---
id: edge-architecture
area: edge
level: 3
title: "Artefact — Edge architecture · power · radio · deep sleep"
claim: "Each node is designed around its power budget — battery and solar · deep sleep between wakes · and a deliberate choice of wake source per job."
confidence: running
period: "2020–"
tech: [ESP32, LoRa, Zigbee, LiFePO, MQTT, Home Assistant]
metrics: [{label: "edge nodes", value: 20}, {label: "ESP32 devices", value: 10}]
artefacts: []
public: true
last_verified: 2026-10-26
tags: [edge, architecture, power, artefact]
---

One annotated diagram of a representative node and the radio path lands in Phase 7.

## What the artefact is

The per-node pattern: 240V step-down or solar with a LiFePO battery and charge controller, an ESP32 in deep sleep, a wake source (timer, radio, or a physical input), a relay or driver for the load, and an MQTT message into the automation layer. Around it, the reason each node uses LoRa, Zigbee or Wi-Fi.

## What it proves

Power budgeting and remote wake as design decisions, not hobby wiring — and an architecture that survived being repeated across twenty nodes.

## When it is delivered

Phase 7. Source: evidence notes section 1.