70D WiFi battery usage

I like to use my WiFi A LOT on my 70D. Well, I should say, my wife does. She likes to hook up to it while we are out and snag my photos and post them from her phone.

My question is, should I just leave the WiFi on all the time or shut it off and turn it on when I want it? I like having it on and ready. But does it drain much battery leaving it on all the time?

I've read that wi-fi does drain battery a lot. I think it's in the manual, though I've never used wifi on my 70D.

I've noticed that the battery drain was drastically worse when I had the wifi on even if it wasn't being used. While I was in Vegas I used it in our hotel room to transfer pictures to my phone to upload to Facebook and what have you. Even while doing that I managed to take over 1600 photos and still had some battery left before I swapped out to my other battery. Without using the wifi at all I've gotten well over 2000 photos without the flash on the same amount of charge.

Colin Glover wrote in post #17626194
I've read that wi-fi does drain battery a lot. I think it's in the manual, though I've never used wifi on my 70D.

jhartley wrote in post #17626287
I've noticed that the battery drain was drastically worse when I had the wifi on even if it wasn't being used. While I was in Vegas I used it in our hotel room to transfer pictures to my phone to upload to Facebook and what have you. Even while doing that I managed to take over 1600 photos and still had some battery left before I swapped out to my other battery. Without using the wifi at all I've gotten well over 2000 photos without the flash on the same amount of charge.

I guess it makes sens that it would drain it more. The 70D IS giving off the WiFi signal rather than trying to connect to one. Seems like that might drain more than if it were connecting to one instead.

BlakeC wrote in post #17626327
I guess it makes sens that it would drain it more. The 70D IS giving off the WiFi signal rather than trying to connect to one. Seems like that might drain more than if it were connecting to one instead.

When a wifi radio is connected to a host, it can take advantage of bursting, packet coalesce, and buffering to keep the time the transmitter is on to a minimum. This saves a ton of power as the radio only has to be on for milliseconds at a time. When it is not connected, it is constantly scanning for an AP to connect to, hence the excessive usage. The broadcast beacons from APs announce what that particular radio's SSID is and is what connecting radios search for. While the camera's side is scanning for those beacons, the power consumption is some of the highest as it is trying to detect faint APs at a distance.

docholliday_sc001 wrote in post #17626336
When a wifi radio is connected to a host, it can take advantage of bursting, packet coalesce, and buffering to keep the time the transmitter is on to a minimum. This saves a ton of power as the radio only has to be on for milliseconds at a time. When it is not connected, it is constantly scanning for an AP to connect to, hence the excessive usage. The broadcast beacons from APs announce what that particular radio's SSID is and is what connecting radios search for. While the camera's side is scanning for those beacons, the power consumption is some of the highest as it is trying to detect faint APs at a distance.

makes sense