Powering the Pi from battery (power consumption)

Question

I've got a Pi 2 B+ and I plan on using one of those portable battery-powered phone chargers to power it.

I'd like to get about 8 hours of continuous power. I'll also be powering a 5-inch LCD and a wireless keyboard receiver. Any idea how much power this Pi would be using over an 8 hour period?

Estimates would be fine, I'm just looking for a general idea of the power consumption.

Answer 1

As two previous answers already give some references for the power consumption of different models of the Pi and various load cases, I would like to add a note on the amount of energy a portable "power-bank" will have to provide over an 8 hour period.

Assuming the bank can provide its power at a constant 5V level. It's really as simple as this:

E = I * t * SF

with I being the current drawn by the Pi and the additional peripherals (measure this for the real thing), t the duration (8 hours), and SF a safety factor to ease your mind and accommodate for aging of the battery. So as an example:

E = 800 mA * 8 h * 1.2 = 7680 mAh.

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^{On a nit-picking side note: technically it should read not power but energy in "how much power this Pi would be using over an 8 hour period". The integral of power over time defines the work performed - which is an amount of energy.}

Answer 2

I found a nice overview at Raspi.TV:

If you have a Raspberry Pi 2, which is idling it will use 5V * 230mA = 1.15 Watt

If you would like to watch mainly a Video you will get 5V * 290mA = 1.45 Watt

But if you are using a phone battery bank, they typically say how many mAh they can provide.

Answer 3

According to this, a Pi 2B will draw at least 420mA, but this might help you reduce power draw.

As you can see, the 2B draws way more power than the other models, especially the Zero, so maybe you might want use a different model.