is essential to understand the factors that affect its power consumption and use effective strategies to optimize it.

Factors that influence energy consumption

Operating Modes

The ESP32 offers several operating modes that influence its energy consumption. These modes include:

• Active mode
• Light Sleep
• Deep Sleep

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Clock Frequency

The ESP32 allows adjusting the processor clock frequency to reduce energy consumption. By reducing the frequency, the processor executes instructions at a slower rate, which decreases energy consumption.

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Peripherals and Communications

Energy consumption is also influenced by the peripherals and communications used. For example, enabling Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other peripherals consumes more energy than keeping them disabled.

Energy consumption in the ESP32

Let’s look at the standard consumption values of the “conventional” ESP32 (without a version behind) in different modes of operation.

Consumption with radio on

Consumption with different types of wireless communication.

Consumption with radio off

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off, only CPU processing consumption.

Consumption in sleep modes

Consumption in the different sleep modes.

Energy consumption in the ESP32-S3

Here are the standard consumption values of the ESP32-S3 in different modes of operation.

Consumption with radio on

Consumption with different types of wireless communication.

Consumption with radio off

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off, only CPU processing consumption.

Consumption in sleep modes

Consumption in the different sleep modes.