The cool thing about e-paper displays isn't just that they look amazing, although that's definitely a huge plus. No, one of its more practical features is its low power profile. This makes them perfect for displays around the home that you want to leave on 24/7 without making a dent in your energy bill.

But how long could an e-paper display last on a single battery charge? Well, one tinkerer believes they've found a way to squeeze a year and a half of use for their weather tracker. And while their theory hasn't been put to the test just yet, it seems very feasible given their methods for saving precious battery juice.

This ESP32 e-paper weather station can go off one charge for over 500 days

It's a theory, but it'll be a while before we know for sure

Over on the ESP32 subreddit, GitHub user ngai-jeremy showed off their new project. On the surface, it's a simple yet sleek weather station that shows the date, temperature, wind speed, and chance of rain. However, the real magic lies in the battery, as ngai-jeremy claims that their device can go for over a year on a single charge:

I managed to reduce the total active wake-up time from ~10 seconds to just 4.3 seconds per refresh cycle, using firmware optimisation techniques like HTTP Keep-Alive and static IP configuration. As a result, the built-in 1,500mAh Li-Po battery is estimated to last over a year and a half.

Of course, given how they finished making this device a few weeks ago, they don't know for sure that it will last that long. However, given that they know how much battery the device uses per day, their guess will likely be in the right ballpark.

Unfortunately, we won't know for sure if ngai-jeremy's calculations are right until 2028 comes around, so perhaps this is one to save in the calendar to return to. While we wait, you can make your own weather station via the project's Instructables and GitHub pages.